The Teams
In the winter of the 1959-1960 school year, the basketball team at Smith Academy was on a roll. They had won 22 games and had a big choice to make: stick with the Small Schools Tournament after winning the Hampshire County League, or try for the Western Mass Tournament in Worcester, with an eye on the "New England's" in Boston. The coach chose Boston; he knew his team was up for it.
"When we beat East-hampton, I remember thinking "Hey we could win the Hampshire League!
It was Sandy Belden who shot the 100th point in the game against St. Marks; we'd never done that before." -Jim Majeskey, SA '60 |
The win in Worcester was electric: "There was absolutely NO WAY we were going to lose that final we promised each other - and so it happened." -Marty Wilkes, SA '62
In 1960-61, the team had an even bigger challenge: do it all again. With a new coach and new players on the team to replace the SEVEN who had graduated. Not an easy task. But they did it.
"Coach Max started me on statistics; I had to log every shot and rebound..for me it was a more exciting year: who expected us to perform as well as we did that year? Those guys really worked hard that year," -Daniel Snook, team manager for both years, SA '63 |
In high school basketball in 1960, there were no divisions between larger and smaller schools as there are in 2021; everyone played everyone in their local league, no matter the size of the school.
When the Falcons won the Hampshire county league, they went up against teams from bigger schools at the Western Mass schoolboy basketball championships, facing teams from Pittsfield to Springfield to Worcester. When they won Western Mass, they got to head to Boston along with teams from all over the area, to play at the New England tournament. |
What made the Falcons of 1960 and 1961 so effective was the way they worked as a team. They were fast and knew each other well, from playing together since grade school. This familiarity, combined with relentless drilling, gave them an uncanny sense of where they were in relation to each other and an absolute certainty of each other's skills. This made them champions.
They also had a star player: Bob "Jingles" Kovalski, who was 6'6", lanky, and fast. With him at the center of the team, and three other six-foot-tall players, they were able to dominate the floor, time and time again.
Newspapers and clippings donated by Rose Kovalski Mulherin unless otherwise noted