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Stith Brothers Lead New St. Francis Prep Famers
BY BERNIE BEGLANE
A Man for All Seasons!
The Man Behind the Scenes!
Maybe you think we have gotten away from sports this week and are filling our space with people from the entertainment world.
Far from it!
Once we throw out the names of the Stith Brothers – Sam and Tom – you should, at least those of you who go back to high school basketball in the 1950s, realize that we have not abandoned our career in the world of athletics.
Sam and Tom were legendary schoolboy basketball players at St. Francis Prep who went on to outstanding careers at St. Bonaventure University.
So legendary that we wonder why it took the Franciscan Brothers’ school, now located in Fresh Meadow, 50 years to induct them into its Hall of Fame.
The formal ceremonies took place last Saturday at the school and began with the celebration of Mass.
Mission accomplished!
All of which leaves us with the “Man for All Seasons” and “The Man Behind the Scenes.”
Who are they?
Walter Riebenack is the former, while his classmate of 1957, John Schneider, is “The Man Behind the Scenes.”
They joined still another member of the same class, Tom Stith, and his brother Sam, who graduated a year earlier, as the four Hall of Fame inductees.
And there were more honorees last Saturday. The late Brother Shane Burke, O.S.F., a former superior general of the order, was named one of three honorary members of the Alumni Association.
Marie Eilbacher, the school nurse for 19 years; and Al D’Andrea, who joined the Father’s Guild in 1983 and went on to become the junior varsity baseball coach and now the assistant varsity coach, were similarly honored.
Time to get back to the Stiths, who suffered through the deaths of both parents before becoming high school age.
Three people got them through that tragedy – teenage sisters Eva and Virginia, and the now-deceased Brother Timothy Walsh, O.S.F., then the principal of St. Francis Prep which was located in the Northside section of Brooklyn.
The Stith family lived in Harlem at the time and had met Brother Walsh while playing in the annual St. Francis Prep Grammar School Christmas Basketball Tournament in 1952.
“There was no question that the boys were in financial need for high school.” Brother Walsh told us in our column of May 11, 2002.
“I was attracted to them first by their play in our tournament and when learning of what had happened in the family I offered them the scholarships.”
For their outstanding careers on and off the court, the brothers were inducted into the Basketball Old-Timers of America Hall of Fame in ceremonies on May 4, also of 2002 at Bishop Ford H.S., Park Slope.
“They were an unusual combination,” continued Brother Walsh, who had been treasurer for the Franciscan Brothers prior to his retirement.
“I must say that their sisters, Eva and Virginia, were outstanding in keeping the family together. Sam and Tom made the trip from Harlem to Greenpoint every day by subway. That was some achievement.”
The achievements on the basketball court were impressive, also. The Terriers went 66-2, under Coach Chick Keagan, while they played on the varsity including a 33-0 season and added two national titles to the pair of citywide CHSAA crowns.
Tom, who graduated from St. Francis Prep in 1958, a year after Sam, received over 100 scholarship offers, primarily because he was a better scorer than his old brother. However, he elected to follow Tom.
The Stith brothers are easily the best known duo in the basketball history of St. Bonaventure University, the Franciscan Brothers’ college in upstate Olean.
Their efforts in the 1959-60 season led to a combined scoring average of 52 points a game – 31.5 for Tom and 20.5 for his older brother.
The Bonnies, coached by the now-deceased Eddie Donovan (he later became coach and then general manager of the New York Knicks) finished fourth in the NIT.
Over their four seasons St. Bonaventure made three trips to the NIT and one to the NCAA Tournament.
Sam still holds the school record of field goals in a season with 327 and scoring average in a season at 31.5. His uniform No. 22, as well as Tom’s 42, have been retired. The brothers were inducted into the St. Bonaventure Athlete Hall of Fame in 1969.
“None of this would have been possible without Brother Walsh,” said Sam, who converted to Catholicism while a student at St. Bonaventure.
“He was a blessing. Without scholarships, our lives would have been in disarray. My father, Sam, also, drowned at the age of 24. Our mother, Eva, was 32 when she passed away because of kidney disease.
“Our grandmother was a little too old to help, so our sisters, Eva who was 13 and Virginia, 16, stepped up and took charge. To this day I don’t know how they did it, especially Eva. My brothers and I knew things weren’t good, but we were too young to realize how bad they really were.”
Riebenack, after graduating from the Prep (where he played football for Vince O’Connor), attended Notre Dame (for which he credits O’Connor) and received his graduate and undergraduate degrees.
Walter and his wife, Mary Ann, live in Fort Wayne, IN. He is a certified engineer, lawyer, accountant and financial adviser who “dabbles” in a wide variety of business and investment projects, including the ownership and management of a bank in Wyoming.
He is very interested in not-for-profit fundraising development and philanthropy as well, having established a fully endowed graduate scholarship in this field at St. Mary’s University in Minnesota (where his daughter went to school).
In addition, he is active in the fundraising activities of a number of local institutions/organizations, including the University of St. Francis in Fort Wayne Catholic Charities of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne, and the Indiana Environmental Council.
Riebenack has also been very good to the Prep from a charitable standpoint, having sponsored Homecoming Weekend in 2003 and co-sponsored the Golf Classic (and the Vincent and Mary O’Connor Scholarship Fund) with his classmate in 2004. Walt and he have shown significant interest in the planning and organization for Prep’s upcoming 150th Anniversary.
Mr. ‘Low Key’
Schneider, “The Man Behind the Scenes,” has been called “low key” by all who know him not just today but from the first day he entered St. Francis Prep.
Jack also was instrumental in the establishment of The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis and he sits on the board of The Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation.
He was also a member of the board of Delbarton School in Morristown, N.J., the prestigious, Benedictine-run school (grades seven through 12) that is often referred to as the “Notre Dame of Prep Schools.”
Schneider has also been good to St. Francis Prep from a charitable giving standpoint, having contributed a six-figure gift for Vision for the Future (The Endowment Fund Campaign) in the late ’90s, and co-sponsored the Golf Classic (and the Vincent and Mary O’Connor Scholarship Fund) with Riebenack.
Brother Shane passed away last Dec. 27 on the Feast of St. John the Evangelist, at Maria Regina Residence, Brentwood, following a long and valiant struggle with pancreatic cancer.
He entered the Franciscan Brothers on Aug. 2, 1968, attended St. Francis College and received a bachelor’s in philosophy in 1972; later earned his master’s in education at St. John’s University in 1980 and was awarded a doctorate in education from Harvard University in 1985.
Election as superior general took place on March 22, 2003.
Brother Shane’s devotion to Catholic education was unparalleled. When diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003, the seriousness of his condition was made eminently clear to him. With this diagnosis, Brother Shane faced this final difficulty in the same manner as he approached everything in his life with passion and courage.
Eilbacher graduated from Mary Immaculate Hospital (Jamaica) School of Nursing and remained in a hospital setting until joining St. Francis Prep.
While there, she initiated and ran two very successful Health Fairs for the entire school, its faculty and staff.
In addition, Eilbacher was the guest speaker annually at the Women in History Club to help raise awareness for breast cancer.
Her connection goes back to 1976 when she joined the Mother’s Guild. She was nominated and accepted to the board of governors in 1980 and became a very active member. She was chairlady of many fund-raising events including six fashion shows.
She also gave 25 years of service to the Rosary Altar Society of St. Mel’s parish, Flushing.
D’Andrea, in addition to his coaching at St. Francis, also has been the bookstore manager since 1998 and an eight-year member of the Father’s Guild.
A member of St. Margaret’s, Middle Village, he was a baseball coach there for 14 seasons, the athletic director for 12 and chairman of the parish board of trustees and chairman of the annual bazaar.
Flatlands Parish Takes Brooklyn Title
St. Thomas Aquinas, Flatlands, sixth-grade boys basketball team celebrated its third straight BCBA title with a win over St. Patrick’s, Bay Ridge, in the finals, which were held at Xaverian H.S.
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