One-Game Wonder: A Hoops Memory and Compilation

By Ron Johnston

On Friday night, January 8, 1965, the 5-1 Churchville-Chili boys' basketball team hosted Greece Arcadia in the Saints gym at approximately 8 p.m. It was the first game of the new year and would turn out to be school record-breaking as C-C won 101-55. 101 points, WOW! All 14 Saints on the roster played and scored. Ron Johnston, a junior non-starter and the author of this book, became a one-game wonder when he scored a game-high 16 points in almost two quarters of action on the hardwood. He couldn't miss, draining seven straight perimeter shots in the "pre-3-pointer era."
Thing is, Ron had a condition known as bronchiectasis that he has never revealed until this narrative now. Only his parents, immediate family, and doctors knew about it. The lung disease which he has had all his life has not hindered in any way his participating in athletics on both the prep and collegiate level. In fact, competing in sports, running, and walking have benefitted him.
Ron never had a prep varsity basketball game like the school record-breaking January 8 one ever again. But this story is more than him being a "one-game wonder."
("Better a one-game wonder than not," he would tell you, laughing.) It's also kind of a love story back in a time of teenage innocence. It's about teammates, cheerleaders, classmates, coaches, teachers, soldiers, and...people. GOOD PEOPLE, who have gone on to have families and been successful in life.
Being a newspaper sports editor/writer has been very helpful to Ron on this life journey. So, sit back, relax, and enjoy...and maybe you'd better have a box of Kleenex tissues handy. Because "One-Game Wonder" evokes emotion.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 11, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669859215

Book preview

Introduction

A 12-year-old’s Sarasota Holiday

With Tommy Edwards crooning, It’s All In The Game, on the car radio, newly-wed Jim Smith gripped the steering wheel of the 1959 four-door Ford Fairlane.

He was driving on a lonely stretch of highway somewhere in Georgia.

In the backseat was his bride Nancy of four months and her parents’ Charles and Betty Podgers (my grandparents) of Rochester, N.Y.

I, a 12-year-old sixth-grader from Chestnut Ridge Elementary School in the Churchville-Chili school district, sat in the passenger seat.

Our destination that early March day in 1960 was Sarasota, Fla., and it was about to be interrupted by flashing lights from behind us.

Jim just grinned as he pulled the sedan over to the side of the road.

You weren’t going that fast, I said.

All Jim did was reach for his wallet and license in his back pocket, and then roll down the driver’s side window.

He must have noticed our New York State plates, he said.

The Georgia trooper got out of his vehicle and slowly approached Jim, who was waiting patiently for him with all of the pertinent info in his hand.

You were speeding, the trooper said matter-of-factly.

Jim said nothing. Nobody in the car did. I almost said, No, he wasn’t! But held my tongue.

After the trooper gave Jim a ticket, we followed the law enforcement officer a few miles to a court building in a backwater town.

Jim paid the fine, and then we resumed our journey south.

Gee, he was a young-looking guy, said Nancy of the Georgia state trooper.

***

Jim and Nancy met in high school at Charlotte and Irondequoit, respectively. According to the Charlotte yearbook, Jim was called Smitty and was interested in Life, liberty, and the pursuit of jokes.

Aunt Nancy, my mother’s baby sister, was like an older sister to me, and we sometimes had our sibling spats.

Jim and Nancy were ‘57 graduates. They were a good pair. Both visited me when I was hospitalized for a month at Rochester’s Strong Memorial in April of ‘59. I always appreciated their concern.

Later that year on Oct. 31, Jim and Nancy were married by Rev. Franklin Laundry in a candlelight, double ring ceremony in Rochester’s Seneca Methodist Church, the same place where my parents were wed several years before. My little sister Kate was one of the two flower girls in the Smith-Podgers wedding party.

Jim and Nancy honeymooned in New York City, so the March trip to Florida was kind of an encore trip.

I was along for the ride, because my grandparents (Charles and Betty) had invited me. They believed it would be good for me after the operation and trauma of the hospital stay less than a year ago.

I had to get a doctor’s excuse at school, and at first I wasn’t too crazy about traveling to the Sunshine State, because I was in the middle of a basketball tournament. But, with it being spring training and a golden opportunity to see the Yankees play, it didn’t take too much arm-twisting.

When we finally arrived at a rented house by the beach in Sarasota, Jim and Nancy and Gram basically did their thing, while Gramps and I went to St. Petersburg to see the Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals play. I was looking forward to seeing Mickey Mantle up close, but he was having a contract dispute with management at the time (as I later learned) and was nowhere to be found.

Still, I got to see manager Casey Stengel jawing, Yogi Berra play third base and first-year Yank Roger Maris in left field.

I also saw Stan The Man Musial swing the bat for the Cardinals.

The Yanks lost the exhibition game, but I was still thrilled beyond belief to be there.

The next day, Gramps and I visited Bradenton, and saw the Milwaukee Braves host the Chicago White Sox. We sat in the left field-foul line bleachers and watched Henry Aaron and Eddie Mathews perform. I wore my Yankees ball cap, and was eyed with a smile by the Braves’ third-base coach.

Needless to say, for a 12-year-old, Florida was an adventure – the beach, the sunshine, everything. It was paradise.

But, after a week there, it was time to bid farewell and return north – and to school. The journey home was uneventful (not even a traffic ticket), except for Nancy and I teasing each other the whole way.

Oh, look at that lady go behind the bush out there! Nancy said.

Where? Where? I’d respond to much laughter in the car.

It was all good-natured and in fun.

And, when we crossed the New York State line, guess what? It was snowing.

It really was time to turn around then and head back to Florida – but, of course, we didn’t. We stayed the course.

***

After my journey to Florida, it would be 30 years before I returned to the Sunshine State, this time with my family in a visit to my mother in Port Charlotte. I did not attend a spring training baseball game.

Gramps and Gram both passed away in the 1990s within two years of each other. They were two of the dearest people ever.

Jim and Nancy went on to have a family of their own, raising a son (Tom) and daughter (Suzette) in Hilton, N.Y., where Jim owned a construction company. Before that, he was employed with Podgers & Sons.

In 1977, the Smiths moved to Lewis County in New York and managed the Snow Ridge Ski Area in Turin.

Several years after Jim tragically passed away in early January of ‘83, Nancy re-married in ‘95, and she and her husband Don Pratt worked in Rome, N.Y.

Last year, on Jan. 6, 2021, Nan passed away at the age of 80.

And...I still miss all the teasing, especially on the great Florida adventure of long ago, a trip I considered not make because of basketball.

By the way, my team was beaten in that elementary school tournament.

Part 1

About Five Years Later

On January 8, 1965

I’m amazed how much you remember things!

– Donna (Carlson) Hobson, Churchville-Chili junior cheerleader

I don’t have any recollection of that game for you. High School seems like a blur to me.

– Judy MacLaren, C-C junior cheerleader

Time does fly as Judy put it in so many words. No question about it.

But like many mothers, Elsie followed her oldest son’s exploits on the prep athletic fields.

She would even add a newspaper clipping or box score to a baby book as I discovered years later.

Thing is, without that info, I would not be able to share this hoops story with you.

During the 1964-65 winter basketball campaign, I was a 16-year-old junior on the Ray Flint-coached Churchville-Chili Saints varsity hoops team that eclipsed the century mark on the scoreboard with a 101-55 triumph over the visiting Greece Arcadia High Titans Friday night, January 8, 1965.

No team in the history of the C-C boys’ basketball program had ever torched the nets like that before at the school.

It was a special evening for me, because I scored a career-high 16 points in approximately two quarters of play, coming off the bench. It was my first double-digit game as a Saints varsity player...and as it turned out, my last.

Even so, mom had the presence of mind to scissors-cut out the small write-up and box score of the game in the sports pages of The Democrat & Chronicle newspaper and put it aside for me.

While mom was not at the game, dad was, and I think a couple of my sisters – Diane and Laurie – were also in attendance at the C-C gym.

At a year-ending school sports banquet in the Churchville-Chili Senior High cafeteria, Flint first spoke to the overflowing crowd of how I made seven consecutive perimeter baskets in that Greece Arcadia contest. (Mind you, this was before the 3-point shot.) Then, Coach presented me with my varsity basketball letter.

At 5-foot-10 inches, 145 pounds, I was on top of the world.

But little did I know at the time, and even though I continued to play varsity ball into my senior year, I would never duplicate a game like that and be so red hot offensively again on the Saints hardwood.

Looking at the accomplishment many years later, I realized that I enjoyed a one-game wonder experience – and that’s not a bad thing.

Not bad at all, actually.

I know mom was tickled about it – and very proud of me.

Oh, yeah, so was dad.

Most high school basketball non-starters, like I was back in the day, will never ever in their career, pace their team in scoring for one game.

I did it once on a really good Saints varsity basketball team.

* * *

One Year Earlier: Friday The

1³Th Unlucky For Saints

Churchville-Chili’s cagers had a good run during the 1963-64 season.

The Ray Flint-coached Saints, of course, would’ve preferred a championship run, but the undefeated Wayne Central Eagles proved to be the better team Friday night, March 13, 1964, claiming a 60-46 decision in a Section 5, Class A boys basketball game at Rochester’s War Memorial.

C-C finished the winter campaign with a school record of 15-4.

Churchville-Chili’s sectional roster featured seniors’ Larry Beattie, Jim McGill, Jack Crooks, and John Freeman; juniors’ Richie Rose, Roger Hill, Gary Bischoping, Tom Lynch, and Dick Randall; and sophomores’ Ron Fodge, Dennis Rose, and Ron Johnston*.

Wayne countered with Jim Henderson, Bob Kelly, Ken Bradstreet, Don Bailey, Lon Schilstra, Larry Taillie, John Baker, Tom Brasser, Don Gardner, Richie Tobin, Ron Bradstreet, Jeff Risley, Dick VanHoover, and Ron Forman.

C-C got off to a slow start, falling behind 10-1 at one point in the opening quarter. But, sparked by Richie Rose and Hill, the Saints came back with a 13-6 run, and only trailed by a deuce (16-14) at the end of one.

Churchville-Chili struggled and was outpointed, 12-5, in the second period. Wayne led 28-19 at halftime.

After the break, it was relatively even-steven but the Eagles were able to keep the Saints at bay and won by 14.

The Edward Joseph-coached Eagles, who only had one player on the roster over 6-feet tall, featured a balanced scoring attack with four double-digit scorers. Bailey led the way with 14 points, while the 6-2 Kelly and Henderson each added 13. Schilstra chipped in with a dozen markers.

With the victory, Wayne advanced and beat Attica, 59-35, but then ended up losing to Waterloo in the final and finished 20-1 overall (18-0 league).

The 6-1 Hill was C-C’s only double-digit scorer with a game-high 18 points. Rose netted nine while Randall and Bischoping finished with six and five, respectively. Fodge had four, and Beattie and Freeman two apiece.

After the tournament, Hill was named to the All-Section 5 Class A team, and then later to the All-County Class A-B first team with Rose. The 5-7 Rose, a unanimous pick, averaged 20.3 points per game that season (18.5 ppg league).

The 5-11 McGill, the team’s enforcer and a solid defender, was a Class A-B All-Star second team selection.

*I had the best seat in the house for the sectional game...at the end of the bench. As a C-C sophomore, I was just thrilled to be there on the War Memorial hardwood. I’d had a good JV season, and after the last game, I was invited by Coach Flint to join the varsity Saints for the sectional tilt. I never expected that. I guess that was my reward. I didn’t think I’d play in the game (and I didn’t) but just being there and warming up with the team counts as a career highlight.

* * * *

Roger and Out!

"Roger, Roger, He’s Our Man, If

He Can’t Do It, No One Can!"

– Nancy Steedman, C-C senior co-captain of the Saints cheerleaders

Churchville-Chili’s boys’ basketball team often got a quick two points on the opening tip-off, thanks to Roger Hill.

Hill, Class of 65, was maybe 6-foot-1 or 6-2, but could jump out of the gym. He played much taller than he was.

Actually, the tip-off was a designed play and worked on in practice all the time.

It was pretty fundamental in that Hill, the center, would outjump an opponent and touch the ball forward to say either teammate Dick Randall or Gary Bischoping, who in turn would pass it to guard Richie Rose streaking to the basket for an easy layup.

The key, of course, was winning the jump ball in the center circle...and I never saw Hill ever lose a tip.

Hill could probably dunk it, but he never did. It was just not his style. He didn’t like to show off, and was pretty much a soft-spoken, modest guy.

Except in the paint. There, he was a beast. He was very competitive. I mean, you had to be to survive with all the elbows, arms, and hands flailing.

Hill wore glasses when he played, but that was no handicap. He liked mixing it up underneath, and more often than not after getting the rebound, he triggered the fast break with an outlet pass to Rose. Trailing the break, Hill’d put himself in a position for an offensive putback.

Very athletic and fast, Hill was one of the reasons why the Saints enjoyed so much success on the hardwood back in the early, mid-sixties.

An all-around athlete, Hill also starred as a striker on the C-C soccer team, and scored his share of goals. With his speed and jumping ability (on headers), he was tough for opponents to mark on wing crosses and free kicks.

The Saints track and field squad would have loved to have had Hill on its spring roster. He no doubt would have excelled in the high jump, broad jump, sprints, and relays. But...it was not to be.

After high school graduation, Hill competed at Tarkio College in Missouri and Roberts Wesleyan College in North Chili.

Later, he became a prep and college basketball official in upstate New York.

Becoming a real estate agent, Hill, with his wife Judy and two daughters, ended up in Hendersonville, North Carolina. There, he was very active in the community, and became an avid golfer.

In 1998, he became an owner/broker/developer of Cummings Cove Golf & Country Club in Hendersonville.

Hill passed away at age 68 in March of 2015.

And, without question, he was one of Churchville-Chili’s all-time greats.

* * *

Thump, thump, thumpity thump. Come on Roger, get that jump!

– Nancy Steedman

Steedman Picture Perfect For Churchville

Nancy Steedman is a notable Churchville personality.

The 1965 Churchville-Chili Senior High graduate could be strolling in the Village’s downtown area near the Johnson House or along West Buffalo Street, and chances are somebody would recognize her.

And, Steedman, like former Mayors often do, would be the first to smile and say Hello, how ya doing? to that somebody whether she knew them or not.

Steedman was the chief executive of the Village of Churchville for three four-year terms. When she announced that she would be retiring on April 1, 2019, she wasn’t fooling. She also reassured her supporters it was not due to any health issues but that it was just time to move on with her life.

Before Steedman, Don Ehrmantraut, a fellow Saints classmate, was Mayor for several years.

It is interesting to think that the Class of ‘65 graduates kept the village going strong for 36 years between the two of us as Mayors, Steedman said.

Steedman got into politics and was elected a trustee in March of 1997.

I had gone to Don (Ehrmentraut) asking what I could do to get involved in Churchville and there happened to be an opening on the Board, remembered Steedman. That is when it all happened.

Added Steedman, Served with Don for 10 years with the last few as Deputy Mayor. When Don retired and moved to Florida, I ran for Mayor (in 2007).

Fact is, Steedman enjoyed a very productive run in the office. Taking the initiative, she secured over $1.5 million in grant money to the village.

Said Steedman, Some of the grants included a Main Street grant that helped business owners make improvements to their buildings, a Geographical Information System (GIS) to capture our village infrastructure onto the computer, converting part of the former West Shore railroad track into a walking path and many more projects.

Steedman also participated in the New York Conference of Mayors (NYCOM) organization and was the