Benny Bass, one of the greatest fighters ever to come out of Philadelphia, was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in June, 2002, in Canastota, NY. Fellow inductees: Victor Galindez, Ingemar Johansson, Pipino Cuevas as well as promoters Aileen Eaton-the first woman inductee-and “Suitcase” Sam Silverman-whose office was his suitcase-as well as writers… Read more »
Harry Blitman never won the world title, but he was one of many outstanding Jewish fighters in the 1920s and 1930s. Blitman was a smooth-boxing lightweight. His family was from North-Central Philadelphia but he trained out of Jimmy Coster’s gym in South Philadelphia. He was a teenage sensation and my dad knew him from their… Read more »
Sam Cozen became the varsity basketball coach at Overbrook High School in the fall of 1948. Overbrook had won the Public League basketball championship the previous year, but there was only one starter remaining from that team. Luckily it was Jackie Moore, the 6″5″ center, who later went on to become the first African-American to… Read more »
Sam Cozen was a wonderful, successful basketball coach, and the kind of person that taught important life lessons in the course of coaching. He had many outstanding qualities along with his drive to win games. I was fortunate enough to play for him at Overbrook High and then again at Drexel, and finally for many… Read more »
How Red Klotz, 14,000-Time Loser, Beat The Harlem Globetrotters By Dave McKenna Red Klotz went out on a 43-year losing streak. The founder, owner, and longtime coach of the Washington Generals died over the weekend in Margate, N.J. He was 93. All the losses came to the Harlem Globetrotters. A very, very loose estimate of… Read more »
Franz Lidz And Arn Tellem Head Jewish Sports Hall Of Fame Class By Joseph Santoliquito PHILADELPHIA, PA (CBS)— Franz Lidz’s improbable journey went from profiling a town drunk in Maine, to a $60-a-week gig in Baltimore, to working as the editor of the Johns Hopkins magazine, to becoming a feature writer for Sports Illustrated, the… Read more »
After a long career teaching and coaching basketball – starting at the age of 22 as the head coach at Overbrook High with Wilt Chamberlain – a Daily News reporter interviewed me and asked if I was ever going to coach basketball again. With tongue in cheek, I said that I would like to coach… Read more »
I was coaching Overbrook High in 1954-55, Wilt Chamberlain’s senior year and perhaps the greatest high school basketball team in Philadelphia’s history, and there was one game that year against West Philly that remains with me all these years. West Philly was coached by Doug Connelly, and they always had an outstanding team, and the… Read more »
Renowned agent Tellem is Pistons’ community point man Auburn Hills – He left Los Angeles a crazy man. And now that he’s here in Detroit, Arn Tellem, once one of the most powerful and influential agents in sports, still finds he’s a bit of a conversation piece. “People want to meet me,” said Tellem, who… Read more »
Like most Jewish fighters in the early part of the 20th century, Lew Tendler was tough as nails but he was scared of his mother. “My mom was against boxing,” Tendler once recalled. “One night I fought at a small club and got a shiner. I tried everything to get the swelling down before I… Read more »
