1963: Girls Repeat Track Champs, Strong Ski Team

Alum Linwood Strout, Regional Sports Writer

"Duke" Nennstiel's team again won the annual Alumni Torunament. Diane Dunham was queen of the Snow Ball.

The CCS ski team won the second annual Willard Mt. Invitational. They had also won the first one. Six teams competed. CCS edged Johnstown. Dick Morse was capt. of the team. John Romack won the best combined.

The CCS ski team won the Saranac Lake High School Winter Carnival Downhill Race. Led by Capt. Richard Morse, the Indians upset four North Country teams.

Beaver Ross, skiing in the B division for those under 16, took individual honors. He was first in the Downhill.

Mary Cornell became the first CCS girl to compete in interscholastic sports since the 1930s. There were 25 girls in her division.

The CCS Basketball Indians defeated Hartford 51-28. Tom Parsley led scoring. At that point in the season, Hoosick Falls was 8-0, Greenwich and Hoosic Valley were 6-1 and Cambridge was 3-4.

Then CCS reached .500 with a 70-48 win over Argyle. Richard MacDougall scored 32 points, only 5 off Kenny Stinner's school record.

Matt Meagher's expanded Town House Restaurant was booming, Matt reported that he catered 32 banquets in December.

CCS skiers were fourth at Johnstown in a field of 13 schools.

The Salem Generals took the second round of the Old Oaken Bucket as the Indians lost game no. five on the season, 75-48.

Linwood "Lindy" Strout, well-known sports writer from Cambridge, resigned as Post Star sports editor to go to work for the Times-Union. He had worked at Glens Falls since 1957.

CCS downed Schuylerville 57-47, behind the 30 points of Larry Parsley.

Then sharp-shooting Stillwater dropped them 71-53.

An American Field Service chapter formed at CCS. Mrs. Dorothy Bell was president of the executive committee.

St. Patrick's annual "smoker" drew Yankee slugger Dale Long.

The CCS ski team again won the invitational meet at Willard Mountain. Cambridge was first among nine Section II high school teams competing.

They dominated both events. In the giant slalom, they won the first three places, Dick Morse, John Romack and Beaver Ross. Ross won the regular slalom, with Romack second. Among girl racers, Betsy Cornell was third in the giant.

Among the individual boys, David Craig was second over-all.

This team received very little support from the school. They furnished most of their own equipment, paid their own fees and provided their own transportation.

Hoosic Valley downed the Indians 71-59.

Dick Record graduated from SUNY Cobleskill, with an emphasis in dairy technology.

The Tackle Box fishermen's store on the Battenkill was sold by Roy Brown. In 14 years, Brown had built the Tackle Box into an institution known from New York to Indiana. Stories had ben printed about it in the New York Times and the Albany-Times Union.

Mr. Brown left his champion trout, taken form the Dutchman's Hole in 1923, on the wall.

The CCS ski team was third among eight competing schools at the Cooperstown Invitational.

CCS defeated the Tanagers of Hartford 72-63. Next they faced sectionals-bound Salem.

Oaken Bucket

Goes North

In early March, the Salem Generals secured possession of the Old Oaken Bucket for the year by defeating the Indians 56-40. It was the first time the Bucket had to make the journey north. The Bucket symbolized over-all athletic superiority between the schools on the year.

Darryl Decker led CCS scoring with 12 points, but Steve Ludd had 29 for Salem.

The Monday night youth basketball league was feted with a banquet. Teacher Maurice OConnor ran the league, which varsity

Coach John Herbert started five years previous.

The Masons again gave the basketball team a banquet.

In the Section II championships in March, the Cambridge ski team placed second, behind Johnstown and ahead of four other high schools.

Beaver Ross captured the giant slalom to lead CCS to a team victory in that event. Johnstown was second. In the regular slalom, Johnstown won and Cambridge was second. Somehow this gave Johnstown the Section II title by a couple of points.

The Cambridge "A" team was composed of Richard Morse (capt.), Beaver Ross, John Romack, Peter Morse, Steve Morse and Dave Craig. They competed in eight sanctioned meets on the season.

In the season, CCS competed against 28 different schools and had the distinction of having defeated every one of them on at least one occasion, except for Old Forge. Old Forge (not in Section II) was not defeated by anyone in the 1962-63 season.

Only Capt. Dick Morse would be lost through graduation. The team chose his brothers, Pete and Steve, to captain the next season.

Colfax Mountain, then the possession of John and Mary Hunt, was considered by the Farmers Home Administration for development as a recreation area. If the Hunts had their way, it would feature a golf course, a swimming pool and a mountain lodge, with picnic and camping grounds. Unfortunately, the deal didn't go through.

Dr. John H. Kingsley, former principle of the Cambridge Union School, died March 20 in Tucson, Ariz. He was one of the three best administrators ever to grace the local halls of learning.

That spring, Al Baratto was operating a popcorn wagon on Cambridge streets.

The CCS Track team swamped Stillwater 78-26, taking firsts in every event. Darryl Decker took the broad and high jumps. Steve Morse took the hop-step-jump and the 440. Tim White won the 880 and the discus, and Bob Harrington the Shot.

Frank Ludwick took the mile and Jerry Coon won both the 220 and the 100. The relay team won handily.

Ivan Purdy was voted most valuable player in the Siena College basketball intramurals.

Joe Jerrard coached the baseball team that spring. The Indians lost to Schuylerville 3-2 in the opener, then defeated Salem 8-3. This they followed with a 21-1 blow-out of Hartford.

Darryl Decker was the team's leading pitcher.

A distinguished New England golf architect surveyed Mount Colfax and declared that it could make a fine golf course. According to owner John Hunt, when all plans and cost estimates were completed, the Colfax Recreation Assoc. would apply for an FHA loan.

The Cambridge Flying Club formed, with the object of buying a jointly owned plane to fly off Chapin Field. George Chapin, who gave the field, was club vice president.

Diana Yalo was Valedictorian of the class of 1963.

At Cambridge Central, the $1 million addition was going up.

Schuylerville walked off with its fifth consecutive Washington County Championship in Track that May. The best Cambridge could do was pick up some individual winners.

Darryl Decker was tops in the county in the low hurdles, Frank Ludwick won the Mile and Steve Morse won the high jump. As defending champion in the event, he cleared 5' 10".

Girls County

Track Champs

The CCS girls team won the Washington County Track Championship for the second consecutive year. Pat McLenithan had two firsts. The girls amassed 45 points to best Greenwich, second with 24.

McLenithan took the 50 and 100 yard dashes. Austin took the 75. Marilyn Hendrickson of Cambridge took the standing broad jump. Debbie Craig won the high jump. The 220 relay went to Cambridge. Running were Ruth Boeker, Pratt, Cornell and Hendrickson.

The AFS chapter at CCS announced that Joseph Manhard of Austria would be the first exchange student to enroll at the high school.

That May, Andrew and Dorothy Bell could boast of having nine children attending CCS: Virginia, Philip, Robert, James, Peter, Bruce, Ted, Sylvia and Alan, who was about to graduate.

All of them played in the band.

Fifty-one graduated from CCS.

The Cambridge Recreation program kicked off that July, under the direction of Carson Fuller, as usual.

That Fourth of July saw the first publicized inauguration of the Predicted Log Race down the Battenkill River. John McCall won, just 50 seconds off his estimated time.

The race was not publicized, but the paper found out. The race would eventually be killed by its ever-growing popularity.

Jack Murphy, 16, of Academy St. was the first member of the new Cambridge Flying Club to solo.

That summer, a golf course expert certified that Mount Colfax would be a good setting for a golf course.

For the school year 1963-64, Milt Tesar of Binghamton was hired to replace Joseph Reilly as elementary teacher and head football coach. Carson Fuller had, indeed, been replaced.

Joe Kent put into use that Fall the first modern, garbage collection vehicle in the area, called "a collectomatic packer. It was to eliminate refuse falling off the truck and papers blowing on the way to the dump.

CCS opened Sept. 9th with 1,155 enrolled.

Fifty boys reported for Milt Tesar's first football team. Beaver Ross, Bruce McLenithan, Karl Rogge, Ed Jordan, Bob Warren, Steve McLenithan, Pete Morse, Thure Johnson, Rog Holcomb, Peter Matcovich, Ed Hunt and Bill Watkins, Dick Eddy and Paul Harris were among the veterans. Darryl Decker was a likely candidate for quarterback. Paul Adams and Rob Harrington, Web Madison, Jeff Ashworth, Ted Ridler, John Hunt, Ron Dawley, Tim Squiers, Ed Rouse, Paul Virtue, John McCarty, Worth Gassett, John Cole, Mike Meagher, Don Jepson, Jim Blanchfield, Larry Ackley, Bruce Squiers, Rob Radley, Fred King, Dave Craig, Steve Schnell, Steve Davis, Joe Manhart, Charles Marsh, John Porter, Bill Hatch and Tom Moore all expected to be on the squad.

CCS scrimmaged Watervliet to a draw, in their first practice game.

Rogers Gorman, 37, was appointed editor of the Daily Record, a Rochester newspaper.

CCS defeated Fort Edward on a last ditch pass play from Darryl Decker to Richie Eddy, 13-6.

The next week, CCS used the final seconds to defeat St. Peter's, 12-7. Another Decker to Eddy pass set up the winning score. Carl Adams took it to the three and Rob Harrington punched in.

Mike Severson graduated from Naval pre-flight school, Pensacola. He would continue training to be a pilot.

Greenwich won the next football game 26-9.

But the following week, heroics by John Hunt, Darryl Decker and Mike Meagher led to a 21-7 win over Salem on the first leg of the Oaken Bucket contest.

Joe Mansart, the foreign exchange student, became the PAT kicker for the football team.

Stillwater downed the Indians 26-18.

CCS downed Schuylerville 13-6.

Hoosick Falls beat the Indians 16-0.

The Village was beset by vandalism during these years, with the smearing and desecrating of monuments and trashing of homes and yards. Control seemed beyond the adults.

John Hunt pushed forward with his plan to turn Colfax into a recreation complex. He sought to form a membership corporation based upon wide community participation. The FHA encouraged the group to proceed with plans, on the prospect of a loan from them.

The November 28th issue of the WCP mourned the assassination of another president. Wrote Nick Mahoney, the editor of the WCP at the time:

"The head of our nation..., the man who had stared down the Soviets across the island of Cuba..., the man who had fought for civil rights for all... murdered in a great city of the country he had served so well."