Hoops through the years: Remembering the Valley’s best

By RALPH STONE
MVI columnist

Once upon a season there were open-ended tar buckets, bushel baskets, and actual basketball rims hanging from telephone poles, tree trunks and garage doors all over the street corners and alleys of this Mid-Mon Valley.
One of those hoops hung on a telephone pole on McKee Avenue in Monessen. It was on that primitive court as a First Street Rambler that I learned the art of dribbling, making layups and taking two-handed set shots. My instructors during those golden days of street round ball were George “Vo” Vlasek and Ralph Geeza.
George was my senior by just two years while Ralph topped me by three. They became the first two leaders of what would become known as the First Street Ramblers.
Those days were before any form of adult coaching or organized youth basketball was even thought of. We were pretty much on our own, at least until we entered junior high school. From that first adventure I, like many of my counterparts, was hooked on the sport.
Basketball was then, and has remained, a gem of this Valley. Its popularity began many years before that McKee Avenue basket was ever mounted.

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