MAKING HISTORY

Drago’s’ Jackets Reached

Pinnacle In 1960 Season

Legendary Coach Knew Star’s Grandparents

By JENNIFER HILL • The Freeman’s Journal & HOMETOWN ONEONTA

ONEONTA – Defying predictions, a boys’ basketball team from a small Otsego County town takes an early, wide lead over a big city team in the state’s final tournament, dominates throughout, and wins its first-ever state championship.

That happened on Sunday, March 17, 2019, when Cooperstown’s Hawkeyes beat Buffalo’s Middle Early College, 71-61, for the Class C state championship.

Almost 60 years ago, March 27, 1960, virtually the same thing happened. The local team was the Oneonta High School Yellow Jackets.

In 1960, the boys took an early, wide lead over Syracuse Central Tech, kept the lead throughout the game – at one point, they were 19 points ahead – and won, 64-53.  It was OHS’ – and the county’s – first state-level win.

“They called that game ‘The Meetin’ of the Unbeaten,’” recalled Tony Drago, now 96, the legendary OHS basketball coach who then coached the team to sectional titles in 1962 and 1964.  “Oneonta was undefeated and Syracuse Central Tech was undefeated.”

In those days, high school leagues were structured differently, with OHS playing in one of 11 sections.  Today, there are five classes – AA, A, B, C and D.

Tony considers the Hawkeyes true state champs, and his team sectional champs – although the Yellowjackets went as far as they could.

The Syracuse Lancers, were considered “the best shooting team,” according to a March 28, 1960, newspaper account the final game.  But the Yellowjackets dominated throughout.

“We took a pretty big lead in the beginning,” Drago said.

That “pretty big lead” was 12-0 within six minutes.

“Syracuse fought back and started scoring more, but they never caught up,” Drago added.

By halftime, the Lancers managed to get the score to 30-16.  But the Yellowjackets landed 59 percent of their shots, the newspaper reported, which “had Tony Drago shaking his head in disbelief at the uncanny accuracy of his own team.”

“My kids played the game of their lives,” Drago said.  “Six thousand people watched it.”

News of the Yellowjackets victory over the Lancers spread quickly to Syracuse.

“My best friend from OHS, Charlie Swart, lived in Syracuse and had played for the Syracuse professional basketball team,” said Drago with a chuckle.  “He said to me after we won, ‘Because of what you’ve done, you’ve made living in Syracuse easy for me.’”

As a former basketball coach of a thrice-state championship team, Drago followed the Hawkeyes’ games throughout the season and was thrilled at their victory on Sunday.

“I also watched because there’s a little bit of history involved here for me,” Drago said.  “I knew Paul Lambert in 1949, who was young Jack’s grandfather, who was Cooperstown’s MVP.  And he is the father of the coach, John Lambert.”

“Paul Lambert married Barbara Syron,” he continued, joking that that Jack Lambert’s basketball prowess was “those Lambert-Syron genes at work again.”

But Drago said there were two differences between the Yellowjackets’ 1960 and the Hawkeyes’ 2019 historic wins that he believes made the latter’s victory more impressive.

One difference, he said, is the changes in some of the rules in basketball.

“We didn’t have a 30-second clock or a three-point shot,” he said.  “If I got ahead by two points, I could just sit on the ball so the other team doesn’t get a chance to shoot and get ahead.  And there was no three-point shot.”

The 30-second rule especially, he said, “makes the game more exciting now and forces players to think more strategically and use more skills.”

But the main difference he sees is OHS won a sectional title in 1960 while Cooperstown “truly” earned the state championship this year.

“When I was Oneonta’s basketball coach, New York State was divided into eleven sections,” he explained.  “In 1960, Oneonta won their section, the Section 3 championship.  The highest level you could win was at the sectional level.”

Then, in the 1970s, Drago said, “There were a group of people pressuring for New York to have one state champion.  They proceeded to go by classes, A, B, C, D.

“They played each other around the whole state.  Cooperstown is the state champion for Class C.”

“That is why Cooperstown’s win is quite an achievement,” Drago said.