He wrote of his connection to the final Dunkirk-Cardinal Mindszenty football game.

As a Mindszenty grad myself, that game was the emotional swan song for the football program at the small school on Central Avenue. Officials had already announced that the county’s lone Catholic high school would close its doors for the final time the next June.

“It was the fall of 1978 and I was about to embark on my first varsity

high school football coaching assignment. I was a student teacher at Dunkirk High and Head Football Coach Dan Elvin offered me a position to coach the wide receivers and defensive backs for the Marauders,” Benton remembered.

Vic Lesso

“We lost our opener to Jamestown, the preseason No. 1-ranked large school in WNY by a score of 24-12 at College Stadium in Jamestown.

Benton, who had two stints as DHS head coach, also later spent varsity seasons leading Gowanda, JFK and Cattaraugus-Little Valley.

Benton continued, “Dunkirk would go on to win four straight before losing at Salamanca that was for the conference championship. Dunkirk defeated Falconer at home during week seven and then hosted Cardinal Mindszenty on Friday, November 3.”

It had been a difficult season for longtime Mindszenty head coach Bob Muscato, Benton recalled.

“While Dunkirk had only lost two games, Mindszenty was struggling during the ’78 season. By the end of the first quarter, it was evident that this once intense rivalry between the two schools located less than a half mile apart was a mismatch. Dunkirk went on to post a 34-0 victory to finish the season with a 6-2 record and second place in Division VI.

“It was the end of a successful football era that covered 25 years. But it all began 47 years ago in Dunkirk, New York. And I was on the sidelines for the last bittersweet varsity football game Cardinal Mindszenty ever played,” Benton wrote.

Recent Silver Creek Central School Black Knight Hall of Fame inductee Paul Policella (1963-66) checked in with a cherished memory made possible by Fredonia Central School cross country coach Vic Lesso.

I’ll let him tell it with the usual minor editing.

“As a 10th-grader, I was fortunate to win the Section VI cross country championship race in my division (small schools). There was a class C (my school’s division), a class B race (medium size schools — Fredonia, Dunkirk for example), and a Class A division (Jamestown). As a sectional winner, I was selected to run in the NY State cross country championship race held across the state near West Point. It involved an overnight stay on a Friday and race on Saturday.

“I went to school that Friday as a nervous, just turned 15 year old, with my overnight suitcase. I didn’t know what to expect …

“I was pulled from my classes that Friday afternoon and met with the principal, my coach, and athletic director in the front lobby of the school waiting for a bus to pick me up. To say this 10th-grader wasn’t shaking in his boots is an understatement.

“As I looked for the school bus to pick me up, I saw this huge Greyhound bus turning into the parking lot, twice the size of a school bus. The bus had picked up about 30 or more runners from Chautauqua County that had qualified for the state meet. This included the WHOLE Fredonia High School team which had won the Class B race as a team and got to represent Section VI. Their coach at the time was a man named Vic Lesso. Being that Fredonia as a team was representing Section VI in the race meant that their coach was coaching all of us that weekend.

“Being from a smaller school, Silver Creek didn’t run against larger schools and I figured I would not know other boys on the bus. The bus pulled up and Coach Lesso stepped off the bus and walked into the lobby. After introductions and good luck wishes from my coaches and administrators, he walked with me toward the bus. ‘Oh man,’ I thought. ‘This is it.’

“Four large steps up the bus… first step thinking, ‘Well, I won’t know anyone.’ Up step 2 … ‘Geeez.’ Up step 3. ‘I guess I’ll just sit in the back of the bus by myself for the many-hour trip across the state.’

“Finally the top step and turning and seeing all the faces looking at probably the youngest kid on the bus starting to look for an empty seat in the back.

“That’s when the whole Fredonia High School team started clapping and cheering and welcoming me. My jaw must have hit the floor. I looked back to see Coach Lesso smiling. His team, sitting all together in the middle of the bus, had a seat waiting for me with them. By the time those hours went by, I felt part of their team.

“Coach Lesso had numerous responsibilities that weekend, hotel reservations and room pairings, coaching the county boys for the race, getting them all settled and back on the bus following the race. Yet he took the time to talk to his team about making a somewhat shy, younger guy feel welcomed. I roomed with one of his team. It was quite an honor to run in a NY State championship race.

“Unfortunately, I remember absolutely NOTHING of the race itself. What I remember is how I became an ‘adopted’ member of that Fredonia team and the memories of that long bus ride to and from the race. Maybe my social skills weren’t so developed to have adequately thanked Vic Lesso for what he did for this 10th-grader but I hope so.

“It meant enough that 60 some years later it’s one of my fondest growing-up memories. I know he was a great coach, had training methods way beyond his time, was revered by his runners, but this one guy remembers so much more of what made him so revered by all who were fortunate to be coached by him.”

Many thanks, Mark and Paul. Keep those cherished sports memories coming. See you next month.

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DO YOU have a favorite memory of playing, coaching or officiating? Drop me a line at mandpp@hotmail.com and let’s reminisce.

Bill Hammond is a former EVENING OBSERVER sports editor.