“I
used to hang around with older boys.
During the summer I was their lookout as they tried to sneak into the
back of stores along Michigan Avenue and steal things, such as
firecrackers. I think this is how my
nickname started. I was the smallest guy
in the gang, so they called me ‘Wee.’
Later on it became ‘Weasal.”
Louis Vasquez, “Weasal: The Autobiography of Louis Vasquez”
Recalling his memorable childhood during the 1930s in East
Chicago’s immigrant district of Indiana Harbor, Louis Vasquez wrote:
It seemed like we all
grew up with nicknames. Johnny Busea was
Pickle, Joe Gonzalez was Chinky. Many
names designated physical characteristics; my brother was Fat Dog. Others highlighted personality traits. One guy was called The Beast; if you said
good morning to him, he’d likely reply, “What’s
good about it?”
above, Damien Jefferson; below, Rhyss Lewis drives on Treyvon Smith; NWI Times photos by John J. Watkins
In a barnburner harkening back to the glory days
of “Hoosier Hysteria” I witnessed East Chicago Central trounce previously
unbeaten Chesterton, led by Damien
Jefferson's 27 points and Jermaine Couisnard’s 25. After Chesterton scored the first six points,
the Cardinals reeled off the next 16, many on steals and fast breaks. As the NWI
Times headline put it, the Cardinals flew by the
Trojans. Leading scorers for Chesterton
were two African Americans, Rhyss Lewis with 28 and Antwan Beeks, with 12. Also on their team was Ky Palombizio, son of
1981 Mr. Basketball Dan Palombizio, who played for Michigan City Rogers.
I told Dave about being in the Chesterton gym 30 years
ago when Lew Wallace star Jerome Harmon made a spectacular dunk, and several
home fans held up signs reading 9.5 and 10.
Classy! E.C. coach Pete Trgovich starred
for the undefeated 1971 East Chicago Washington Senators and played on two UCLA
national championship teams. Dave told
me he scored the final bucket the last time the state finals took place at Butler
University’s Hinkle Fieldhouse as well as the last points of Coach John
Wooden’s career in 1975. In 2007 Trgovich
coached the Cardinals, led by E’Twaun Moore, to a state title. Then Pete coached at IUN for three years when
one of his present assistants, Pete, Jr., became IUN’s all-time leading
scorer. Another assistant, Juda Parks,
starred on East Chicago’s 1990 team and at the time of his graduation was the
school’s all-time leader in points and steals, second in rebounds, and third in
assists and blocks.
A pep band kept the gym rocking when play
stopped. When they belted out Michael
Jackson’s “Beat It,” I told Dave they were playing a “Weird Al” Yankovic
number. “Eat It” was actually in a
recent New York Times crossword
puzzle. Chesterton’s coach, Tom Peller,
a 1979 Andrean grad, played football (quarterback) at the University of
Indianapolis. He was an assistant to
Merrillville’s Jim East before becoming head coach at Chesterton in 1999. His wife Julie Peller until recently taught
at IUN, and I had an opportunity to ask how she was doing at Valparaiso
University (just great, she reported). Coach
Peller later told TR Harlan of the Chesterton
Tribune, “We learned a lot about our team tonight and where we need to get
better. This was a good lesson for us.”
At the scorers’ table Kenny Gunia put out a hand and
said hello. My double partner in a
senior tennis tournament a dozen years ago, we finished second to two
septuagenarians. During the j.v. contest
Gunia had trouble seeing around Coach Jon Moskovich, so Dave helped him identify
scorers. Near the Cardinal bench, during
he varsity game we could hear Coach Trgovich yelling such commands as “Move your feet,” “Go, go, go,” “Look up, look up,” and “Don’t foul.” Damieln Jefferson, whose graceful moves
reminded me of Jerome Harmon, told Times
reporter Jim Peters, “Coach says never to
walk the ball up the court. That’s our
style of play. We like to get rebounds
and we go, go, go. We’re an up-tempo
team. That’s the way I love to play.” The offense bears a resemblance to plays
Trgovich ran under Coach Wooden.
In “Indiana’s 200” sports historian Alan Karpick profiled
Hoosier legend John Wooden, who led the 1927 Martinsville Artesians to a state
championship. A three-time All-American
under Purdue coach “Piggy” Lambert, Wooden coached at South Bend Clay and
Indiana State before becoming head coach at UCLA. With such stars as Lew Alcindor (Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar), Bill Walton, and Pete Trgovich UCLA won 10 NCAA titles in 12
years.
In a wheelchair due to a recent fall 92 year-old
faithful Cardinal fan Louis “Weasal” Vasquez was wearing a World War II
veterans cap. He called me Jimmy and
flashed his trademark smile when I gave him a hug. I published his autobiography
in 20 years ago as Steel Shavings,
volume 24. Like his father before him,
who moved to Indiana Harbor in 1919, Louis worked at Inland Steel. He dedicated “Weasal” to his grandchildren
and bragged: “No feeling quite matches
the pride that comes when grandchildren put their arms around you and call you
gran-pa.” Louis III, an excellent
student of Dave’s, had his gran-pa speak to a class at IU about his rich life. Now Weasal has a brood of
great-grandchildren.
Louis Vasquez was a mainstay in the Latino Historical
Society, whose President, Jesse Villalpando, turned me on to his autobiography
and praised him as a mentor to returning Korean War veterans. In “Weasal” Louis wrote about such winter
pleasures as sledding down Washington Street across Guthrie (dangerous unless
one had a look-out) and hitching rides, something, I must confess I used to do
with terry Jenkins and Paul Curry by grabbing onto car bumpers with one hand
while holding onto the sled. Louis
recollected:
If the automobile stopped
suddenly, heaven forbid, you either let go quickly or you would go underneath
the chassis. This was a dangerous
practice, and the police warned us against it.
One night, the neighborhood cop, Mr. Brown, caught me hitching cars. Threatening to take me to jail and confiscate
my sled, he had me in tears. I was more
worried about my Dad; if he found out, it would be another whipping. The officer knew I lived a couple houses from
him; so, I guess, because of this, he let me go.
With scrapbook in hand Louis closely followed the
1971 ECW “Super team” starring guards Darnell Adell and Reuben Bailey, forwards
Pete Trgovich and Ulysses “Junior” Bridgeman, and center Tim Stoddard. In the Regional final Gary West Side led at
halftime 43-41. Louis wrote:
In the third
quarter the Senators came out smoking and scored 29 points. West Side cut the deficit with 28 points in
the final quarter, but it wasn’t enough.
The final score was 94-89
That was the closest any
team would come. The Finals were played
for the last time at Hinkle Fieldhouse.
In those two games Trogovich scored 68 points to lead the Senators to
victory, first against Floyd Central and then Elkhart. I had seen too many teams get upset in the
playoffs to be complacent, so it was a thrill to watch these young men add to
East Chicago’s rich basketball history.
At Market Square Arena for the 1976 and 1977
Finals Louis recalled:
In 1976 E.C. Washington
got to the Final Four only to lose in the morning game. The following year, however, we made it to
the championship against Carmel. Drake
Morris took the last shot. I swear he
was fouled, but the referees didn’t call it.
The ball bounced off the rim; that’s how close we came to becoming state
champions. I was distraught for a short
while, but my girls had a wonderful time staying in an Indianapolis hotel with [daughter] Sylvia's classmate Diana Hernandez. Over the years these basketball weekends had
become outings that the children remembered fondly.
In the early game Drake Morris had 37 points. Against Carmel Morris scored 27, including
two free throws with 11 seconds left to give East Chicago the lead, 52-51. Then with four seconds to go Carmel’s Jon Ogle
sank a jump shot, and Morris almost nailed a desperation shot. I can just imagine Weasal’s torment.
In “All Worth Their SALT” Jeff Manes wrote about Lil’
Joe Gutierrez, like Vasquez a “mill rat” at Inland Steel. “At
that time,” Gutierrez stated, “Mexicans
went to the yard department. Blacks were
sent to the coke plant.” After
finishing the interview, Manes, himself a former steelworker, headed east on
Cline Avenue. He recalled:
I notice Beto’s
Restaurant. Used to be Mehilo’s watering
hole.
Change.
Nearer the union hall,
Pete and Mabel are but ghosts like Hot Dog John or the no-legged man who sold
pencils at the corner of Michigan and Guthrie.
Bust Corner Drug Store – gone.
Joe stays.
I interviewed Lil’ Joe Gutierrez for a Steel Shavings issue, “Steelworkers
Fight Back,” co-edited with Mike Olszanski on the history of USW Local 1010. Oz
recently was driving east on 80/94 near La Porte when a wheel (not just a tire)
suddenly materialized in the middle lane. His Mazda ended up facing backward in a ditch. Fortunately nobody was to his right. The car was totaled, but Oz escaped without a
scratch, just aches and pain. A week
earlier, he spotted a ladder in the highway.
Someone appears to be tossing objects from a nearby overpass.
Going into Monday night, I had a comfortable lead in the
Fantasy Football playoff, but Eli Manning passed for 300 yards and tossed four
TD passes, enabling The Powerhouse to squeak by Jimbo Jammers 84-82.
good buddy Omar Farag at Gary Bowman
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