Buddy Ganir grew up on the North side of Chicago in the Wrigleyville neighborhood. He is a 1960 graduate of Lake View High School where he was captain of the football team and a three-year starter at fullback. Buddy began his softball career in 1957, playing playground softball against other neighborhood teams. Two years later, …
John Garvin, a life-long sports enthusiast, graduated from St. Ignatius High School in 1948. In 1968 he opened Garv-Inn, a small neighborhood tavern in Berwyn. Even though it measured only a thousand feet in space, it was a huge presence in the softball community because of the teams John sponsored. Since its creation in 1968, …
Most of us can point to one or two people in our lives who helped shaped the direction we were taking. For many ball players on the Southside, including Hall of Fame members Bobbie Blackstone, Henry Curie and Dan Dumas, that person was Sally Gregory. Her family came to Chicago in the early 1900s. She …
A 1964 graduate of Du Sable High School in Chicago where he played baseball and football, Donnie Gardner began playing softball in his church league when he was only twelve years old. During his career, he would go on to play and manage for 32 years in over 2100 games; he would win 56 championships …
James Gemskie began his softball career in 1949, playing around Chicago’s Northside. From 1949 through 1953, Gemskie also played football for DePaul Academy, winning All State Honorable Mention. He then went on to play football for three years at St. Ambrose, earning a degree in Political Science. After a knee injury later ended his softball …
Bill Gleason is an icon in Chicago as a media journalist. He has been a gifted writer for the Herald American, Sun Times. a – Southtown Economist for over 50 years. But – be best known for being on camera… “The Sportswriters on TV” is an opening line that we have heard 200 times. Usually …
Paul Guenther began his twenty-six year softball career in the early ‘60s playing in the park leagues of Berwyn and Cicero. Although he spent most of his career playing second base, he could play any infield position with skill. When he moved to the Sobies, he was a great asset because he could also play …
At sixteen years of age, Robert “Butch” Gordon started his softball career at Sherman Park in an unusual way: he presented a phony birth certificate so he could play with the Calumet Council of the Knights of Columbus. He was later recruited by the Crusaders and played with them from 1958 to 1960. In 1961 …
A perfect nickname, for Bob because he owned one of the best pair of hands that ever played this game. Before gloves were used, he played as though he had mitts on both hands; spearing line drives righty or lefty. With Bob at third, smart pitchers would jump as far as they could toward the …
Considered to be one of the finest first basemen ever, no one can recall Joe Gucwa, the 6’3″ star, ever committing an error in a game. Born in 1937, his love for the sport began when he led his Catholic grammar school to two league-winning titles. Joe attended Kelly High School and played as a …
