By Tom Rowe

Contributing Writer

Just 161 days after the “Big Four” – Prime Ministers Georges Clemenceau (France), David Lloyd George (Great Britain), Vittorio Emanuele Orlando (Italy) and President Woodrow Wilson (United States) – spearheaded the acceptance and subsequent signing of the Treaty of Versailles (June 28, 1919) and only 28 years since Dr. James Naismith had invented the sport, the Norwich High School basketball team embarked on its two-year journey to immortality. Along that storied way, the Purple cagers compiled a record of 40-2-1, winning the New York State Interscholastic Championship Outside of New York City in 1920, while finishing runners-up a year later in 1921. For their efforts, these long-ago hardwood heroes are part of the fifth induction class of the Norwich High School Sports Hall of Fame.

Like the New York Yankees boasted the “Core Four” during their late-nineties success story, these two Tornado clubs were comprised of an “Iron Five” who saw most of the action. That handful was made up of Edwin “Buck” Burrows, Don O’Hara, Fred O’Hara, Harold “Clone” Ryan and Clarence “Jock” Taylor. Bill Sullivan, who captained the 1918-19 squad was the other main ingredient on the earlier team, while Lynn Halbert did likewise on the latter. Coach Frank Wassung, then in his fifth year at the NHS helm, opened the 1919-’20 campaign, but midway through the season Johnny Barsha assumed command and continued there through the following year.

1919-’20