Norbert “Nobby” Lewandowski’s athletic career began at St. John Nepomucene Elementary School in Slavic Village and never ceased to be an influence on his life’s activities. As a player, he not only starred at Benedictine High and Kent State University, he worked his way up the Cleveland Baseball Federation ladder from Class F to AAA, becoming, according to one Plain Dealer writer, “the most dominant pitcher in amateur baseball in Ohio during the 60’s.” When age and business commitments eventually ended his playing days, they did not end his allegiance to the CBF. He has remained a strong advocate of the City’s sandlot program, serving for many years on the board of the CBF and raising thousands of dollars for its programs. He has been equally supportive of his high school’s and college’s athletics departments and has received high honors from both.
Daniel Ferrazza’s 31-year career with the CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) left thousands of youngsters with enriched athletic experiences and Cleveland with a nationally prominent track event. While executive Director of the CYO eastern region from 1972 to 1988, he assumed a vital role in the operation of the annual Knights of Columbus Track Meet for 11 years, six as meet director. The meet brought numerous world class athletes to Cleveland to join with college, high school and grade school runners, creating a major stop on the indoor track circuit. He also served as president of the Meet Association, and as president of the Lake Erie Association of the AAU for two years and vice president for ten.
Deceased 2015
George Chandick’s outstanding 18-year post-college career as a player and player-coach in the Greater Cleveland Basketball League set the tone for a lifetime of devotion and service to athletics in the Greater Cleveland area. A lengthy list of achievements and honors as a coach, official, team sponsor and participant, George embraced a variety of sports, from youth baseball and track and field to horseshoes. His tenure as Council President and later Mayor of Seven Hills, and as a teacher of elementary physical education for 38 years in the Cleveland Public School System enhanced, rather than stemmed, the tide of his activities on behalf of young athletes.
From 1955 to 1985, the road to participation in any City of Cleveland recreational activity for Clevelanders of all ages went through City Hall’s Room 8 and Mary Jane Boldin. As the Cleveland Recreation Department’s Secretary to the Director of Organized Sports, she shouldered the bulk of the day-to-day responsibilities for everything from finding teams for people to join to locating sponsors and funding for those teams. Her efforts in support of Director John S. Nagy were instrumental in the growth of the city’s summer playground Junior Olympics program. She also served with distinction as secretary and/or board member for a myriad of MUNY and AAU programs. In 1986 she was inducted into the Cleveland Men’s Slo-Pitch Hall of Fame.
At 16, Jenny Fish Baker was already a world class women’s speed skater. Thus her selection to the 1968 U.S. Olympic Team as a Baldwin-Wallace College freshman was no surprise. Nor was it a surprise when she earned Olympic Silver in the 500 meter sprint at Grenoble, France. She began her glide to the Olympics in 1961 at the age of 12, winning the Ohio indoor championship and the Cleveland Press Silver Skates Midget-Novice title. She repeated in the Juvenile division the next year, adding the Ohio outdoor championship. In 1964 she won Ohio and National indoor and outdoor Junior championships, then added the U.S. National Open indoor and outdoor titles. She won the Junior Division indoor and outdoor championships again in 1965 and in 1966 she became the U.S. National Intermediate Champion indoors and outdoors.
A Pennsylvanian who moved to Cleveland to play for the American Hungarian team, George Caraffi and his brother Ralph were the city’s best soccer players of the 1920’s. Originally a defender/midfielder, he gained his greatest fame as a center forward. He twice scored seven goals in a game, but his biggest goal came on June 23, 1929; the winning goal against Hakoah of New York, the U.S. National Champions. In the Western finals of the 1928 National Challenge Cup, he scored two overtime goals in a 4-1 victory and the clinching goal in a 2-1 win in early rounds, and the goal which gave his team a short 3-2 lead in overtime of the finals.
Danny Weiler won his 3,000th career victory at the age of 46 in 1983, enroute to becoming one of just 36 riders in thoroughbred racing history to have ridden over 3,500 winners. A large percentage of those victories came at Cleveland’s Thistledown Race Track where he won over a dozen Thistledown meet titles, beginning in 1960. He got a strong leg up on those many triumphs on August 12, 1961 by winning six races in one day, a feat accomplished just nine times in the track’s long history. He was also a four-time winner of Thistledown’s long-prestigious darling Nellie Gray Handicap.
From August 1972 through October 1990, Frederick Baker drove in 184 races, winning 88, placing second in 30 and third in 18. During his memorable career he qualified for the pole position 69 times and established 25 lap records. In 1980 he earned acclaim as the worldwide Jaguar Driver of the Year and also earned C Production National Champion laurels. He placed seventh in the 1989 international Porsche Turbo Cup Invitational held in Kylami, South Africa. Closer to home, he three times won the famed Nelson Ledges 24-Hour Endurance Race.
A graduate of Shaker Heights High, Steve Trevor went on to become a three-time NCAA Fencing All-American at Columbia University. He earned berths on the 1984 and 1988 U.S, Olympic teams, placing 17th overall in the 1988 epee competition. Earlier he won berths on the 1981 and 1983 U.S. World Junior Team, placing 8th in world epee competition in 1983 and was also the 1983 U.S. National Junior Olympic Champion in both foil and epee.
William Reith learned to fence quickly and well at Fenn College in the mid-60’s, winning the All-Ohio epee title and finishing fourth in the Midwest Championships as a junior and going 41-7 as a senior. He continued in Open competition after graduation and competed on U.S. World Championship teams in 1974, 1975 and 1977 and as a member of the 1975 gold medal winning USA Pan-American Games epee team. He won the title of U.S. Fencing Masters national Senior Olympics Epee Champion. A successful coach, he developed fellow Hall of Fame inductees Steve Trevor and Jon Normile and now coaches the Cleveland State men’s and women’s fencing teams.