LV FLASHBACK

A look back at Lehigh Valley sports stories over the years from April 8.

1996: The Northampton Area School Board votes unanimously to hire John Bendekovits as the varsity football coach, two weeks after Central Catholic coach Jim Morgans declined the position after the board had voted 6-3 to offer him the job.

1995: Forty-five-year-old Larry Holmes’ fourth attempt to regain the World Boxing Council heavyweight title is unsuccessful when he drops a unanimous decision to Oliver McCall in Las Vegas.

1990: Whitehall grad John Schreiner hits a Penn State-record three home runs in the first game, then adds a fourth in the nightcap to help the Nittany Lions split a collegiate baseball doubleheader with visiting Lafayette.

1976: The Amateur Softball Association (ASA) announces it will bring its annual national championship tournament to Allentown’s new Bicentennial Park in September.

1976: Bethlehem Catholic’s Mike Guman highlights the first night of the inaugural Lehigh Valley All-Star Basketball Classic by breaking a rim at Rockne Hall during the slam dunk competition between games of the semifinals. Guman also scores 20 points to lead the East Penn Division 1 all-stars to a 99-76 win over the Centennial League while the Colonial League, led by Salisbury’s Tom Shank and Saucon Valley’s Doug Brown, upended the EPC’s Division 2 stars, 106-99.

1975: Lehigh names assistant coach Brian Hill to replace Tom Pugliese as men’s basketball coach, making the 27-year-old Hill the youngest Division I head coach in the country. Although Hill would win just 75 games over his eight seasons with the Engineers, he would go on to become an assistant and head coach in the NBA.

1974: Los Angeles Dodgers lefthander Al Downing, who played freshman basketball at Muhlenberg, serves up Henry Aaron’s record-breaking 715th career home run before a full house of 52,870 in Atlanta and a national TV audience.

1970: Behind Eddie Mast’s 39 points and 23 rebounds, the Allentown Jets beat the Wilmington Blue Bombers 142-137 for their fifth Eastern Basketball League title.

1955: Fountain Hill’s Jerry Berger is the second-leading vote-getter in balloting for the AP Little All-State basketball team. Bethlehem Catholic’s Joe Sterelein is named to the third team.

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