2008 Woodie Awards
Yeshiva Athletics: How the Maccabees Were Born
David Gleicher
Issue date: 12/27/04 Section: YUdaica
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What's in a name? For some sports teams, the answer can be quite controversial. You can't have a team name that will engender controversy. Thus, the St. John's Redmen became the St. John's Red Storm, the Marquette Warriors became the Marquette Golden Eagles, and the Elon (N.C.) Fighting Christians became the Elon Phoenix. Sometimes, however, a college team will change its name for reasons other than political correctness. That was the case of the Yeshiva Maccabees.
Our story begins in the fall of 1934, when Yeshiva College's basketball club became an official school team with an intercollegiate schedule. Two years later, it hired Milt Trupin as its first coach, compiled a 7-10 record, and ran out of money to pay Trupin for a second year. Sophomore Irv Koslowsky, YC '40, (later known as Rabbi Irving Koslowe) became the player-coach for the next two years until Yeshiva scraped up enough money in his senior season to hire Hy Wettstein as the team's next coach (Wettstein later became MTA's coach for several decades).
It was sometime in the late 30s that the team's name of the Mighty Mites was adopted. Earlier in the decade, the varsity had been called the Quinthooplets. One of these "Quints" was a short, quick guard named Julie Mager, nicknamed "The Mighty Mite." Eventually, Mager's moniker caught on and the whole team became the Mighty Mites, and "Quinthooplets" was relegated to the dead file.
Over the next 35 years, the Mighty Mites had some great years (16-2 in 1956, 14-4 in 1959) and some great stars (Marv Hershkowitz, Abe Sodden, Red Blumenreich, Stuie Poloner), but by the early 1970s, the team was in a deep slump, punctuated by its worst season ever, 1973-74, when it went 1-19. That year, while center Paul Merlis was learning in Israel, the team's offense consisted of Bruce Wenig's passing the ball to Dave Wilzig. And a two-person offense leads to a one-win season.
The next year, I became Sports Editor of The Commentator. One evening in November, I stood in line at the cafeteria with Steve Reisbaum, the paper's Editor-in-Chief and my predecessor at sports. We discussed our high hopes for the team. While Wilzig had graduated, Wenig was back, Merlis had returned, senior Ira Scharaga had found his shooting touch, and promising freshman Robbie Rosenbloom was joining the team. I was worried about one thing, though. Steve asked, "Foul shooting?" No, I answered, the team's name. "Mighty Mites." Is there any college team in America with a wussier name? Maybe if the team changed its name, it would play harder, more aggressively, and with more pride. Steve asked what the name should be. I suggested something tough like MTA's name, Lions. Steve disagreed. An animal name is too generic; we need something unique to us, like Maccabees. I liked it immediately. I told him, "That's it. From now on, the team will be known as the Maccabees." He laughed and said, "You can't just change the team's name. You have to get permission, though I don't know from whom - maybe from Red [Sarachek] or Jonny [Halpert]." I said, "No, I'm just gonna do it."
In my sports column in the November 20, 1974, I announced that from this day forward, the team's name would no longer be the Mighty Mites, but would now be the Maccabees. As Sports Editor, I made sure that only the new name appeared in the articles. The next year, I prepared the athletic department's media guide, and the team's name was listed as the Maccabees. I never got permission from Red or Jonny or even Mrs. Miller (who really ran the athletic department back then); I just did it.
Unfortunately, the name change didn't immediately influence the team, which won only five games that year and three the next. But eventually, the spirit of the Maccabees permeated the team, which began racking up successful seasons (okay, maybe getting better players and hiring assistant coaches helped too).
During my student years at Yeshiva, I contributed to this institution by serving on the 1976 Presidential Search Committee that eventually chose Norman Lamm. But I have always felt that my unique contribution to Yeshiva was changing the name of its sports teams. Whenever I read a university press release or an article in The Commentator about the success of the "Macs" or "Lady Macs," I get a singular feeling of pride.
Mr. David Gleicher, YC '76, is a lawyer in Chicago, and the author of "Louis Brandeis Slept Here: A Slightly Cynical History of American Jews." He is currently working on a book about the origins of the American Jewish community in 1654.
Our story begins in the fall of 1934, when Yeshiva College's basketball club became an official school team with an intercollegiate schedule. Two years later, it hired Milt Trupin as its first coach, compiled a 7-10 record, and ran out of money to pay Trupin for a second year. Sophomore Irv Koslowsky, YC '40, (later known as Rabbi Irving Koslowe) became the player-coach for the next two years until Yeshiva scraped up enough money in his senior season to hire Hy Wettstein as the team's next coach (Wettstein later became MTA's coach for several decades).
It was sometime in the late 30s that the team's name of the Mighty Mites was adopted. Earlier in the decade, the varsity had been called the Quinthooplets. One of these "Quints" was a short, quick guard named Julie Mager, nicknamed "The Mighty Mite." Eventually, Mager's moniker caught on and the whole team became the Mighty Mites, and "Quinthooplets" was relegated to the dead file.
Over the next 35 years, the Mighty Mites had some great years (16-2 in 1956, 14-4 in 1959) and some great stars (Marv Hershkowitz, Abe Sodden, Red Blumenreich, Stuie Poloner), but by the early 1970s, the team was in a deep slump, punctuated by its worst season ever, 1973-74, when it went 1-19. That year, while center Paul Merlis was learning in Israel, the team's offense consisted of Bruce Wenig's passing the ball to Dave Wilzig. And a two-person offense leads to a one-win season.
The next year, I became Sports Editor of The Commentator. One evening in November, I stood in line at the cafeteria with Steve Reisbaum, the paper's Editor-in-Chief and my predecessor at sports. We discussed our high hopes for the team. While Wilzig had graduated, Wenig was back, Merlis had returned, senior Ira Scharaga had found his shooting touch, and promising freshman Robbie Rosenbloom was joining the team. I was worried about one thing, though. Steve asked, "Foul shooting?" No, I answered, the team's name. "Mighty Mites." Is there any college team in America with a wussier name? Maybe if the team changed its name, it would play harder, more aggressively, and with more pride. Steve asked what the name should be. I suggested something tough like MTA's name, Lions. Steve disagreed. An animal name is too generic; we need something unique to us, like Maccabees. I liked it immediately. I told him, "That's it. From now on, the team will be known as the Maccabees." He laughed and said, "You can't just change the team's name. You have to get permission, though I don't know from whom - maybe from Red [Sarachek] or Jonny [Halpert]." I said, "No, I'm just gonna do it."
In my sports column in the November 20, 1974, I announced that from this day forward, the team's name would no longer be the Mighty Mites, but would now be the Maccabees. As Sports Editor, I made sure that only the new name appeared in the articles. The next year, I prepared the athletic department's media guide, and the team's name was listed as the Maccabees. I never got permission from Red or Jonny or even Mrs. Miller (who really ran the athletic department back then); I just did it.
Unfortunately, the name change didn't immediately influence the team, which won only five games that year and three the next. But eventually, the spirit of the Maccabees permeated the team, which began racking up successful seasons (okay, maybe getting better players and hiring assistant coaches helped too).
During my student years at Yeshiva, I contributed to this institution by serving on the 1976 Presidential Search Committee that eventually chose Norman Lamm. But I have always felt that my unique contribution to Yeshiva was changing the name of its sports teams. Whenever I read a university press release or an article in The Commentator about the success of the "Macs" or "Lady Macs," I get a singular feeling of pride.
Mr. David Gleicher, YC '76, is a lawyer in Chicago, and the author of "Louis Brandeis Slept Here: A Slightly Cynical History of American Jews." He is currently working on a book about the origins of the American Jewish community in 1654.