Courier-Post from Camden, New Jersey • Page 16

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CounerrPosI Photo by Sa Kushner '3 By BOB KENNEY Couripr-Post Sports Editor RIVERSIDE He's one of a vanishing breed. For more than 40 years, Bob (Pop) Vernon has gathered the kids of this town and taught the fundementals of basketball. He's 72 now, a bit grayer and a bit slower than he was at his first clinics back in the late '30s, but the kids get the same message. "I try to teach sportsmanship and fundementals," Pop said the other day as he concluded a mini sesson with a group of youngsters. "Nothing fancy.

I'm happy if I can teach them to use both hands." They're the same things Pop has been teaching for two full generations. Actually, the only difference today is the several young ladies in the clinics. "We've had girls for several years now," said Pop. "Not many, but the ones who come out want to learn the game." TEACHING THE GAME to youngsters anxious to learn has always been Pop's idea of fun. He arrived here from Burlington in 1927 and was a standout player for the old Turners AC for more than a decade.

When his playing ability began to fade, Ver-non began coaching. He started with older players but soon foundhimself attracted to young grammar school players. "I started working with a group called the Fourth Ward," he recalled. "It got me started and I have been coaching and running clinics ever since." This year Vernon met with more than 60 youngsters every Saturday morning. An hour of fundementals was followed by pick-up games, Often Pop ran the program alone.

People are not as willing to give up three hours on a Saturday morning as they once were, but Pop doesn't complain. "It's tough working alone," he said. "But I did have some help, Emma Kenney, Jim Assante and my grandson Dean were out whenever possible. Maybe next year, I'll have more help," Pop'i early clinics weren't held indoors. His most successful teaching took place in his backyard on Cleveland Avenue and on the mud-grass court at nearby St.

Casimir's. "I had some fine players move up right after the war," Pop recalled. "But that Cleveland Avenue gang was really something." THAT WAS the high point of South Jersey basketball, especially in Burlington County. And Vernon played a major role in the success story. His Cleveland Avenue gang featured son Bobby, Larry and Harvey Painter, Dom Cicali and Bob Gehret.

Hour after hour they worked with Pop in the early '50s and then moved on to produce a series of championship teams at Riverside High School. It started an era that included more than 100 straight league victories for Riverside and produced unbeaten state championship teams in 1954 and 1959 Saturday mornings in Riverside became synonimous with basketball clinics. Youngsters came, learned from Pop, and went on to excell in high school. Bill Craft, John Casperite, Joe Posch, Doug Roche, Frank Haines, Jack Burke, Tony Car-raci, Butch McFadden, Harry Johnstone and Bemie Smith were among the players Pop helped mold. Most went on to star in college and many came back to make their mark in the high school coaching ranks.

Bobby Vernon went on to star at Duke and came back as the very successful head coach at Kennedy in Willingboro, But Pop Vernon's clinics are "not provincial. He is helping mold basketball players not develop talent for the local high school. He took a lanky youngster from nearby Delanco, Allen Bunge, and helped him become a star. THE 6-9 BUNGE led Riverside's biggest rival. Palmyra, to a state title in '56 and later was an Ail-American at Maryland and a first round NBA draft choice.

Two years later another Vernon product for Palmyra, Dave Wiedeman, moved on to star at Wake Forest and returned as a state championship coach at Haddonfield. On this Saturday morning, though, Pop Vernon was not thinking in terms of All-Americans. He was explaining the basics, over and over and over again to a group of wide-eyed 10-year-olds; The Improvement In a half-hour of playing time was both amazing and obvious, "That's what makes it so worth while," said Vernon. 1.