Special Story by Huck

Special

Story by Huck

(Too good to be buried in Memorable Moments)

---

By Ed "Huck" Palmer

My most memorable moment dates back about fifteen

years ago. I was a senior at West Catholic High School for boys. The basketball coach at the time was Joe Donahue. For those of you who don't know Joe, let's just say he can become excited at times. Prior to the start of basketball season, Joe had found out about my obsession with stats. He approached me, asked if I would be the manager for the basketball team for the upcoming season. I told him that I was not interested in being the manager, but since I went to most of the games I would sit in the stands with my boyz and keep the stats for him. That's basically all he wanted anyway. I had been keeping stats of Sixers, Big Five basketball, the

Phillies, and the Eagles off the television since my grade school days at St. Barnabas in Southwest Philly. My theory: Why wait for the paper the next day to see the stats, when I can have them at my disposal right after the game. However, those expereinces were for fun and I was pretty much the only one who would read them. Doing the stats for West basketball, now that was a challenge. The pace at live games was frantic, no replays or commentators to help you out. On top of that, other people would be reading them. I had to be running on all cylinders. After wetting my beak (I stole that line from Godfather I, my

favorite movie of all-time) with a couple of controlled scrimmages it was time for the real deal in the big house (The Burrdome). I believe the game was on a Thursday and Episcopal was the opponent. On Monday, Mr. Donahue informed me that he had arranged for somebody from the Daily News to sit with me and show me the ropes. Also, this person would be able to answer any questions I may have about keeping stats. Can you feel the pressure mounting? After hearing this, one name came to my mind, Ted Silary. See I

read the sports pages for hours and I played soccer and baseball for the Burrs. So Ted's name was quite familiar to me. Though I had never met him. For the next two days I took all the preparations needed, in order to make my debut a success. Besides, a guy from the Daily News was coming to help me, it had to be Ted. Right? Thurday afternoon, I had Mr. Donahue for 7th period English, and

the second I walked in his room he got in my face. Are you ready, my lad? Do you have all the stuff you need, son? Today's a big one, gotta be sharp. In those days if I said 25 words in three hours I was blabbing. "Yeah, I'll be all right, Mr. D." School has ended and only an hour remains until I'm thrown to the wolves. On top of that, Ted Silary will be here. I stayed in the coaches' room with Mr. D and waited for him to head into the gym. After his pre-game talk with his players he sent them out to run layups. He then had a talk with his assistants. When he was through, I was standing only three feet from him. He blurted out, "Where's Eddie? Where did he go?" I'm right next to you Mr. D. "Let's go son, I want you to meet my man from the Daily News before the game starts." As we walked into gym Mr. D. said, "Good, he's here." We started

to walk across the floor and as we got closer to this man, who was the only one in that area, I said to myself, "Ted doesn't look how I pictured him to look." Mr. Donahue said the man's name so fast I couldn't really hear him. The next two hours were the most bizarre of my life. Ted didn't

say much, and he kept pretty much to himself. I figured he must be nervous, because he had gotten more than a few streaks of ink on his face during the game. Imagine that, I'm intimidating the high school sports guru Ted Silary. Also, I figured Ted must have been working on a deadline of some sorts. He seemed a little disheviled, and wore pants really high. I asked him a few questions, but his answers didn't come across clear to me. But, man could he keep stats. During the game he would state everything that happened. For instance, "#12 shot, #42 offensive rebound and shot, #33 defensive rebound, you get that?". This went on for what seemed like hours. When the game had ended, I thanked him, he replied,"Yeah, see ya." I shook it off and just thought he had to get to that deadline. After the game, Mr. Donahue came up to me asked how things went. I told him ok. "Was my man from the Daily News a help?" I said, "Sort of."

"Did he teach you anything?" I said, "Yeah, a little." Mr. Donahue said, "He's

a character, isn't he?" "He sure is." I asked him, how long he's worked at the Daily News. He replied,

"Ah, he's been helping Teddy out for years." "Wait, that wasn't Ted, Mr. D?" "No, that was his helper, Hockey." "Oh, what's his real name?" "I think it's Tom McKenna, but everybody calls him either Hockey or Puck." As long as I live I'll never forget the Thursday afternoon I spent with my man, Tom "Puck/Hockey" McKenna.

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RESPONSES TO HUCK'S STORY

Absolutely hilarious!!!!! The sad thing is

that I remember the whole story. Reminds me of the time that I had the honor of sitting

next to "Hockey" @ Roman when I was doing the book for West. You know how it is,

9 people squeezed onto the 6 foot table at center court, with the draft creeping up your

back. He got so excited after a follow-up jam by Allen Watkins, that he knocked his

glasses off....."I sorry"......no problem.

---- Bill Bethel

After reading Huck's story I have just one

thing to say: "Only in the Catholic League."

---- Jon, FLC '96

Ted: I just wanted to comment

on "Huck's Special Story". My name is Matt McCauley, "Lefty's"

son and Huck's best friend. Huck failed to mention that his statistical experience

actually started with him keeping stats of his own full court NERF basketball games in his

living room. He was the only participant yet he had stats of all ten players on "his

court" IN HIS HEAD! This was all done with play-by-play supplied by none other

than...HIM! The kid is nuts. Actually, he's amazing as you know from his work

and his commentary.

---- Matt "Cauls" McCauley, West Catholic '89

(Ted's note: "Lefty" continues to be a big influence in

Huck's life. As does Matt. I named Matt's dad "Lefty" because I thought he

looked like Steve Carlton.)

I will add to the madness that we have come to

know as Huck. Its Friday night.....we are all bachelors and it is time to go out and give

it our best shot with the ladies. The only problem is the Sixers have a Friday night date

with Golden State with a tip off time of 10:30 p.m. That meant Huck was glued to the

television set, keeping his stats until atleast 12:30 a.m while his boys sat patiently

with Budweisers in hand. This cut into our "lady time" as young studs, and is

probably the sole reason Huck could not get a date until he reached the ripe old age of

25. This is for all to envision: A young Huck (21) seated in front of the T.V. wearing his

old West Catholic Soccer Jersey with book and pencil in hand clicking back and forth

from one sporting event to the next, trying to capture every stat possible. Its 12:30

a.m., the Sixers defeat a pitiful Golden State team, we are complaining to Huck he wasted

our Friday night and all Huck can respond with is, "Christian Welp had 12 points and

8 rebounds and Steve Colter only had 2 turnovers."

---- Frank Stassel

(Ted's note: Frank was a star baseball player at West Catholic. With a smile, we'll tell

you we won't get into what happened when he played at La Salle.)

I have the pleasure of calling Huck one of my friends. Not only

is he a great stat keeper, he is a very good athlete of his own and to top it off a great

human being. I have played on numerous teams with Huck from little league baseball to high

school soccer to men's league basketball and he even keeps statistics on these games. I

don't know where he ever became hooked on keeping stats, but he even made up sports. We

(the boyz, as he calls us) would play night wireball on Theodore Street in Southwest

Philadelphia until close to midnight. I still have fond memories of the fence that

has left some scars. Then there was a game that combined street hockey, basketball, and

lacrosse only it was played without sticks. The people that share the driveway between

Theodore Street and Buist Avenue will never forget it. ---- Dave Bertoline (Ted's note: "Bert" was a four-sport star at West;

football kicker, soccer, basketball, baseball).

HUCK