The County Press, July 6, 2004

Delco Chapter of PA Sports Hall of Fame Honors Inductees

By Bob Denney Jr.

             The Delaware County Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame held their 24^th annual induction banquet on Sunday, June 27 and judging by the response of the attendees and the stirring speeches by the speakers and inductees, the celebration was a huge success. Held in the main ballroom at the Ramada Inn in Essington, the elite affair feted ten new inductees as well as four special award winners in a sparkling ceremony attended by nearly 300 people.

             In their thirtieth year, the Delco Chapter of the PA Sports Hall of Fame recognizes men and women with ties to our local communities for their outstanding accomplishments in athletics. “To honor those who bring honor”, the organization has celebrated the careers of over 250 amateur and professional athletes, coaches, sports administrators and journalists including football’s Al Atkinson, Bill Bergey, Billy “Whiteshoes” Johnson and Greasy Neale, basketball’s Thersea Grentz, Jack Kraft, Alonzo Lewis and Jack Ramsey, baseball’s Mickey Vernon and Danny Murtaugh, track’s Jim Tuppeny, golf’s Helen Sigel Wilson and Jay Sigel and soccer’s Bob Rigby, to name just a few.

   Treasurer Mike DeNoia welcomed the attendees and offered some heartfelt thoughts before introducing the event’s special guest speaker, Phil Martelli, the head coach for the men’s basketball program at St. Joseph’s University. Martelli, the 2004 Division I Coach of the Year and an eloquent speaker, initially amused the audience with a number of ‘on the ball’ remarks like, “I’m not sure if I’m the Coach of the Year or the coach of Jameer,” referring to Jameer Nelson, the 2004 Player of the Year and a number one pick in the recent NBA draft. But the head Hawk soon segued into a more reverential approach which set the tone for the evening.  “We don’t say thank you enough (to our players and coaches), which is another reason why this Hall of Famers is so special,” Martelli concluded.

            Special indeed. Ten men and women, each of whom had made significant contributions in and outside of the sports arena, were individually introduced, escorted to the dais and honored for their lifelong achievements. The distinguished Class of 2004 included; George Azar, a three-sport star from Johnstown and Michigan State who coached football at the University of Pennsylvania and worked in the Phila. Eagles front office for a number of years, Robert I. Connor, an ALL-Catholic League quarterback and point guard from West Catholic High School who settled into Delaware
County after graduation from LaSalle College and made an indelible impression as a businessman and patriarch, Donald Cornman, a three-sport standout at East Stroudsburg State College who coached football and baseball at Lansdowne-Aldan High School and was the athletic director at Penn Wood for 13 years, Edward Crawford Sr., a former boxer and veteran of both World War II and Vietnam who served on the Upper Darby police force and formed the UD Police Athletic League, Marjorie Garinger, a former lacrosse and field hockey star who was a member of the 1956 US World Cup field hockey squad and then became an internationally renown lacrosse official, Robert Matthews, a three-sport standout at the University of Penn and a WWII vet and American Legion honoree who also coached wrestling and lacrosse at his alma mater, Frank May, a graduate of Chester and their storied basketball program who went on to successfully coach at Sun Valley, Interboro, Delaware County Community College and St. Kevin’s as well as to officiate college football, Joseph O’Donnell, an Upper Darby graduate and one of the best boxers ever from Delco who won three Golden Glove titles and now coaches boxing for the Drexel Hill Raiders and the UDPAL, Jim Phelan, the LaSalle College graduate and legendary basketball coach at Mount St. Mary’s College for 49 years who is third all-time in Division I victories and Marianne Stanley, the Archbishop Prendergast grad and two-time ALL American from Immaculata who twice led her team to national titles and went on to become one of the most successful coaches at the collegiate level, winning three championships.

  While each inductee took different paths that lead them to their successful careers and to the Delco Chapter of the PA Sports Hall of Fame, the roads that these men and women traveled had many similarities. Each carefully recognized the support they received from their families as well as the contributions made by their coaches when they were athletes and by the players and the coaches with whom they had coached. Laughter and applause, sprinkled with genuine pride and emotion, filled the room each time a Hall of Famer humbly and graciously accepted their plaque.

   In addition, the organization acknowledged four other outstanding members of the local sports community; Jackie Neary, the head field hockey and lacrosse coach at Cabrini who conquered cancer in 2000, earned the Eddie Coyle Award for the Physically Challenged, Amanda Rothstein who won over 100 medals in swimming, field hockey and volleyball received the Special Olympics Award and a standing ovation, Megan Spratt, a field hockey, basketball and softball standout at Marple Newtown and a National Honor Society Member won the Charles J. Tomasco Student Athlete Award and Elton Michael Cameron was honored posthumously for his over 40 years of service in Clifton Heights for the Catholic League Organization with the Doug Connelly Memorial Award.

             Sometimes, good guys (and gals) do finish first. At least at this year’s induction into the Delco Chapter of the PA Sports Hall of Fame they did!