LEHIGH VALLEY FLASHBACK
A look back at Lehigh Valley sports stories over the years from June 9.
2011: Brian Schell resigns as Northern Lehigh softball coach for a second time. Schell, who won a state title with the Bulldogs in 1988, was 57-33 over four seasons in his return to coaching and 180-112 in 14 seasons overall.
2006: Government officials and
Joe Finley announce that Finley and Reading Phillies owner Craig Stein have purchased the Ottawa Lynx of the International League and will move the team to Allentown, where it will play in the proposed $34 million stadium in east Allentown as the Phillies’ Triple-A affiliate.
1996: Pat Santoro is frustrated in his quest for a spot on the U.S. Olympic freestyle wrestling team when the former Bethlehem Catholic star loses 3-1 in overtime to Townsend Saunders in the deciding match of their best-of-three finals round. Earlier, Saunders hangs on to win the first match 10-7 after building a 10-3 lead, but Santoro forces the third and decisive bout between the two with a 3-2 overtime victory.
1996: Northern Lehigh records the final out by throwing out the potential tying run trying to score on a wild pitch to preserve a 4-3 win over Villa Joseph Marie and advance to the PIAA Class 2A softball championship game.
1996: Cortney Medea throws a no-hitter and strikes out 11, while Nora Borger’s fifth-inning RBI double chases in the winning run in Northampton’s 2-1 win over Chambersburg, giving the Konkrete Kids a berth in the PIAA Class 3A softball championship game.
1991: After finishing fourth in the all-around competition at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships, the Parkettes’ Kim Kelly is named the gymnast of the year and earns a spot on the U.S. National Team. Meanwhile, Central Catholic’s Karen Meltsch is named the national high school girls gymnastics champion after she wins the all-around, vault and balance beam in the two-day national meet at Colorado Springs. Allen’s Jamie Raines finishes fourth in the all-around and wins the bars competition.
1990: Marlene Amoni’s two-out
RBI single in the bottom of the 14th inning lifts Allen to a 4-3 win over Gov. Mifflin and into the PIAA Class 3A softball Eastern final for the second straight year.
1990: After posting a 145-80 record in nine years Fred Richter steps down as Quakertown High School’s girls basketball coach and becomes the women’s coach at Allentown College.
1985: Two Parkettes, 15-year-old Tracy Calone of Orefield (vault) and Jennifer Sey (floor), finish third in their respective event at the USA Championships in Jacksonville, Fla. 1981: Continuing its power struggle with the United States Auto Club (USAC) for control of Indy-style racing, the board of directors of the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) deny its owners and drivers permission to compete in the
June 21 USAC-sponsored Van Scoy Diamond Mines 500 at Pocono International Raceway. The ruling would keep just about every top driver except A.J. Foyt out of the race, although many drivers initially state their intentions to defy CART and race anyway. However, by race day only “six or seven” CART drivers, most notably Tom Sneva, enter the race.
1970: Seeded third in the NCAA College Division tennis tournament at Hayward, Calif., East Stroudsburg State College’s Neil Curtis is upset in the first round by Cal Poly’s Bert Easley, 3-6, 6-4, 3-6. Two days later the Bethlehem native meets up with Easley again, this time in the doubles quarterfinals, and again Easley and his partner prevail, beating Curtis and Fred Strauss 6-2, 4-6, 6-1.
1966: The Lehigh-Northampton League announces it has accepted applications from Salisbury, Pocono Mountain and Pleasant Valley to join the conference. The three new schools will begin league play in basketball and baseball starting with the 1966-67 season, and in other sports, including football, in 1967-68. The additions gives the league 13 members in two divisions — the three new schools plus Southern Lehigh, Northwestern and Palisades in the South; and Parkland, East Stroudsburg, Bangor, Nazareth, Pen Argyl, Wilson and Hellertown in the North.