LEHIGH VALLEY FLASHBACK
A look back at Lehigh Valley sports stories over the years from Feb. 28-29.
2003: Pleasant Valley wins its first District 11 girls basketball title when the Bears stop Easton 37-29 in the Class 4A final.
2001: Bethlehem Catholic’s
John Dieser, Northern Lehigh’s
John Gross and Parkland’s Tim Massaquoi are selected for the Big 33 football squad that will play the Ohio all-stars on July 21 at Hershey. 1998: For the first time in 33 years District 11’s largest boys basketball classification championship game didn’t include an East Penn Conference team when Pleasant Valley meets Stroudsburg in the Class 4A title game. The Bears win their first title by scoring the final nine points of the game for an 80-73 victory. Rob Kelly leads the way with 27 points, including the go-ahead layup with 1:06 left. Also, Northwestern wins its first Class 2A title by beating Wilson, 59-51. 1998: Allentown College reaches its third straight NCAA Division III women’s basketball tournament with a 66-59 win over Elizabethtown in the MAC final. 1998: Muhlenberg sweeps the Centennial Conference basketball championships over Johns Hopkins, the women claiming their second straight title with a 71-61 victory, the men with a 55-53 triumph.
1996: After winning 11 straight home games Allentown drops a 75-65 decision to visiting Messiah in the NCAA Division III women’s basketball tournament.
1996: Ken Lacey scores a careerhigh 38 points and Stroudsburg rolls past Pocono Mountain 95-80 to reach its first District 11 Class 4A championship game.
1996: Bethlehem Catholic’s fouryear reign as District 11 Class 3A girls basketball champions ends in a 57-24 loss to North Schuylkill in the semifinals.
1981: Allen’s Lynn Olson becomes the first District 11 gymnast to win the PIAA advanced all-around title, winning the floor, balance beam and uneven bars competitions en route to a 71.75 score. Also, Freedom’s Sheila Fox wins the intermediate floor gold medal. 1976: Mike Frick becomes
Lehigh’s sixth three-time EIWA champion and the Engineers crown five champions and qualify eight wrestlers for the NCAA tournament by running away with the team title by 52 points over Navy and Syracuse. But Frick is denied a record third straight outstanding wrestling award by Wilkes’ Jim Weisenfluh.
1973: Dana Parr’s layup with two seconds left lifts Easton (21-4) to a 55-53 victory over Central Catholic before a packed house at Muhlenberg’s Memorial Hall to win the Red Rovers’ first-ever East Penn League boys basketball title. Parr and Jim Hutnik each score 17 points for the Rovers.
1973: Frank Johnson’s 23 points and 10 rebounds leads Saucon Valley to a 63-51 win over Salisbury at Liberty’s Memorial Gym and the school’s first Lehigh-Northampton League title in 21 years.
1968: Nazareth’s John Doto edges Easton’s Phil Noto 3-2 in a battle of unbeaten heavyweights to give the Blue Eagles their first District 11 team wrestling title by a point (71-70) over the host Red Rovers. Jeff Duelley and Terry Rissmiller also win titles for Nazareth, which becomes the first non-East Penn Wrestling League team to win the team title since Northampton in 1952.
1968: Ross Moore, benched for the start of the game after shooting 1-for-26 in two recent losses to Liberty, scores 26 points on 12-for-16 shooting and Dieruff wins its third straight East Penn League boys basketball championship with a 67-49 playoff victory, the fifth meeting between the two teams this season.
1966: The Easton Area Joint
School Committee votes to rehire Bobby Rute as the high school’s head football coach. Rute had announced his resignation near the end of the 1965 season but changed his mind and reapplied for the post in January.
1963: Barry Frey scores 21 points and Sal Tavarres 20 to lead Bethlehem to its third straight
East Penn League boys basketball title in an 81-59 playoff victory over Dieruff before 3,700 at Muhlenberg’s Memorial Hall.
1961: Catasauqua, which lost its first eight games of the season, caps an incredible comeback season in the Lehigh Valley League with a 58-41 win over Palmerton to win its second straight LVL title and ninth overall. Rich Fitzinger and Cliff Thomas each score four points in a closing 10-0 run that gives the Rough Riders (13-11) a spot in the District 11 Class A playoffs.
1958: Kerry Levandowski and
Larry Hillegass score 17 points each and Emmaus wins its first (and only, as it turns out) Lehigh Valley League boys basketball title with a 68-60 playoff victory over Catasauqua.