Class of 1978 (Inducted March 10, 1978)
John Ambrose '32 - Men's Basketball, Football
Like many Catholic University football players in the 1920s and ’30s, John Ambrose was talented enough to play in the NFL. The 6-foot, 185-pounder anchored the Cardinals’ offensive line as center for three years (1929-31) and was a captain in football and basketball.
Known as “Whitey” because of his blond locks, Ambrose’s blocking helped Tommy Whelan become the most celebrated running back in school history. And like most players in that era, he also played defense. Here’s how CUA’s student newspaper, The Tower, described him after his sophomore year:
“Ambrose was a center of the roving type, a lion on the defense, accurate at snapping the ball back and a hard tackler, while his speed made him effective at breaking up forward passing attacks.”
Ambrose came to the university from Worcester, Mass., and played under three of the greatest coaches in Cardinal history: Fred Rice (basketball), Eddie LaFond (freshman football and legendary boxing coach) and Dutch Bergman (football).
Ambrose was so highly respected by his gridiron teammates that they elected him captain as a junior, an almost unheard of honor in those days. He declined the position so a senior could take it.
During Ambrose’s final year (1931), the Cards bounced back from an opening loss to Boston College to finish 8-1. The victorious march included wins over N.C. State (12-7) and Duquesne (20-12), the latter coached by former Notre Dame coach and NFL commissioner Elmer Layden. In 1935, The Tower selected Ambrose first-team center on the all-time CUA football team.
The 1932 Cardinal yearbook said Ambrose’s “prowess on the athletic field eclipsed all other accomplishments during his four years with us. He has been the ‘Rock of Gibraltar’ of the Cardinals front line, a fact which is supported by sportswriters who picked him as the All-District center during his three years of varsity football.”
The Cardinal described his guard play on the basketball team thusly: “The actions of this platinum flash will linger long in the memories of C.U. basketball followers.”
Ambrose played six games on special teams in 1932 for the NFL’s Brooklyn Dodgers and was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He coached football at Commerce High in Worcester and attended the 1986 ceremony dedicating the CUA Hall of Fame. He was 85 when he died in 1995.
Rocco Blasi '31 - Football, Baseball, Boxing
Rocco Blasi was such a good boxer that he once defeated two opponents … in one night. He also excelled in baseball and football, the latter a sport he didn’t even play in high school. Blasi came to Catholic University from St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark, N.J., where he played baseball and ran cross-country. He picked up football as a Cardinal junior and played like it had long been part of his life. The CUA end scooped up a blocked punt in his first game and ran for a 40-yard touchdown. In his next contest, he caught a scoring pass. In 1931 he also played quarterback and helped the Cards go from 1-8 to 8-1.
Blasi, as a senior boxing captain, was 6-0 with two knockouts. It was against Temple that he won consecutive bouts. In his middleweight encounter, he dropped his opponent twice in the second round and won by decision. CUA’s student newspaper, The Tower, described him connecting “with a series of jarring left and right hand blows.”
After helping the Temple fighter to his corner, Blasi returned to his rather climb through the ropes. The 5-foot-9, 160-pounder then proceeded to fight against a 175-pound opponent in the light-heavyweight division. The bout was fairly even until Blasi finished the third and final round with a flurry and was declared the winner. He received a five-minute standing ovation and, according to The Tower: “Some of the wildest cheering ever to resound in spacious Brookland Gymnasium broke out, the crowd paying due homage to an athlete who had accomplished an ‘iron man’s’ stunt by winning two successive victories in one night, one over a man who was entirely out of his class.”
Blasi played freshman baseball and then two years on the varsity, hitting .347 as a senior shortstop. He left school toting the Harris Cup, CUA’s highest honor for a senior male athlete. “There could not be a more fitting name than Rock to give this youth who has literally been a tower of strength, a very Gibraltar to the football team, the boxing squad and the baseball nine. He has become a three-letter man who has won our hearts as surely as he has won his ‘C.’” – 1931 Cardinal yearbook.
William Byrne '28 - Baseball, Football, Boxing
Bill Byrne received his nickname, “Battler,” from boxing but his first love was baseball. He could do pretty good battle there, too.
In 1926 he pitched a 5-4 complete-game victory over national power Yale, a team that usually had its way with the Cardinals. The Redbirds scored five times in the bottom of the ninth to win. “A great deal of the credit for the win goes to Byrne for his great exhibition of hurling,” according to Catholic University’s student newspaper, The Tower. “The Yale players came here with a reputation for slugging but Battler let them down with only six hits and though they scored four runs, only one of them was an earned run. Byrne seemed to be the strongest in the pinches and several times retired the side with one or two men on base.”
Byrne that same year threw a five-hitter in a 6-3 win over West Virginia. In a 9-8 victory over Delaware in 1927, he pitched hitless ball for the first five innings and knocked in the winning run with a one-out single in the ninth. He also shut out Syracuse, 3-0, in 1927, allowing eight hits and walking one.
Byrne, who hailed from New York and went to high school in Danvers, Mass., was on the first boxing team at CUA in 1925. The lightweight helped the squad punctuate the following season with a 4-3 victory over Virginia Tech before 4,000 fans at sold-out Brookland Gymnasium. He secured the win in the third and final round with a couple of body blows and a number of head shots that left his opponent groggy.
Byrne became captain in 1927, and The Tower described him prior to the first bout as “one of the cleverest boxers that ever wore a pair of padded mittens for C.U.” In a victory that season over Washington and Lee’s captain, he closed his opponent’s left eye early in the first round and cruised to victory. After helping the team defeat Fordham his senior year, he had to give up the sport to concentrate on his studies. Primarily a reserve end in football, he caught a 50-yard touchdown in a 53-0 spanking of Blue Ridge in 1926.
Hugh Flynn '33 - Football, Men's Track & Field, Men's Basketball, Boxing
Hugh “Bingo” Flynn of Worcester, Mass., was selected by CUA’s student newspaper, The Tower, to two early all-time CUA athletic teams (football and track). He also competed in basketball two seasons and boxed a year.
Flynn played freshman football under Eddie LaFond, the legendary Cardinal boxing coach and athletic director. In his first year on the varsity (1930), he found himself playing on the offensive and defensive lines for CUA’s all-time winningest football coach, Dutch Bergman. After a 1-8 debut, Flynn helped the Cardinals to a 14-2-1 ledger over the next two seasons. Included among the team’s success was a school-record 11-game winning streak. The Cardinals outscored their opponents, 320-45, during the run. Flynn’s blocking helped classmate Tommy Whelan – the greatest running back in school history – attain All-American status. The 1932 Cards went 6-1-1, and Flynn’s defensive work was instrumental in CUA allowing only 21 points all year, including five shutouts.
“Possessed of a physique of one hundred and ninety-five pounds of bone and muscle, he is a delight to the eye of the most critical sculptor. To Coach Bergman he has shown himself as a tower of strength in his position on the line as tackle, and his absence from the varsity next year will leave a vacancy which will be hard to fill.” – 1933 Cardinal yearbook.
Flynn was chosen one of two second-team guards when The Tower compiled its All-Time Football Team in 1935. The Cardinals at that point had been putting a team on the gridiron for 40 years. In 1941, Flynn appeared on the newspaper’s All-Time Track Team, one of three men chosen for throwing the discus 132 feet. He was also a shot putter and president of the Class of 1933.
Flynn worked for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., and in 1943 was elected president of the Washington, D.C., chapter of the CUA Alumni Association. He was a member of the D.C. Touchdown Club’s Board of Governors and president of the Football Officials’ Association of Washington, as well as a member of the Knights of Columbus.
Vincent Fraatz '33 - Football, Men's Track & Field
Vinnie Fraatz, of Clifton Heights, Pa., was one of the finest track and football stars in Catholic University history. His athletic prowess was fully recognized in 1933 when he won a CUA senior male athlete’s highest honor, the Harris Cup. “In every group of men there are leaders, men outstanding for mental abilities, men pre-eminent in physical qualities, men who are men; and so the Class of ’33 presents Vincent Herbert Fraatz as its best student, athlete, and gentleman. Uniquely the Philadelphian heads his department in the school of engineering, achieved fame as the greatest football end and greatest all-round track star in C.U. history, and was so modest, unassuming and upright throughout his four years that his biography reads as Merriwellian fiction.” – 1933 Cardinal yearbook.
Fraatz, who caught a 45-yard touchdown in a 60-0 victory over American in 1930, made his biggest impact on defense. He was chosen All-District his final two years (1931-32) and helped the squad post a 14-2-1 record. The 1932 Cards gave up just 21 points in eight games and recorded five shutouts. He was named to the Cardinals’ all-time football team in 1935. “Vinnie Fraatz is, beyond a doubt, the finest end in the history of C.U. football,” the school’s student newspaper, The Tower, proclaimed in 1935. “He was a deadly tackler and a greyhound in speed.”
Fraatz and fellow CUA Hall of Famers Tommy Whelan and Bus Sheary represented the South in a 1932 North-South All-Star game in Baltimore.
“Vinnie Fraatz has no equal hereabouts,” The Tower said. “His keen football sense enabled him, time and again, to break up opposition plays by beautiful and well-timed tackles. There are few men that ever eluded the tenacious Vinnie, once he got within tackling distance of them. His speed in getting down the field under punts, his ability to snag and break up passes, and his all-around good sportsmanship, make his selection a wise one.”
CUA Track Coach Dorsey Griffith considered Fraatz to be his finest all-around performer. He set three Brookland Stadium records – in the 120-yard high hurdles, 220-yard low hurdles and the high jump. In 1931 he was high point scorer in all but one competition. In the second Catholic University Games indoor track meet that year, he led the Cardinals to victory over “such outstanding outfits” as Navy, Lafayette and Maryland. The triumph also gave the Cards the District AAU championship.
After graduating in 1933 with a degree in civil engineering, Fraatz coached ends on the Cardinals’ 1936 Orange Bowl-winning team.
Wilfred Howell '28 - Football, Men's Track & Field, Boxing
Bill Howell was a two-sport star who helped lead the revival of track at Catholic University as a freshman in 1925 and later played in the NFL.
“He appeared on the track and his wonderful stride, coupled with plenty of speed, won him a place on the mile relay team that represented the school at the Penn Relays and took third prize,” according to a March 1927 article in CUA’s student newspaper, The Tower. “He also took part in all the other meets held at home and gave some great running exhibitions.”
Howell, born in Bath, Canada on April 21, 1904, attended Cony High School in Augusta, Maine. He played end on the Cardinals’ 1924 freshman football team, which did not allow a touchdown all season. The following year he helped the varsity go 4-4, winning each game by shutout.
In 1927 the senior played in the East’s first night football game, a 12-0 victory at William & Mary. The club’s 5-3 mark was its first winning season in 12 years. CUA punctuated the campaign with a 27-21 victory over crosstown rival George Washington on Thanksgiving Day before 15,000 fans at Brookland Stadium. It was the first Homecoming game in school history.
“Whatever he did, he did well and in the doing gave the best that was in him,” according to the 1928 Cardinal yearbook. “With a tenacious, iron-bound, manly courage, Bill has accomplished many a victory on the athletic field, in the classroom, and, what is more important, on the field of honor.” The 5-foot-11, 175-pound Howell played end for the NFL’s Boston Bulldogs in 1929. He appeared in four games (one start) for the team, which finished 4-4 and folded before the next season. In the spring of 1926, The Tower said Howell “again was a member of the relay team that, this time, took second place at the Penn tourney. He also took several first places in home meets and won his letter.” In recognition of his success, experience and leadership, Coach Jiggs Donohue named him captain his junior year. Donohue had restarted the track team two years prior.
Howell married Patrice Rice, daughter of the Cardinals’ second-winningest basketball coach and fellow CUA Hall of Famer, Fred Rice. Their granddaughter, Sharon Hodges Repass, was the first woman inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame.
Howell was appointed the first national secretary of the CUA Alumni Association and was head of the university’s Business Office. He died in Washington, D.C., on August 23, 1981 at 77.
John Jankowski '34 - Men's Basketball, Men's Golf, Football, Football Coach
“Jan” Jankowski, for two seasons (1931-32) played in arguably the finest backfield in Catholic University football history. The right halfback teamed with fellow CUA Hall of Fames Buster Sheary (fullback) and Tommy Whelan (left halfback). When Jankowski graduated in 1934, the Cardinal yearbook said: “For although an outstanding athlete during all four years of his college career, he is much more than that; he is a well-rounded, polished gentleman who has not cultivated sports to the detriment of his intellectual and moral progress.”
Jankowski came to CUA from St. Peter’s High School in Worcester, Mass., following in Sheary’s footsteps. He began by playing freshman football and basketball. In 1932, he was chosen captain of the school’s first golf team, and as a senior, was elected football captain. “Briefly may we summarize our impression of him – a student, an athlete, a leader and one worthy of the title – gentleman,” the 1934 Cardinal said.
In his three years on the varsity football team (1931-33) under legendary coach Dutch Bergman, the Redbirds posted a record of 20-5-2 (.808). The 1931 club was 8-1 and stretched a school-record 11-game winning streak into the following season. The 1932 edition finished 6-1-1, giving up just 21 points and recording five shutouts. Jankowski caught a 30-yard touchdown pass in one of the biggest victories that year, a 19-0 win over Chattanooga. The Mocs were three-time reigning Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association champions.
Jankowski scored two TDs in the 1932 Cardinals’ season-opening 47-0 victory over CCNY. In a 14-6 win over Wake Forest, he scored the first TD on an 8-yard run and set up a fourth-quarter TD with a 15-yard jaunt to the 1. Defensively, according to CUA’s student newspaper, The Tower, Jankowski and Whelan “… displayed a fine pass defense when they repeatedly batted many Deacon passes to the ground …” Jankowski also found the end zone in the 1933 season opener, a 37-6 rout of La Salle. He scored both TDs in a 12-0 victory over Wake Forest in Raleigh, N.C. Again, the 1934 Cardinal: “To his power, drive and keen foresight may be attributed much of the glory of the Cardinal season.”
Jankowski also played basketball four years and golf two. He later coached the Cardinal football team for two seasons (1949-50).
John Malevich '30 - Football, Men's Swimming & Diving, Men's Track & Field, Boxing
Jack Malevich was the first Catholic University football player named All-American and one of its best boxers. He captained the track team for two years and was football and boxing captain as a senior.
Malevich was born on July 24, 1906 in Eveleth, Minn. He graduated from Eveleth High School in 1924, then attended Eveleth Junior College and St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wis. He ventured across country to CUA in 1926, no easy feat in the days before Interstate highways. The 5-foot-11, 185-pounder played fullback, punter, place kicker and linebacker for the Cardinals. The Pittsburgh Press, in its Nov. 8, 1929 edition, called him a “kicking wonder.”
In the second game of his junior year (1928), a 69-0 victory over American, Malevich scored two touchdowns and made 7 of 8 extra points. He suffered a severe ankle injury two games later against William & Mary and sat out the next four contests. He returned to rush for a TD in a 40-8 Thanksgiving Day and Homecoming victory over George Washington. CUA’s student newspaper, The Tower, said his play before 8,000 spectators was “…an outstanding performance of line smashing, kicking and defensive play that topped all of his previous remarkable exhibitions.” Malevich was one of four Cardinals named to The Tower’s All-District team.
In the Cards’ 13-6 loss to Boston College at Fenway Park in 1929, Malevich tied the game at 6 on a 70-yard interception return. The Boston Post called him the best player on the field:“He ran brilliantly, did a large part of the interference, and made almost half the tackles on his side. All in all, there will not be many smarter backs to show in this vicinity for some days yet.” The national acclaim Malevich received after the game likely went a long way towards his selection as an honorable mention All-American. Four coaches chose the honorees, including the legendary Knute Rockne and Pop Warner. Malevich was named to The Tower’s first-team all-time CUA football team in 1935. According to the 1930 Cardinal yearbook: “When we needed those last few difficult yards, it was always Jack on whom we depended to put it over, and when we, in turn, had our backs against the wall, it was again Jack who turned back the enemy with his vicious tackling just behind the line.”
Boxing Prowess
In addition to being captain of the boxing team his senior year, Malevich was also manager, meaning he set the CUA schedule. He fought in the light-heavyweight, heavyweight and unlimited divisions. In a 1929 match before 4,500 fans at Brookland Gymnasium, a 5-2 triumph over Temple, he knocked his opponent down twice en route to victory. In a 4-3 win at Washington and Lee, he won by technical knockout. He was the Cards’ only winner in a 6-1 loss at NYU. As a senior, despite fighting part of the season with a broken thumb, he was undefeated. The 1930 Cardinal said: “He won the majority of his bouts and demonstrated that he is to be included among the best collegiate light-heavyweights in the country.” The publication went to say, “Power and dependability have characterized Jack Malevich in his four years with us. These qualities and his good-natured disposition have combined to make him the most popular man on campus. “He deserves to be ranked with the greatest athletes that C.U. has produced.”
Top Athlete & Student
Malevich was on the swimming team as a freshman and competed in field events in track, including high jump, shot put and javelin. He was the school’s Harris Cup recipient in 1930, still CUA’s most prestigious award for senior male student-athletes. He graduated with honors. After his Harris Cup selection by a vote of the student body, The Tower said:
“He has attacked his classroom activities with the same fierce determination that has marked his success in other endeavors, and he has been just as successful in the pursuit of knowledge as he has been in the field of sport.”
After College
From 1931-33, Malevich was the first head football coach at St. Norbert College. For nine years beginning in 1934 at Eveleth Junior College, he coached basketball and track, taught and was director of physical education. He enlisted in the Navy in July 1943 and was discharged in 1946 as a lieutenant commander. During that time he coached the Fleet City Blue Jackets football team at a Navy base south of San Francisco.
Malevich returned to his hometown, and from 1946-50, was a coach and athletic director at Eveleth High School and Junior College. He coached football, baseball and track at the high school from 1950-55. According to his son, John Malevich, Jr., he left a lasting impression on the boys he coached. “He helped a lot of kids in this town,” Malevich said from his home in Eveleth in October 2012. “Even today a lot of people still feel his impact. I think that was his greatest asset – reaching a lot of kids in our school. He did a great job at it.”
Malevich also officiated football, baseball, boxing and basketball, and judged a Minnesota state lightweight title fight in 1953. When he lived on the West Coast, he worked as a referee for the Harlem Globetrotters. His son said he is the last man to referee five straight Minnesota state high school basketball tournaments. In 1976, the Minnesota High School Football Coaches Association inducted Malevich into its Hall of Fame. He served as mayor of Eveleth from 1978-80. The Minnesota Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association presented him its Distinguished Alumni Award in 1989. A year later he was inducted into its Hall of Fame.
Malevich was good friends with NFL Hall of Famer Bronko Nagurski and Max Winter, a former co-owner of the Minneapolis Lakers and Minnesota Vikings. He died in Eveleth on Sept. 15, 1996 at age 90.
Eugene Murphy '30 - Football, Baseball, Boxing
Gene Murphy battled major injuries throughout his Catholic University playing career and even changed his throwing motion to continue playing quarterback and pitcher. The 1930 Cardinal yearbook said: “Game after game we have watched him play in great pain, but with no thought of being relieved; no lessening of his indomitable determination to conquer all obstacles.”
The 5-foot-11 Murphy, a native of Manchester, N.H., was captain of the freshman baseball team and also boxed that spring in the 160-pound class. After suffering a severely pulled muscle in his right (throwing) arm while warming up to pitch his sophomore year, he found the only way to throw a football or baseball without pain was by using a sidearm delivery. His boxing career was over.
Murphy’s greatest success came on the gridiron. During his first year on varsity, he helped lead the 1927 team to a 5-3 mark for its first winning season in 12 years. CUA punctuated the campaign with a 27-21 victory over crosstown rival George Washington on Thanksgiving Day before 15,000 fans at Brookland Stadium. Murphy scored on a 90-yard interception return.That he played at all that game was a testament to his grit and fortitude. While on the team’s season-opening trip to play William & Mary, he sustained a slight femoral hernia and was hospitalized in Richmond, Va., for several days. He didn’t miss any games and had surgery to repair the injury that December.
The Cardinals also defeated GW in their other two season-ending contests, 40-8 in 1928 and 48-6 his senior year.
In the 1928 encounter, Murphy was cited by CUA’s student newspaper, The Tower, for being a “quadruple threat” – running, passing, kicking and receiving. He got the Cardinals on the scoreboard first with a fourth-down touchdown pass to fellow Hall of Famer Jim Schmidt. The pair also hooked up on a 40-yard reception and a 30-yard TD.
The Tower said it was Murhpy’s “splendid courage, the kind that causes a man to risk permanent injury in order to remain in the lineup and help win victory that has won for him a place in the heart of every C.U. man, past and present. “Catholic University may have had greater football players than Gene Murphy, but it is a safe bet that it never had a gamer one.”
John Oliva '32 - Men's Basketball, Baseball, Football, Men's Track & Field, Boxing
Johnny Oliva competed in all five major sports Catholic University offered in the late 1920s, early 1930s. More amazingly, he played them all as a sophomore (1929-30), the only CUA athlete ever to accomplish such a feat. “One of the finest athletes ever to represent Catholic University!,” the 1932 Cardinal yearbook proclaimed. “That is the fitting tribute we pay Johnny Oliva, who for four years has won the acclaim and applause of both sports-writers and fans. We may let the sport pages of this annual give evidence of his extraordinary versatility.”
Oliva enjoyed a stellar career at Fitchburg (Mass.) High School. He starred on the 1925-26 basketball team that defeated five teams in Chicago and was proclaimed “National Basketball Champions.” He also played football, baseball and ran track. His final football team was 9-1 and outscored its opponents, 278-7.
When Oliva was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2007, his presenter said: “Old timers will tell you that the very finest athlete of [the 1920s] was an Italian-American kid who grew up on Haywood Street by the name of Johnny Oliva.”
At CUA, Oliva played forward in basketball, was a high jumper in track and played quarterback in football. In 1935 and 1937, the school’s student newspaper, The Tower, named him second-team quarterback on CUA’s all-time football team. His coach his final two years was Arthur “Dutch” Bergman, who in 1919 played in the same backfield with George Gipp at Notre Dame.
A guard from that team, Hunk Anderson, became Notre Dame’s coach in 1931 after Rockne’s tragic death in an airplane accident. Anderson was so impressed with Oliva’s quarterbacking skills that he called him “one of the greatest passers I have ever seen play.” Oliva’s career came to an end his senior year when he broke his ankle in a 20-12 victory over Duquesne. The Cardinals won their final eight games to finish 8-1, then the school record for victories in a season.
Oliva coached the Fitchburg High basketball team from 1939 to 1966 – except for a few years during World War II – and earned more than 300 victories. His 1956-57 club was 14-1 during the regular season and drew its first invitation to the Western Massachusetts Tournament in nearly a decade.
Oliva died Oct. 1, 1978 at age 70.
James Schmidt '29 - Men's Basketball, Football
Jimmie Schmidt overcame sickness and injuries to become one of Catholic University’s finest running backs in the 1920s. He was named captain his senior year and posed his biggest threat catching the ball.
After playing at Loyola College as a freshman in his hometown of Baltimore, Schmidt transferred to CUA and played fullback, halfback and defensive back. As a sophomore in 1926, he had a 60-yard run in the Cardinals’ 17-9 Thanksgiving Day victory over George Washington. CUA’s student newspaper, The Tower, said his dash came “… after having stiff-armed the entire secondary defense into submission.” The game, which the Cards trailed, 17-9, was played on campus at Brookland Stadium before 12,000 fans. The next year, Schmidt caught a 15-yard touchdown pass from fellow CUA Hall of Famer Ray Foley in a 13-0 victory over St. John’s (N.Y.).
Schmidt helped the 1928 Cardinals rally from an early 13-0 deficit to win, 21-13, over his former school, Loyola. The Tower described his contribution thusly: “The burrowings of Captain Schmidt and his fine defensive play was the outstanding feature of the Cardinal rally.” Schmidt scored two TDs in a 69-0 whitewash of American, including a 40-yard reception. In the final game of his career, a 40-8 Homecoming victory over George Washington, he used his running and receiving ability to catch two six-pointers from Gene Murphy and set up four others. Included among his receptions were 20-, 40- and 30-yarders, the latter for the Cards’ final tally.The Tower called it “… the best game of his career. Crashing into the line, and being on the receiving end of several passes, he put his team in a scoring position on several occasions.” “Schmidt carried the ball through the line, around the ends and through broken fields with uncanny skill,” the front page of the paper declared. “His greatest attribute was sprinting to unguarded spots and grabbing passes over his shoulder while on the dead run.”
When Schmidt, who also played two years of varsity basketball (1926-28), graduated in 1929, The Cardinal yearbook said he “will go down in history as one of the best plungers ever turned out by Coach [Jack] McAuliffe. “If his ability on the gridiron is any indication of his worth in other lines, nothing but a tip-top place will be his attainment.”
Lester Sheary '33 - Men's Basketball, Baseball, Football
Before Lester Sheary coached two future NBA Hall of Famers, he was a star football and basketball player at Catholic University. The student who penned these words about him for the 1933 Cardinal yearbook had it right: “We have no advance information regarding his activities in the future, but it is certain that the qualities of leadership and dogged perseverance to a cause, plus his thoroughly likeable personality, will assure for him a definite and certain place in the scheme of things.”
Sheary, better known as “Buster,” came to CUA from St. Peter’s High School in Worcester, Mass., in 1929. His leadership skills were apparent from the beginning as he was selected captain of the freshman football and basketball teams. Once he moved up to varsity under new head coach Dutch Bergman, he and classmates Tommy Whelan and Jan Jankowski eventually formed one of the most formidable backfields in college football and Cardinal history. All three are CUA Hall of Famers.
In addition to playing fullback and linebacker, Sheary punted and kicked extra points, and won the team’s inaugural Most Valuable Player Award in 1930. Bergman, also the school’s athletic director, summed up why he established the honor: “The award is to be presented annually to the most valuable player. The medal is not only indicative of ability, but is significant of loyalty, cooperation, unselfishness, courage and devotion to a cause. It entails playing the game according to the rules, observing the finer spirit of sportsmanship, fighting with an unconquerable spirit, and realizing with every act that the deed is the measure of the man.”
In 1931, after an opening loss to Boston College, the Cards won their final eight games and added three more victories the next season for a school-record 11-game winning streak. Sheary, primarily a blocker for Whelan and Jankowski, complemented Whelan’s dazzling open-field runs with plunges on short-yardage situations.
In a 25-6 victory over St. Francis (Pa.), Sheary, according to CUA’s student newspaper, The Tower,, “did the ‘iron man stunt’ by playing the whole game, giving one of the finest exhibitions ever seen in the District. He was in every play, backing up the line on the defense and taking a few turns at hitting the line when a few yards were needed by the Cardinals.”
Bergman selected Sheary to captain the Cards in a charity football game against Alabama at Washington’s Griffith Stadium on Dec. 12, 1931. The 9-1 Crimson Tide actually played three games that day – each consisting of two, 10-minute halves – against George Washington, CUA and Georgetown. The Cardinals lost their game, 7-0. Proceeds from the exhibition benefited the unemployed struggling during the Great Depression.
Sheary, also nicknamed “The Ripper,” was chosen captain of the 1932 squad by his teammates. The club finished 6-1-1, giving up just 21 points and recording five shutouts. One of its biggest victories was a 19-0 win over what is now known as the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, the three-time reigning Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association champion.
Following the game, The Tower was singing Sheary’s praise: “To Captain ‘Bus’ Sheary we must attribute a vast amount of glory as a prominent defensive factor throughout the afternoon. It was ‘Bus’ Sheary who, on many occasions, while playing defensive fullback” – (linebacker today) – “roamed behind the line of scrimmage and tore in at opportune moments to stop dead in their tracks the fast-stepping Chat. backs. “It was ‘Bus’ who plunged with determined efforts and much success to net many yards for the Red and Black during the game. Again it was this same old, grim, hard-working tiger backfield star that provided a lion’s share of the interference for his running mates.”
“A hard worker, a heady player and an inspiring leader,” The Washington Herald’s Al Costello wrote after the game. “That best describes Capt. Lester John Sheary, Catholic University’s invaluable captain.”
In their final college game, a 25-0 victory over Loyola (Md.) at Washington’s Griffith Stadium, Sheary and Whelan rushed for two touchdowns apiece. Both were selected to The Tower’s all-time Cardinal football first team in 1935.
Following the season, Sheary, Whelan and end Vinnie Fraatz – another CUA Hall of Famer – were selected All-South and played in an All-Star game in Baltimore.
Of Sheary, the school newspaper wrote, “His line-smashing drives and his line backing have been of All-American caliber. His ability as a leader on the field is exemplified by the wonderful record of the past season’s team which he captained. Who can dispute the selection?”
Basketball Star, Too
Sheary also excelled on the basketball court. In a 31-24 upset victory over George Washington in January 1931, he led all scorers with eight points. He was the “outstanding star” of the game, according to The Tower, and “pumped long range goals through the C.U. net every time the visitors came dangerously close to the C.U. total.” He finished the season leading the team in scoring with 118 points (47 field goals, 24 free throws).
As a senior, Sheary helped the Cardinals hold Maryland scoreless in the second half and overtime, turning a 27-10 halftime deficit into a 29-27 victory. The win prompted a 1933 Cardinal student to write: “Five C.U. men played the entire game, each giving all he had. But to Buster Sheary should go the credit for C.U.’s greatest victory in basketball since 1924. It was Bus who paced the club – cool and calm was the Ripper’s handling of the C.U. attack and defense. Whenever the Redbird five threatened to blow up, the Ripper cleverly took charge and brought them to earth.”
Sheary, who played guard and forward, helped the 1932-33 Redbirds post the team’s first winning season in five years. The Cards (10-4) punctuated their 8-0 home campaign with a 38-27 victory over Wake Forest. Sheary scored a game-high 15 points as CUA raced to a 25-5 lead. According to The Tower: “Sheary not only played a great role in the offensive end of the game but also was outstanding in defensive tactics, repeatedly taking the ball away from the opposing team.”
Coaching Future NBA Champions
After graduating from CUA in 1933, Sheary coached football and basketball at St. John’s and St. Peter’s high schools in Worcester. He served in the Navy during World War II and became an assistant basketball coach at Holy Cross in 1946. The Crusaders advanced to the eight-team NCAA Tournament that season and became the first New England program to win the National Championship.
Sheary became the team’s head coach in 1948 and led the club to a 19-8 record. Holy Cross won 20 or more games the next five seasons, highlighted by a 27-4 mark in 1949-50; a 24-4 record in 1951-52; and a 26-2 performance in 1953-54. The latter team was ranked third in the nation at season’s end by the Associated Press and captured the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) championship. The NIT of yesteryear was much more prestigious than it is today.
Sheary’s Crusaders advanced to two NCAA Tournaments (1950, ’53) and three NITs (1952, ’54, ’55). His seven-year record as head coach was 155-36 (.812).
Sheary coached three All-Americans at Holy Cross who went on to play for the Boston Celtics: Togo Palazzi and NBA Hall of Famers Tom Heinsohn and Bob Cousy. Heinsohn won eight NBA championships with Boston as a player and two as head coach. Cousy, one of the finest playmakers in NBA history, was chosen to the NBA’s 25th, 35th and 50th Anniversary Teams. He won six titles with the Celtics. Palazzi was Boston’s first-round draft choice in 1954. “I played for a great coach in Buster Sheary and got to play with Ron Perry and Tommy Heinsohn,” Palazzi told The Boston Globe in 2005. “We won the NIT Championship in 1954 and took part in three tournaments.”
Multiple Halls of Fame
After leaving his Crusader coaching duties, Sheary retained his job as assistant director of athletics for the Worcester Public Schools, a position he held for 41 years. He worked as an instructor at many of Cousy’s New Hampshire summer basketball camps and coached international goodwill teams. In 1975, Sheary was inducted into the Holy Cross Varsity Club Hall of Fame. It is one of six halls of fame to count him as a member.
Catholic University Connections
Sheary’s multiple connections to Catholic University are intriguing. Chick Gagnon, who coached him in three sports in high school, became the Cardinals’ head basketball coach for one season (1930-31), Sheary’s sophomore year. After Sheary coached Cousy at Holy Cross, Cousy went on to coach Jack Kvancz at Boston College. Kvancz was CUA’s head basketball coach from 1975-82 and was athletic director when Sheary was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame.
Mike Lonergan, now the head basketball coach at George Washington, led his Cardinal team to the Northeast Sectional championship at Worcester’s Clark University during the playoff run to the 2001 National Championship. Sheary was living in the city at the time.
Lonergan’s father, Jack, played baseball at Holy Cross during the time Sheary was head coach and helped the Crusaders win the 1952 College World Series. Sheary died at Holy Trinity Nursing Center in Worcester on Nov. 30, 2001. He was 93.
Thomas Whelan '33 - Men's Basketball, Baseball, Football
Tommy Whelan was one of college football’s most electrifying players in the 1930s and arguably the greatest running back in Catholic University history. The Washington Herald reported that Holy Cross Coach John McEwan called him CUA’s “George Gipp,” after the legendary Notre Dame running back who inspired Fighting Irish Coach Knute Rockne’s “Win One for the Gipper” speech.
The son of a Manhattan policeman and the youngest of five children, Whelan ventured south from New York’s All-Hallows High School, where he played football, baseball, basketball and ran track. In 1929, playing for the Cardinal freshman team – as all freshmen had to do in those days – “Moose” scored 40 points in six games.
Dutch Bergman, who played in the same Notre Dame backfield with Gipp, became CUA’s head coach the following year. But the Cards’ all-time winningest coach didn’t recognize Whelan’s elusive running ability at first. The 5-foot-11, 185-pounder didn’t start until game five against Duquesne. He finally caught Bergman’s eye by scoring a touchdown in each of the season’s final three games. His scoring jaunts averaged 56 yards.
Whelan’s touchdown streak continued throughout the 1931 season, a year in which the Cardinals posted one of the nation’s finest turnarounds, going from 1-8 to 8-1. In a 12-7 victory over N.C. State, he caught an 83-yard TD pass from Johnny Oliver and scored on a 65-yard interception. The next week, in a 20-12 victory at Duquesne, he found the end zone on a fourth-down, 30-yard gallop. The Dukes were coached by Elmer Layden, one of Notre Dame’s famed “Four Horsemen.” A week later, Whelan spurred CUA’s 19-6 triumph at Manhattan with a 76-yard TD run.
Whelan, who benefited greatly from fullback Buster Sheary’s blocking, scored 84 points his junior year (1931) to rank third in the East. He was chosen first-team All-District by five Washington, D.C., sportswriters, and the Baltimore Review named him to its All-Catholic Eastern Eleven.
The 1932 Cardinals were one of the most dominant teams in CUA history, going 6-1-1 with five shutouts. They outscored their opponents 123-21, with Whelan providing much of the offensive fireworks. In the season-opening 47-0 win at CCNY, he threw a 22-yard TD pass, had a 65-yard kickoff return and scored on a 10-yard run. The following week, the Cards welcomed reigning three-time Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association champion Chattanooga to Brookland Stadium. Any chance the Mocs had of winning was greatly diminished when Whelan rushed for an 87-yard TD on the game’s first play. CUA shut out what is now called the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, 19-0.
Whelan’s streak of scoring at least one touchdown reached 15 consecutive games before being stopped in an 8-0 setback at Holy Cross, the Cards’ only loss of the year. In their final college game, a 25-0 victory over Loyola (Md.) at Washington’s Griffith Stadium, Sheary and Whelan rushed for two touchdowns apiece. Both were selected to The Tower’s All-Time Cardinal football first team in 1935.
Whelan was the 1932 team MVP and an honorable mention All-American. According to the 1933 Cardinal yearbook: “During four years he has dominated C.U. football by his flashy, spectacular broken field running and has won several football games by his thrilling runs. He was a constant threat to any foe of this school.”
Following the season, Whelan, Sheary and end Vinnie Fraatz – fellow CUA Hall of Famers – were selected All-South and played in an All-Star game in Baltimore. CUA’s student newspaper, The Tower, said: “Tommy Whelan’s name alone is enough to justify [South Coach] Dick Harlow’s choice. In the three years he has worn the Red and Black he has built up a widespread recognition as one of the smoothest running backs that this vicinity has ever seen. He has helped materially to defeat some of the team’s most formidable opponents by his spectacular swivel-hipped dashes, tempered with a change of pace that is rarely seen.”
Coaching and Officiating
In 1933, Whelan played with the Pittsburgh Pirates (now Steelers) and became a close friend of Steelers owner Art Rooney. According to Tommy Whelan Jr., his father sustained a knee injury in that 1932 North-South All-Star game and aggravated it in the pros, eventually ending his career.
After coaching a season at Iona Prep in New Rochelle, N.Y., Whelan returned to CUA as a freshman football coach in 1935. He also coached varsity running backs that year for the Cardinals’ Orange Bowl-winning team.
Whelan eventually became an official in the All-America Football Conference, some of whose teams were absorbed by the NFL. In the 1948 Eastern divisional playoff game between the Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Colts, Whelan made a call that many Colts’ fans think cost its team the game. Some threw bottles on the field to protest, one of which struck him in the head.
According to The Washington Star-News, when a friend rushed up and asked Whelan if he was hurt, he said in his typical dead-pan humor, “No, it was a soft-drink bottle.” Tommy, Jr., who graduated from CUA’s Columbus School of Law in 1972, asked his father about the play. He said he responded, “‘More important than if it was a good call, it was an honest call. I called what I thought I saw.’”
Whelan, who also played basketball for two years at CUA and baseball for one, was president of the Touchdown Club in 1951 and member of its Hall of Fame. During World War II, because of his knee injury, he was exempt from military duty but was drafted to work for the War Department as a civilian. His boss was former Cardinal teammate Gene
Augusterfer.
Whelan and Bergman, who in 1943 led the Washington Redskins to a share of the NFL Eastern Division championship, owned a tavern together on 12th Street northeast, close to campus. From 1951-61, Whelan and former Georgetown basketball star Ben Zola owned Whelan’s, another tavern, which eventually became Whelan Liquors. The business still operates on 12th Street.
Whelan, active in the Democratic National Committee, became an advance man for John F. Kennedy in his 1960 campaign for president. In 1961, he became an administrative assistant to the chief of the U.S. Park Police. Two years later he was assigned to the Department of Commerce Congressional Liaison Office. He retired from the Federal Government in 1972.
Whelan married the former Harriett Dye in 1939. Their other son, Patrick, played football on Syracuse’s 1959 national championship team. Whelan died June 24, 1974. He was 63.
Edgar White '34 - Football, Men's Basketball, Men's Track & Field, Baseball
Eddie White had a knack for making big plays – in two sports. In football, White was a two-year starting center on offense and defense. As a senior in 1933, three Washington, D.C., newspapers named him All-District. His blocking helped running backs Tommy Whelan, Buster Sheary and Jan Jankowski run their way into the Catholic University Hall of Fame. During his three years on varsity, the Cardinals were a combined 20-5-2 (.808).
Defensively, White in 1931 had two interceptions apiece vs. CCNY and Gallaudet. Two years later, he intercepted a pass on the Chattanooga 35-yard line that led to the Red and Black’s third touchdown in a 25-0 victory. In the season opener that season, a 37-6 win over La Salle, he turned in one of the greatest defensive performances in school history. Coach Dutch Bergman said he “played a 100 percent game.” “When La Salle passed us dizzy during that first half it was Eddie who stepped in,” Bergman told CUA’s student newspaper, The Tower. “And when you consider … his five interceptions of menacing aerials, you can realize just how valuable that kid really is.”
“Upon the gridiron Eddie will be remembered for his offensive and defensive strength at the center post,” the 1934 Cardinal yearbook said. “Particularly to us in future years will arise the memory of his uncanny ability against an aerial attack.”
White, of Philadelphia, Pa., played guard in basketball and led the freshman team in scoring. As a sophomore he was the second-leading scorer in Washington. Two years later, he was elected captain and named All-District. As a junior, White’s shot from beyond halfcourt with 15 seconds to go gave the Cards a 48-47 victory at Loyola (Md.). CUA, trailing 47-42 with two minutes left, withstood two final Greyhound shots to win and close out the 1932-33 season 10-4. He finished with 13 points.
The next year, White nailed the game-winning shot from halfcourt to rally the Cardinals to a 33-31 victory over Duke. The club wound up 13-4, its most wins in six years.
“…upon him Coach [Forrest] Cotton placed much confidence in perfecting his defense,” the 1934 Cardinal said. “Many an enemy attack can attribute its failure to this unconquerable little fellow who seemed to fulfill completely the part of ‘an ace in the hole.’”
White also tried his hand at track – pole vaulting as a senior – and played a year of baseball.
White graduated with a degree in electrical engineering in 1934 and won CUA’s most prestigious award for graduating senior men, the Harris Cup. The honor is bestowed upon those considered a scholar, athlete and gentleman. The school yearbook, describing him as “unassuming, humble and extremely quiet,” added: “Catholic University may well be proud of him and point to him with pride as the perfect product of a sound Catholic education.”
