LV FLASHBACK

A look back at sports stories in the Lehigh Valley over the years from April 17.

2000: Dave “Whitey” Williams, who won 81 games and three PIAA titles in seven years at Mount Carmel, is named the head football coach at Nazareth.

2000: Jamie Hibell, a 28-year-old Bethlehem resident and a former Division III All-American runner at Allentown College, is the first American across the finish line at the Boston Marathon. Hibell finishes 24th overall.

1995: The Emmaus Athletic Advisory Committee recommends to the East Penn School Board that it cooperate with Whitehall’s efforts to end the 60-year-old Thanksgiving Day football rivalry between the two schools, reducing the number of holiday games in the area to four.

1991: Just weeks after he helped lead Duke to the NCAA championship and was named to the Final Four all-tournament team, former Central star Billy McCaffrey announces he will leave Duke after his sophomore year to find a program where he can be a “major, full-time contributor.” McCaffrey winds up at Vanderbilt.

1985: Marian Catholic sends 22 batters to the plate in an 18-run firstinning en route to a 30-5 Schuylkill League baseball victory over Freeland MMI.

1984: Lehigh Valley native Gus Steiner, who overcame the loss of his right arm in an accident to become a highly respected amateur baseball umpire, is selected to umpire at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles when baseball is held as a demonstration sport. The Olympic appearance will come two months after Steiner works in his fifth NCAA College World Series.

1979: Freedom’s Jeff

Frey and Easton’s Bryan Kostishion toss no-hitters but the game’s lone error and a passed ball allow Rich Harold to score the game’s only run in the top of the sixth inning and give the Patriots a 1-0 East Penn Conference baseball victory. Frey strikes out six and walks one while Kostishion fans 10 and walks four.

1957: Cincinnati selects Lafayette’s Stu Murray and Philadelphia picks Leopard teammate Jim Radcliff in the fifth round of the NBA college draft.