AROUND TOWN: Eastern League documentary by Scranton natives takes a step forward
Jul. 29—Packed. Places like the Scranton CYC, Kingston Armory, Salesianum (Wilmington, Delaware) School, St. Joseph's High School in Hazleton, and
Roosevelt Junior High School in Williamsport.
Weekends in the 1960s meant Eastern Basketball League play with some of the best players to never, or just long enough for a cup of coffee, reach the NBA.
It was dubbed the second best basketball league in the world because of so many great players who couldn't get a shot because of unwritten racial quotas among the NBA's nine teams (in the early 1960s), which also meant very limited roster spots, as opposed to today's 450 rostered players.
If you're old enough, and lucky enough, you'll remember Scranton Miners star Swish McKinney, who in the heyday of the EBL lived here year-round, and was a local media celebrity in addition to the 20-plus points he scored every weekend.
"Oh yeah. When Swish was playing for the Miners, he had his own radio show," said Syl Sobel, co-author with fellow Scranton native Jay Rosenstein of Boxed Out of the NBA: Remembering the Eastern Professional Basketball League. "I think Monday nights at WICK and he always ended it, 'Boys and girls, always remember Swish's ABCs: Always Be Cool.' "
For the past year or so, Rosenstein and Sobel have been tracking down interviews, old film clips, newspaper stories and photographs in the effort to produce a documentary about the EBL, a part of sports history they want to make sure isn't forgotten. That journey has led to a sample reel of their documentary, one that has the feel of an ESPN 30 for 30 in the making.
'He's just a great guy," Sobel said of McKinney. "Loved, loved, loved Scranton. Can't say enough good things about his time in Scranton or the people in Scranton."
As part of the production effort, Sobel headed for McKinney's Las Vegas home for some interviews and reminiscing of a small part of the legacy of the Eastern Basketball League.
Sobel and Rosenstein are trying to tell many more stories, an effort now stalled as they wait to find out if they will be grant recipients to continue their work, or if they'll have to knock on doors to continue their passion.
"We really want to tell the story," said Sobel, whose 10-minute sample documentary will leave basketball geeks, and those longing for some good-old-days magic, thirsty for more. "We're gonna focus now on fundraising. Basically, we don't have any more money to do the shooting, we've got to hire camera people, pay our director and do some travel and stuff like that.
"So we've applied for several grants. We are starting to contact some individuals. What we'd love to do, what would be great is if like the business communities in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton and Allentown and other Eastern League cities, if they'd like to undertake, you know, contribute to a project that will provide a documentary history of what was an important part of the local sports history for these communities as well as the popular culture. That's kind of our main focus right now. That's where we're at."
The project is receiving fiscal sponsorship from the International Documentary Association, which means any contributions made to the IDA designated for the project are tax deductible.
Much like The League documents the story of baseball's Negro Leagues, Boxed Out of the NBA will help tell the EBL story, and players' descriptions of the unwritten discrimination they knew existed.
Just a few months ago, the Philadelphia 76ers paid tribute to the Wilmington Blue Bombers team at halftime of the 76ers' G-League team's game, by hosting 10 members of the two-time EBL champions.
Among them, 83-year-old Waite Bellamy, the 1970 EBL MVP. He never received an MVP trophy until the 76ers and Wilmington presented him with one during the March 24 reunion, a poignant moment where a spontaneous "MVP, MVP" chant comes from the crowd, most of whom never saw him own the baseline.
"This was my corner. This was my corner right here," Bellamy said, cane in hand, as he headed to the spot in the Salesianum gym where he made his living 50 years before.
Just one of the great moments collected by Sobel, Rosenstein and their crew.
They hope there are more to come. Like the promise of former Syracuse coach and Miners star Jim Boeheim to come to Scranton for an interview. That will wait until Sobel and Rosenstein find out in a few months whether their grant applications are approved. If not, they aren't giving up.
"Frankly, we're trying to reach out to people like LeBron James and various other basketball players," Sobel said. "We're just trying to contact everyone we can to tell the story, and hope some people who are in a position to help with funding can do so."
Once the money's in place, Sobel projects about a year's work to finish what he hopes to be a 90-minute history of the EBL.
"Hopefully, a year from now, it'll be a documentary film and I don't know if we'll have the world premiere in Scranton, but we'll certainly have a showing in Scranton. We'll make it an event."
MARTY MYERS is a Times-Tribune sports writer. His Around Town column appears on Sundays. To contact him, email mmyers@timesshamrock.com, call 570-348-9100, ext. 5437 or follow him on Twitter @mmyersTT.
Contact the writer:
570-348-9100, ext. 5437
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