Alert reader, avid sports fan — and 1971 Staples High School graduate Fred Cantor — contributes today’s Friday Flashback:
This month marks the 70th anniversary of the conclusion of one of the most successful seasons in Westport scholastic basketball history.
But that squad did not play at Staples. It was the Bedford Junior High School hoops team (at a time when junior highs fielded formal varsity squads).
The Bedford Junior High School basketball team.
The Bedford Bears went undefeated in 9 games against junior high competition from New Canaan, Darien, Wilton, Weston and Bridgeport. Their closest game: a 10-point win over Saxe JHS of New Canaan, whose best player, Wilky Gilmore, went on to become an area sports legend. He led New Canaan High to consecutive state titles, then starred at Colorado on a Big 8 championship squad.
Bedford’s leading scorer in that game against Saxe was Jack Mitchell, who scored as many points as Gilmore. Mitchell was Bedford’s leading scorer that season. He went on to star as Wesleyan University’s football quarterback, then worked at his parents’ clothing store, Ed Mitchell — and later become CEO and now chairman of Mitchells Stores.
His former Bedford teammate Bob Darnton went on to become a Rhodes Scholar, and an award-winning historian, professor, and director of the Harvard University Library.
He recalls: “When I played on the Bedford Elementary School basketball team against Greens Farms, we said to ourselves, ‘This guy Mitchell is unstoppable,’ or words to that effect. He had a formidable reputation.”
(Yes, Westport elementary schools participated in interscholastic basketball competition as well back then.)
Bedford Junior High athletes, off the court.
Darnton also remembers another teammate, underscoring a different time in Westport: “I always had a fondness for Red Izzo, a fast guard. Back then, I sometimes visited him in his home, where his mother spoke Italian. I learned the language as a grad student, remembering when I first heard the Calabrian variety around spaghetti dishes in my home town. We swore in Italian in elementary school.”
The 6 players who were the mainstays of the team (the “big 6,” according to a local newspaper account) were Mitchell, Darnton, Izzo, Bruce Cummings, John Aulenti and Kenny Linn.
Thanks to the margins of victory, the reserves saw plenty of action during the season.
Bedford’s superb play drew this quote in a local newspaper: “Nick Zeoli, well-known athlete, coach and official, rates the 1954 Bedford Bears as the finest junior high basketball team — the best he has ever seen in action.” Zeoli went on to serve many years as Wilton High School’s athletic director.
Perhaps the Bedford Bears’ greatest success was splitting 2 games against the Staples sophomore squad. They lost once in overtime and won the other, in front of a capacity crowd at a fundraising event for the Wachob Memorial Scholarship.
Cheering on the teams, at the Wachob Memorial Tournament.
The Bedford coach went on to make his mark at Staples, as a beloved history teacher. But in 1954 he taught math at Bedford. While undoubtedly having a terrific influence on the Bedford varsity players that season, his greatest impact might have been on a non-player connected to the team.
That impact was described in a memoir by Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times writer John Darnton — Bob’s brother.
Their father had died as a war correspondent at the beginning of World War II. That tragic event left a gaping hole in their childhood.
John wrote: “It mitigated some of my wild behavior that I was getting good marks at school. I was moved up to a more advanced math class, and the teacher there took an interest in me.
“He was also the coach of varsity basketball….The teacher, Gordon Hall, appointed me as official scorer, presumably to give me a position to buck up my self-esteem. I enjoyed traveling around with the team….
“Before long, the school year ended. I did not want to leave and found it painful to say goodbye to my friends…
“On the next-to-last day, the math teacher offered me a ride home. As we arrived at the house where I was staying, he pulled the car to the shoulder…
“He reached over and patted me on the back, then grasped my hand to shake it and held on to it for what seemed like a long while. Then, his voice breaking, he wished me good luck.
“Two days later, I left Westport.”
(Friday Flashback is a regular feature on “06880.” If you enjoy it — or any other part of the blog — please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
Women junior high fielded teams then too! 6 women on a team
Karen: Gordon Hall’s experience coaching basketball prior to the Bedford boys’ squad was girls’ scholastic hoops in Iowa.
Dan, thanks for posting this.
With 3 guards and 3 forwards, not allowed to cross the center line until @ 1970 or ‘71 maybe? Changed (thankfully) when I played in HS in Weston.
Also, readers may be interested to know that coach Gordon Hall and his wife, Dorothy, are still living in Westport—seventy years after this great season! (The photos accompanying this article are from Gordon’s scrapbook.)
Very cool.
Thanks Fred and Dan- nice story. Even though I did not live around these parts back then, I felt sure that was Jack Mitchell in the team photo. Perhaps the only time I’ve seen him not wearing a tape measure draped around his neck.
Your story about the great Staples team of 70 years ago and the mention of interscholastic games back then reminded me of a game between Coleytown Elementary (my school) and Greens Farms in 1956. On that date I was the leading scorer in the Coleytown team. Unfortunately, Greens Farms won by a score of 16-2.
So Dan: can the Westporter-Herald’s Daily Town Pump program be considered an early version of 06880: The Podcast? Was there any similar type of program coordinated between The Town Crier and WMMM in the 1960s?
Thank you Fred and Dan…it was wonderful to share this piece with my parents this morning! My Father and Mother remember it all! My Father to this day, says Jack Mitchell was the best Athlete Staples High has ever produced.
Jimmy, Ask your about Matt Macvane and Dick Sutphen .
Oops I meant ask your parents about them.