Flora Graham Sanders starred for teams which compiled a record of 17 Class A Inter-City or Tri-State championships. Although listed as a forward, she frequently played and was equally effective as a guard. Flora was noted for her consistency as a scorer. A versatile athlete, she also earned titles or played on championship teams in softball, golf, bowling and dance skating.
After graduating from West Tech and Ohio University, where he won three Mid-American Championships, Steve Rudo, Jr. was named an All-American in 1957. He is a member of the Ohio University athletic and Wrestling Hall of Fame. Steve’s twenty years of coaching at Valley Forge High School led to numerous conference titles, two state runner-up titles and the Ohio state Championship in 1973.
Leo Dorsey was an outstanding forward, starring on leading teams in the Muny League from 1922 to 1930. A top scorer in Cleveland for many years, he averaged 19 points a game in the days when teams scored a total of 35 to 40 points. His clubs won six Muny crowns. Leo was a member of the Fairplay team that played the first basketball game ever in Cleveland Public Hall on January 30, 1922.
Sandlot ball has long been a special love for Chuck Rozanski, and in 1991 the Cleveland Baseball Foundation recognized him for more than a quarter century on the sandlots. One of his charges, Brush’s Steve Stone, went on to pitch for the Baltimore Orieles and Chicago White Sox and won the Cy Young Award in 1980. Thirty-seven Rozanski-coached players have signed Major League contracts. When not coaching, Chuck scouts for the Cincinnati Reds.
An all-scholastic basketball player and captain of the 1922-23 Cathedral Latin High School team, Ray Zorman became a two-time (1926 and 1927) all-city and all-Ohio cage star at John Carroll University. In the ensuing eight years he played on three Muny League, two Northeastern Ohio AAU and one Industrial League championship teams in Cleveland. Also was an excellent baseball player, he played professionally for four seasons.
In 35 year as a track coach at Shaker Heights High School, Robert Rice never had a losing season, and was elected to the Ohio Track Hall of Fame in 1970. Bob officiated for 25 years in high school and college basketball, 40 years in track, and 17 seasons in football. During his 19 years as an NFL official, he worked the first Pro Bowl in 1950 and two Super Bowls. He has also served as Assistant Supervisor of NFL Officials.
One of Cleveland’s all-time great players, Al “Oppie” Dorenkott was a member of several of the city’s outstanding teams that won numerous Muny League titles in the 1920s and early 1930s. He was invited to join the famous Rosenblum-Celtics team in 1932, but declined. A guard, Oppie excelled in rebounding and was a superior play maker.
A gifted athlete at Cleveland East High School, John Olszewski starred for the Union Trust Bank basketball team which dominated the Cleveland amateur basketball scene in the 1920s, winning league, city, inter-city and national titles. An outstanding scorer and exceptionally fast, he later played professionally with the Rosenblum-Celtics. John was also a talented bowler and sandlot baseball standout.
Eddie Finnigan was an all-around athletic standout at Cleveland John Adams High School and Western Reserve University. He starred in three sports at WRU, achieving his greatest success in basketball, where he was a first team Little All-American. Eddie also earned Little All-American honors in football and starred in track, and garnered new fame as the head track coach at Baldwin-Wallace College, where he produced Olympic champion Harrison Dillard.
After starring with several Cleveland amateur league teams, Willie Smith was signed by the New York Renaissance in 1932 and played with them through the 1941-42 season. He started for the 1935 Rens team which set a pro record by winning 88 straight games, was picked as the top player on the 1937-38 team and played on the first World’s Professional Championship team in 1939. Willie was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1964.