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1-17-2008 From our reading, we suspect that there are countless numbers of students, as well as staff, who would be eligible for such an honor. Certainly the ones mentioned, coaches Don Howard and Dick White and basketball player Seth Schaeffer, are all deserving. As are, we are certain, many others such as Mike Phillips, Class of 1967, who has been described to us as the best all around athlete Cooperstown has ever had. Additionally, the 1963 boys basketball team finished an undefeated regular with a 18-0 record to claim the Center State League Championship while the 1967 Center State Conference championship football team was Cooperstown's first undefeated and untied season in 20 years. And, of course, the 1991 football team also holds the record of being the football team to end Cooperstown football's longest losing streak something which we doubt will land the team in the Hall of Fame, but is nonetheless worthy of note. However, as we think about what we know about athletics at Cooperstown, which we willingly admit is not much, we can't help but think that the first inductee into the new Hall of Fame should be Lester G. "Red" Bursey. Red Bursey was appointed director of physical education and coach of Cooperstown athletic teams in 1925. He arrived in Cooperstown the end of June of that year to take charge of the first summer of the Cooperstown Playground Program. He ran the playground program for 41 years until the end of the summer of 1965. In fact, when we moved back here in 1982, the program was still known as the Red Bursey Playground Program. But Red Bursey is perhaps best known for his work at the school, both in the classroom and on the athletic field. For example, in March of 1930, according to the "History of Cooperstown" by Cooper, Shaw, Littell and Hollis, "Over 1,000 people attended the first annual gymnastic exhibition staged by the Physical Education Department in the gymnasium of Cooperstown Union and High School under the direction of Lester G. Bursey, director of physical education." But Red Bursey was concerned not only with the physical education program but also with the athletic program. We think it would be fairly safe to say that it was under Red's guidance that the athletic program, including the All Sports Banquet which each year continues to acknowledge the accomplishments of all the senior athletes, was developed. According the "History of Cooperstown," Red Bursey retired in June of 1968 after 43 years as head of the Athletic Department and Physical Education Department at Cooperstown Central School. In March of 1969, Red was named the winner of the Chamber of Commerce's first annual Community Service Award and in May of 1975, the gymnasium at the Cooperstown Central Middle/ High School was named the Lester G. "Red" Bursey Gymnasium in his honor. Certainly, the case can be made that Red Bursey deserves to be the first inductee in the Cooperstown Central School's Athletic Hall of Fame. We are happy to report that after much delay we have successfully managed to get all of our inside Christmas decorations safely stored away for another year. We always breathe a sigh of relief when we have this particular task done and thus have the house back to its nonholiday self. Much as we enjoy getting out all the various decorations out each year, it always seems we simply can't wait to get them all put away. And this year, we seem to have been slower at accomplishing that than we would have liked. However, we have discovered that there are others, such as the wee-we and wee-she, who left their tree up even longer than we did. In fact, we have been surprised at the number of people who, for whatever reason, seem to have delayed taking the holiday decorations down. We don't know about anyone else, but we tend to think that our tardiness had much more to do with a fairly full schedule, leaving limited time for de-decorating, than with any desire on our part to extend the holiday season. In closing, we note that our bread baking, which we gather from the calls we received, seems to have raised more than one eyebrow as it is seen as an undertaking completely out of character for us. And we must admit that we cannot disagree with that assessment. Nonetheless, we are pushing valiantly on with our baking and, in fact, think we are making progress. This week we thought the bread was neither under nor over done. And while that is good news, we are rather dubious that we will be able to replicate our success in the upcoming weeks. Time will no doubt tell. We remain, In these Otsego hills, The Ellsworths The Ellsworths may be reached by mail at 105 Pioneer St., Cooperstown, N.Y. 13326, by telephone at 547- 8124 or by e-mail at cellsworth1@stny.rr.com. They look forward to hearing from you. |
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