Days Gone By
100 YEARS AGO, 1924 » Graduates and undergraduates, city and county officials and business men of Chester assembled last evening at the initial banquet of the Chester Club of the University of Pennsylvania held at the Chester Club banquet room. College spirit was manifest and the older heads entered into the spirit of the evening with enthusiasm. Edwin Pike, of Chester, a member of the faculty of the university and president of the club, was in charge and former Mayor William T. Ramsey, who has been aiding in its organization, acted as toastmaster.
75 YEARS AGO, 1949 » A corps of Philadelphia gamblers who fled that city under police pressure was nabbed late Friday night in a raid on a bigtime establishment in Darby. Authorities said the gamblers invaded the county several weeks ago and set up headquarters in a building at 125 ½ N. 10th St., where heavy-betting dice games were conducted. It was one of the biggest riads of recent years. Forty-one men were arrested.
50 YEARS AGO, 1974 » One of seven fugitives sought since Friday in connection with a jailbreak at Delaware County Prison, Thornbury, was apprehended in Chester Tuesday minutes after he and a 17-year-old female juvenile accomplice attempted to rob a Brookhaven man. The fugitive, a 23-year-old Upland man, was collared shortly before 2 p.m., by City Narcotics Officers Thomas Worrilow and Albert Chess moments after the alleged incident in the parking lot of Walio’s Frog Pond Café, 16th Street and Providence Avenue.
25 YEARS AGO, 1999 » Investigators from the Liquor Control Enforcement Board of the Pennsylvania State Police intend to tap Monsignor Bonner High School students to track the source of the beer that allegedly fueled a fracas Monday afternoon at Veterans Stadium. At least seven seniors from the archdiocesan school for Catholic boys in Drexel Hill were involved in a brawl that broke out about 4 p.m. during the Phillies home opener, said Bonner Principal the Rev. John Denny.
10 YEARS AGO, 2014 » Upper Darby Township police brewed up a big pot of goodwill Wednesday at McDonald’s for a meet and greet with citizens. The “Coffee with a Cop” program drew children off from school for spring break, the regulars who meet for coffee every day at the fast food restaurant at State and Lansdowne avenues and others who enjoyed the opportunity to speak with police. “This was a home run,” police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said. “This was good interaction. It was a time to say hello and take pictures. It was good PR.”