In late 1972, I was the coach of the St. Barnabas Roman Catholic Church Girls CYO basketball team in Depew. We weren’t a very good team, but the girls made up for their lack of abilities by their dedication, enthusiasm, sportsmanship and hard work. Their parents were all proud of them.

I had an assistant coach named Ed Walters. Ed and I got along very well. We had the same philosophy: We both wanted the girls to have fun, and improve to the best of their abilities. Ed worked for Pillsbury, and was a devoted family man whose wife was named Carol.

Our basketball games were once or twice per week and our main focus was getting enough rides to get the players to the games. In late December 1971 there were typical New Year’s celebrations and everything was fine.

Suddenly on Jan. 2, 1972, we

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