Remembering Conshohocken and West Conshohocken (14 page)

Baseball in the borough of Conshohocken dates back to the 1870s, before Major League baseball was organized. Baseball was the first branch of organized sports to be played here. One of the few flat fields in the borough was located on Washington Street along the canal, east of Cherry Street, later called “the Meadow.” There was no infield or diamonds; rocks or other items were used as bases; catchers had no protective gear and no padded baseball gloves.

The first organized team recorded playing the sport was the Nerve of Conshohocken, made up of local steelworkers and young men. Andy Loughery and Johnny Heffelfinger pitched for the Nerve, and George Buck and Michael McCall were catchers. Other players included Jack Harold and Horace Cassey.

The Aerials followed the Nerve and carried several of the first team's players but added young talent like Dick Blake, Fred Wood, Edwin Harrison and Bill Davis. Then came the great teams of the late 1890s, and Conshohocken soon joined much more competitive leagues, like the Schuylkill Valley Baseball League and leagues in and around the city of Philadelphia. History notes that league meetings would often be held at McCall's cigar store on Hector Street or similar places in Norristown.

Conshohocken's glory years in the sport of baseball were many, but there was nothing like the 1920s, when the manufacturers of the borough formed a league with dozens of teams. Some companies had so many employees that they formed their own league within the company. In the John Wood Manufacturing Company, each department had a team. One write-up in the local paper told of the Alan Wood teams, the Puddlers and the Helpers, facing off. In a scoreless game in the fifth inning, the Puddlers scored twenty-five runs and the Helpers called off the remainder of the game. Both teams retired to the shade of the trees at the Ninth Avenue field and, with smiles on their faces, relaxed with cool, refreshing drinks—and we're not talking soda pop.

After-game refreshments didn't always go down so well; often the winners and losers would join together for postgame refreshments, as they did back in 1905. The Standard Athletic Club from West Philadelphia was on the losing end when the Conshohocken Athletic Association beat them late in the game 4–3. The losers decided to “do up the town,” and a riot resulted. Conshohocken police officer William Heald walked into the middle of the fight, featuring brass knuckles and blackjacks, and was quickly pummeled. Many of the West Philly boys made their way to the train but had police officers waiting for them at the end of the line. Most of the visitors spent the night in jail.

By 1908, the Conshohocken burgess had had enough. Fred J. Bloomhall notified all organized baseball clubs that ball games on Sundays were no longer allowed to be played within the borough limits. Bloomhall gave notice that warrants would be issued and arrest would result in fines for each offender, calling them a “gang of half-grown Rowdys.”

As early as 1910, traveling female baseball teams would visit Conshohocken to engage in ball games with local teams, often drawing several thousand spectators to the fields. In 1914, the Female Ball Tossers of Conshohocken played the visiting New York Bloomer Girls in a game played at the Meadow. While the New Yorkers won a close game 4–3, the local headlines declared that more than one thousand spectators witnessed the game, some walking for miles, but less than half paid money to view the game. The field was surrounded with a canvas enclosure, but hundreds of spectators stood on top of dozens of boxcars on the siding along the Reading Railroad to view the Bloomer Girls perform on the diamond.

In the 1920s, Bloomer Girl baseball teams became more popular when other small, local towns fielded competition. In 1922, the Swedeland Bloomer Girls visited Conshohocken for a game against the Lady Tigers. Conshohocken won the game 7–6 behind the fine play of Kate Davis, Mary Gillespie, Kriebel, Sedor and Smith.

By the 1930s, many of the Bloomer Girl teams were playing members of the opposite sex, sometimes resulting in an embarrassing situation. In 1933, the visiting Rold Gold Bloomer Girls from Tacony bested the boys of the Baptist church, 7–5. Betty Sell was the opposing pitcher who pitched five innings for the Bloomers and, in the sixth inning, threw out a Baptist runner at the plate from deep center field.

While Conshohocken baseball fielded some of the county's greatest players, as mentioned earlier, the town didn't always take the sport so seriously. A headline from August 8, 1941, in the
Conshohocken Recorder
says it all: “Trick Donkeys Make ‘Donkeys' out of Local Men in Baseball Game.” A paragraph from the article reads:

The score was Conshohocken Lions 3, Business Men 2, in the annual thrilling, spilling, milling, Burro Baseball Game staged under the auspices of the rip roarin Lions. An Audience that overflowed the grandstands and numbered dozens of standees howling with continual glee as the players hit, fell from balking donkeys, missed base by a donkey's nose, and engaged in all the novel athletics that a Burro Baseball Game affords. The game was held at the Conshohocken Athletic Field for charity
.

Another fun annual outing in the early part of the last century was the annual Thin Men versus the “Fattys.” The Penn Club of Conshohocken for many years hosted the event that involved over-the-hill baseball players. The thin ballplayers were on one team, while residents who were, shall we say, a little beefy played for the other team. Over the years, members of the Penn Club would travel to different locations—always with a watering hole nearby. In 1913, according to the
Recorder
, Broad Axe was the site. The headline and part of the article read like this:

“Thin Men Defeat The ‘Fattys' At Baseball. Penn Club Holds Last Outing of The Season at Broad Axe.”

“Has Beens” Show a Good Return To Form But The Fat Men Led Until The Heat Overcame Them
.

Straight as the crow flies journeyed the members of the Penn Club to that old historical place, called the Broad Axe. Built on the old Indian trail, that winds its way down to the hills and valleys, through which runs the Schuylkill River
.

The Broad Axe has a history of its own. The original Hotel was owned by a widow named Mrs Betty Hatchet. Known near and far for her beauty, wisdom ways, and especially for the quality of Ale
.

And that, my friend, is what made the two-hour journey to the ball field worth it: the quality of ale. The Thin Men were led by Captain William Little, who owned the opera house once located at First Avenue and Fayette Street, while the “Fattys” were led by Fred J. Broomhall, burgess of Conshohocken. Harrison, Jones, Tracy, Carroll and Bodey started for the Fat Men, while Siegler, McGrath, Ruth, Donnelly and Hellinger played well for the Thin Men. Following the 8–6 Thin Men victory, all would enjoy dinner at the Broad Axe, and following dinner, most of the members of the Penn Club would go to Willow Grove Park and enjoy music and dancing.

The Washington Fire Company became one of the best firefighting units in the state of Pennsylvania, but back in the 1880s, it seems as though it was somewhat of an embarrassment to the community. The Washies decided to form a baseball team and travel to other towns, carrying the good name of Conshohocken with them to challenge other fire companies to nine innings.

In the early 1880s, our proud firemen traveled to Chester to take on members of the Franklin Fire Company. The Chester newspaper gave a great account of the game:

The Washington boys of Conshohocken put out a big fire with celerity, but they are not there so to speak when it comes to playing ball with the Franklin Fire laddies of Chester. By arrangement, nines from the two companies met at Houston Park yesterday afternoon in a friendly contest on the diamond, and before four innings were played it was painfully evident that the visitors would be very badly left
.

The Franklin nine posted 14 runs in the third inning and another 22 runs in the eighth inning and went on to win the contest 47–10, but that was not the embarrassing part. It seems as though the Washies' uniforms were clearly a sight to see, or as the Chester newspaper stated, “The suits of the visitors which were new and novel, were the most stunning ever seen on a ball field.”

Jumbo Wagner, who covered first base for the Washies, wore a gray shirt that covered a bay window so large that he was unable to see whether his foot was resting on the canvas bag. One pant leg was of light blue chintz and the other of red calico, while his stockings were of a damask tint. He spliced together two belts to go all the way around him. Moconachy covered second base with patent leather pumps and himself with dust and glory. Earl, in right field, wore blue socks, with one leg of his knee breeches a navy blue and the other a Bismarck brown; he also wore a calico cap. The man behind the batter looked like a Bridgeport butterfly on dress parade, and it was believed at first that he was the missing Joseph of the coat of many colors.

While each and every player was described from head to foot, many funny incidents were played out during the game, including a foul ball off the bat that the catcher missed and the ball continued to travel, hitting the umpire in the vest pocket and setting fire to a box of matches. Of course, the Washies firefighters weren't so funny then, as they sprang into action to douse the flames and dust off the umpire before going back to taking a pounding on the field.

While Conshohocken had some great fun with the sport of baseball, it should never overshadow the fact that the borough has produced dozens of championship teams and hundreds of great baseball players.

The state of Pennsylvania is the home of professional football, and Conshohocken was certainly at the forefront of professional football in its infancy. In the fall of 1893, Conshohocken formed its first football team, sponsored by the Young Men's Athlete Association (YMAA), and was called Ironmen. Conshohocken's first organized team played two years before the first all-professional game was played in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Latrobe beat neighboring Jeannette 12–0. Each player was paid ten dollars for his services.

The Conshohocken Ironmen consisted of thirteen players, most of whom worked in the town's steel and iron mills—hence the name the Ironmen. The Ironmen played their games on the east side of Fayette Pike between Eighth and Ninth Avenues. Part of the property was later occupied by the O'Brien family and is currently the site of the Mason's Lodge.

Members of the first team included Sam Wright, Ben Cressman, Charles Herron, Fred and Arthur Clark (sons of Charles Heber Clark, nationally known author under the pen name of Max Adler), Eugene and Bud Beaver (sons of Dr. David Beaver, a Civil War surgeon with his home and office at the northeast corner of Fourth Avenue and Fayette Street, currently the Bank of America), Alan Caine, George Lukens (later Dr. Lukens) and Louis and Max Vielhaber.

Conshohocken joined the professional ranks of the sport in 1914 under the management of Robert J. Crawford, a cigar store owner and former Conshohocken athlete. The Conshohocken football teams from 1914 to 1922 became known as the “Golden Age of Football” in the borough. Conshohocken's 1919 team went undefeated and was recognized as the United States Eastern Seaboard Champions. The National Football Hall of Fame, located in Canton, Ohio, acknowledged Conshohocken's achievement and accepted the team photograph. It hangs on display on a rotating basis with other great teams of the era.

One side note to Conshohocken's professional era: in 1917, Jack Kelly was a running back and receiver for the Conshohocken pros. Kelly went on to become one of the most accomplished oarsmen in the history of the sport of rowing. He was later the father of Grace Kelly, actress and princess of Monaco.

Johnny “Jack” McBride, a Conshohocken native, went on to play with the very first New York Giants team in 1925. McBride—a Syracuse University All-American football player in 1924—played for the Giants for ten years. In 1925, he ran out of the backfield with the great Jim Thorpe, the former Canton Bulldogs standout. McBride was a shining star in the newly developed professional football league, and in 1927, he was named the league's Most Valuable Player over Harrold “Red” Grange. McBride never played a down of football at Conshohocken High School, where he attended, graduating in 1918. Conshohocken High School didn't have a football team until 1923.

Conshohocken enjoyed many great seasons on the football field during the 1920s, '30s and '40s, featuring many of the town's great athletes. Names like Bonkoski, Mellor, Webster, O'Donnell, Fox, Marine, Borzelleca, Cannon, Snear, Potteiger, Wood, Lawler, Campbell and Pettine would light up the newspaper headlines week after week. But of the hundreds of football teams fielded over more than one hundred years in the borough, no rivalry was greater than the twenty-three games played between St. Matthew's High School and Conshohocken High School.

It started in 1925, when Conshohocken High School beat St. Matthew's 40–6. Conshy High bested the Catholics again in 1926, 7–0. But St. Matthew's gained revenge in 1927 when, with three minutes remaining in the game, Lou Devaney found an opening from the five-yard line for the game's only score and a 7–0 victory for St. Matthew's. The two teams would not meet again until 1944, and a twenty-year Thanksgiving Day rivalry began.

Today's young residents could never understand the meaning of these games, when six to eight thousand residents would pack the Conshohocken A Field on Thanksgiving morning. Teams would report to the field at 8:00 a.m. for pregame drills. Parades from each school would form and march up Fayette Street, where every merchant posted signs in their windows rooting for one team or the other or, in some cases, for both schools. The parades would turn on Eleventh Avenue and on to the field with the school's marching band, followed by the cheerleaders and fans into the stadium. Ten of the twenty games played from 1944 to 1964 were decided by seven points or less.