These Bullets got shot down way too fast
By Tony Zonca — MikeDragoSports.com senior contributor
How many people living in Berks County would you guess have heard of the Hamburg Bullets basketball team?
Fifty? Twenty? Just me?
Let me fill you in: In 1972-73 the Bullets became members of the Eastern Basketball League, which was a feeder league to the NBA. The league had been around since the 1940s. Teams played mostly in Pennsylvania, places such as Allentown, York, Harrisburg, Hazleton and Sunbury to name a few.
But not in Hamburg.
Games were played on weekends, in high school gyms, armories, YMCAs, wherever there was a court and enough seating to stay in the black.
The Bullets were owned and operated by Pottsville native Joe Coombs. Coombs was doomed from the start; he had little money and little knowledge about professional basketball ownership.
Sometime in the fall of 1972 he called me to see if I was interested in becoming his assistant and doubling as public relations director. I told him I would have to get an OK from Reading Eagle management, which I did. Things were different back then; the paper encouraged moon lighting. It controlled its payroll.
We put a team together that included point guard Billy DeAngelis from St. Joseph’s in Philly; John Shannon, a 6-3 shooting guard from Philadelphia Textile; Sonny Dove, a center from St. John’s in New York; and 6-9 strong forward Jim Morgan from Maryland State.
Our NBA affiliate was the Baltimore Bullets, coached by Gene Shue, a Baltimore native who played at Towson Catholic and the University of Maryland. Shue became a five-time all-star guard in the NBA, mostly with the Detroit Pistons.
He went on to coach 22 years in The League for five teams, including the Sixers. He was fired after four seasons in Philadelphia after a disagreement with Fitz Dixon, the team owner. It didn’t help that Turquoise Erving, the outspoken wife of Dr. J., publicly lambasted Shue in the media. No player defended him.
Back to the Hamburg Bullets. The team lasted nine or 10 games in the EBL because of poor performance and poor attendance.
We had played a preseason exhibition game at Holy Name High School. Attendance was decent. I was encouraged. Two days later Coombs called to tell me he had decided to put the team in Hamburg and play at the ancient fieldhouse. He reasoned fans from Reading and Pottsville would support the team.
I tried to talk him out of it. “Joe, the only people who will show up are the people from Hamburg.”
I figured he must have worked out a good deal for the fieldhouse, whose only redeeming quality was the hot dogs in the concession stand, which we had no stock in.
That was his first fatal decision. The second was his choice of a coach. He hired former high school coach Dave Linkchorst, who had enjoyed phenomenal success at Mahanoy Area. The Schuylkill League and the EBL were worlds apart. Linkchorst was lost. He knew it; so did the players.
Then came Coombs’ worst decision. Players were paid by the game. They had to provide their own transportation to the weekend games. The average per-game salary was from $75-$100. I tried to convince Coombs to bring in Berks icon Ron Krick to upgrade our roster.
I approached the former West Reading and University of Cincinnati star about playing. He said he would, but he needed to be paid $150 a game. Coombs balked even though I assured him Krick would easily exceed his salary at the gate, especially if we located in Reading.
And so, shortly after the New Year, the Hamburg Bullets became the Hazleton Bullets. DeAngelis became player-coach and I walked away.
Coombs, who was laying bad paper everywhere he went, owed me $1,000. He was working out of a trailer in Hazleton. I tracked him down and convinced him — I put it mildly — to pay me. He wrote a check for $500. Weeks later I drove back to the trailer, which obviously had been vacated.
I’m still waiting for my $500.
