A shot clock is coming to high school basketball in 2028, but it may have been more needed Dec. 18, 1925.
That was the night the first games were played in the East Penn League, a forerunner to the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference.
In those first games, Allentown High School beat Coatesville 22-14, Pottsville beat Easton 33-27, and Bethlehem edged Pottstown in a game in which both teams scored in the 30s.
On the 100-year anniversary of the East Penn League, interest in the league, its beginnings, its original 50-year history, and the talented players, colorful coaches, bitter rivalries and dominant teams remains strong.
That’s what Enos Martin found out with his book titled “Fifty Years of Turmoil and Titles: A History of the Eastern Pennsylvania Interscholastic Basketball League, 1926-1975.”
Martin released the book in the spring and has been surprised by how well it has been received.
“What’s happening is people buy the book, and they tell other people about it, and the word-of-mouth sales have been great,” Martin said. “Bob Huffstutler, a local basketball official, bought a number of books and sent them to people. Tim McGorry, Charlie Unger … a bunch of guys have been out there promoting the book. I got a book order from a woman in New Jersey who wanted to buy a book, and it turns out she’s the daughter of Dave Shafer, who coached at Hazleton, in the early 1970s. She bought one and then bought another one for her brother. She said her brother used to ride the bus with her father to the Hazleton games, and he has a lot of stories, too. She said she was going to buy a book for him for Christmas. A lot of that has been happening.”
The book brings back a lot of memories from a different era of local basketball, an era that featured big crowds and big rivalries. Martin went through and has a game-by-game summary of each EPL game played and has a lot of history and anecdotes mixed in.
“Dr. John Canzano got the book and called me up from Hilton Head Island, and he was almost in tears from reading things,” Martin said. “He bought copies he sent to friends. Tim McGorry bought a copy and sent it to Terry German so he could see it a couple of months before he died. A lot of people I don’t know just call me up and start talking to me, and even my wife has been flabbergasted by how people respond to the book and how it has brought back a spark to their lives because it takes them back to the past. I never anticipated this to happen. I did the book because I was enamored with reading about the league in the newspapers, doing research for the Lehigh Valley Basketball Hall of Fame when I was involved with the LARC/Via All-Star Classic.”
The book was on the back burner for many years for Martin, but the idea was rekindled when he did a short history of the Kiwanis Club of Allentown when it reached its 100th anniversary.
“It was always in the back of my mind, and it just kind of came together in the past couple of years,” he said. “I’m just happy I did it. I wish I had done it a few years earlier because there are so many people who have passed on who would have loved to see it and go back in time. I’ve met a lot of new friends from doing this book, and I have heard a lot of stories that were special to these people. That’s something I never expected, especially how it has affected people emotionally.”
Martin said he plans to write a history of both the Lehigh Valley League and the Lehigh-Northampton leagues, which were also vibrant decades ago and featured the same amount of great players, coaches and rivalries as the EPL.
The book is available on Amazon at a higher cost, or you can contact Martin at 610-509-5918 or email him at epl50yrs@yahoo.com.
Standings
The EPC and Colonial League standings:
EPC Monroe (league, division): Pocono Mt East 2-1, 2-0; Pocono Mt. West 2-1, 2-0; Stroudsburg 3-2, 1-1; ES North 1-5, 1-1; ES South 0-4, 0-2; Pleasant Valley 0-5, 0-2.
EPC Northampton (league, division): Nazareth 5-0, 2-0; Northampton 5-0, 2-0; Liberty 4-1, 1-1; Easton 1-3, 1-1; Beth. Catholic 0-3, 0-2; Freedom 0-3, 0-2.
EPC Lehigh (league, division): Allen 5-0, 3-0; Allentown CCHS 4-0, 3-0; Parkland 2-2, 1-2; Emmaus 1-4, 0-3; Whitehall 1-4, 0-3.
Colonial East (league, division): Wilson 4-0, 1-0; Notre Dame-Green Pond 3-0, 1-0; Bangor 2-1, 0-1; Pen Argyl 1-3, 1-0; Moravian Academy 0-4, 0-2.
Colonial West (league, division): Northwestern Lehigh 2-0, 0-0; Northern Lehigh 2-2, 1-0; Jim Thorpe 2-2, 0-0; Palmerton 1-3, 0-1; Lehighton 1-3, 0-0.
Colonial South (league, division): Salisbury 3-0, 1-0; Southern Lehigh 2-1, 1-0; Catasauqua 1-1, 1-0; Saucon Valley 1-3, 0-2; Palisades 0-2, 0-1.
Did you know?
Karl Gilbert recently began his 54th season as Freedom’s boys basketball statistician.
Gilbert started keeping track of stats Dec. 1, 1972, with a Freedom game at Notre Dame-Green Pond, and that’s where this season began for Gilbert and the Patriots.
His 54th season broke a tie for the local longevity record in local high school basketball, a mark he shared with the late Roy Arlotto, the longtime Dieruff scorekeeper.
Overall, Gilbert said he has been connected to local basketball for 56 years, dating to East Hills Junior High School. He graduated from Freedom in 1975 and went on to Moravian College, where he became a two-time Middle Atlantic Conference all-star golfer. He is now executive director of the Golf Association of the Lehigh Valley and the Lehigh Valley Junior Golf Tour, which has become the region’s premier junior golf development program; and the Lehigh Valley Golf Hall of Fame.
Player of the week
Mason Bollinger, Northwestern Lehigh
Northwestern Lehigh senior Mason Bollinger scored 19 points on Saturday in a boys basketball win over Catasauqua just one week after playing in the PIAA Class 3A football title game. (Keith Groller)
The fact that Mason Bollinger scored 16 points in the first half of the Tigers’ 65-47 win over Catasauqua on Saturday and finished with 19 was not a surprise.
But what may be a surprise is that he played so well just one week after playing in the PIAA Class 3A state championship football game for Northwestern Lehigh.
The senior forward made a quick transition to the hardwood after 16 weeks on the gridiron.
“It was definitely a quick turnaround practicing for three days and then playing against Southern Lehigh on Thursday night, then coming back with another day of practice and another game,” Bollinger said. “It was a turnaround for the other guys, too, who played. The first game was a struggle, but I think I got my shot back. I’m not 100% in basketball. I still have to catch my breath running up and down the court, but it’s getting better.”
Bollinger is the brother of Devin Bollinger, who was also an outstanding basketball and football player. In football, Devin Bollinger was a National Football Foundation Lehigh Valley Chapter Scholar-Athlete in 2020 after he passed for 7,324 yards and 90 touchdowns and ran for more than 2,000 yards and 22 TDs as a four-year starter at quarterback.
Mason learned a lot from his brother
“We used to play against each other in the driveway, and he was a great role model for me,” he said. “My grandfather was Bob Mlkvy [the Palmerton basketball legend], so it’s a great basketball family.”
Tigers coach Patrick Wanamaker said he has known the Bollinger family for years.
“We go way back because Mason was running around the gym when I coached his brother when I was an assistant when Devin played here,” he said. “He really struggled the other night against Southern Lehigh because he didn’t have his basketball legs. We had a long conversation at practice, and he put himself in a good position to help the team offensively against Catty. He rebounded the ball well, and he defended well, covering a lot of different guys. I’m proud of the way he positioned himself to help his team early in the basketball season after coming off a long football season.”
Bollinger had a big first half in last season’s league championship game against Catty and played well again against the Rough Riders.
“Mason has matured as an athlete and a young man and that showed today,” Wanamaker said. “He didn’t take many bad shots. He has become a pretty consistent shooter.”
Bollinger was a key part of a football team that went 46-2 over the last three seasons. The basketball team hasn’t reached three straight state finals, but is a defending league champ.
“We like to grind, and that’s what our program is all about,” he said. “We’re going to try our best to get another championship.”
