When the name Neil Cusat is mentioned, many pleasant memories still flash in the minds of the many former youths and athletes who played for, with and against him.
Cusat, who will be posthumously inducted into the Hazleton Area Sports Hall of Fame next month, was much more rugged than he looked, but he could sure play and teach the game. He expected perfection as a player, coach, unpaid instructor and person and was a magnificent mentor to many local athletes who went on to have outstanding careers. Fellow workers, friends and even frustrated basketball players looked up to him.
"(Neil) began tutoring me in the finer points of one of the greatest games ever played,'' said Joy Gallagher, a former multiple-sport standout at Hazleton Area High School and Wagner College and whose grandfather, Ed McCluskey, was Cusat's teammate on the Hazleton High basketball team which reached the PIAA Class A finals in 1944.
"In the age of the slam dunk and flashy highlight reels, these men drilled fundamentals and the art of old school basketball, including the baby hook, the set shot, the use of English to finesse a layup and the blue-collar boxout,'' Gallagher added in a letter to the editor in the Standard-Speaker after Cusat passed away in May 2010.
"They preached dedication and Coal Region work ethic in their words and in their daily actions. Without the help of Neil and my grandfather, I undoubtedly would not have enjoyed the successes of my career.''
To earn the attention and respect that Cusat attained, he had to have some credentials and he certainly had much more than he needed.
As a seventh grader in 1941, he watched Lower Merion High School begin a run of three straight PIAA state championship. In all three of those years, the Ardmore Aces ended Hazleton High's season.
So in 1944, Lower Merion was bidding for its fourth consecutive state title, but before they got to the "big dance," they had to get past the Mountaineers yet again.
That didn't happen as the Mounts, behind two all-staters in Al Degatis and Carl "Red" Meinhold, were drubbing the defending state champions. The Mounts led by 29 points very late in the game and Degatis and Meinhold were still on the floor at the time. Legendary Mountaineer coach Hughie McGeehan, who was frustrated by losses to Lower Merion in the previous three seasons, apparently really wanted to pepper the Aces.
HHS certainly did, ending Lower Merion's bid for a fourth straight state crown. The Mounts won that Eastern final 59-31, making them an easy contender for bar-room conversation as the greatest Hazleton High team ever.
But with the state final against Western champ Duquesne only four days away, Meinhold tore a cartilage in his knee in the final minute of the Lower Merion game. What would McGeehan do to replace a future NBA player?
He chose a tall, thin sophomore who had scored only six points all season: Neil "Slim" Cusat.
That state title game at Convention Hall in Philadelphia was a physical war, but Cusat was sensational. He scored eight points and had at least ten rebounds. "Who's that No. 40 for Hazleton?" was the question of numerous scouts. "That's Cusat filling for Meinhold!" The Mountaineers came up short that night 43-35, but Cusat made his initial claim to local fame.
Cusat went on to have a nice career at HHS. As a senior in 1946, he was named to the "Cream of the Crop." He made on the Plain Speaker's All-Regional team (which had well more than 10 schools in the region). Five years later. he was Mother of Grace's big star in the Sunday Catholic league and was a force in local basketball tournaments.
His greatest accomplishment, however was teaching kids all his life, which included him coaching Our Lady of Grace to three junior high city championships in the 1960s.
Cusat was a blue-collar guy with above white-collar intelligence. After leading his teams to basketball and even volleyball championships while serving in the Army, he worked as a devoted milkman for both Pecora's and Farmers dairies during most of employment life before ending his working years in the maintenance department at the Penn State Hazleton campus.
At 46 years and 10 months old, Cusat scored a game-high 21 points for the faculty in a faculty-student game one St. Patrick's Day at Penn State.
That's just one of many short stories that can be told about Cusat. Another happened one early summer afternoon in 1972, he was on his way home after finishing his milk route when he made a social visit to 1036 Seybert St. in Hazleton.
There, a friend was entertaining another out-of-town friend. In the backyard was a basketball hoop with a rim of 1-inch stainless steel that was purposely made smaller than regulation, but strong enough for Mighty Joe Young to hang on. The surrounding cement was six inches extra deep and the backboard and supporting pipe were made extra heavy.
Mario Pecile, an outstanding ballplayer at HHS in the mid 1950s, was one of the friends who never could get the best of Cusat in their many one-on-one tilts. But the now 34-year-old and coach at Rio Grande High School in California, Mario finally got the chance to finally whip his mentor, who was 44 at the time. They went at it like the loser's life was on the line. Five games and an hour and a half later, the result was the same: Cusat, wearing his steel-tip work shoes, won.
Cusat resembled the late great George Mikan, who was the NBA's very first great "big man.'' Whenever or wherever he played and coached, people watched and when he strategically spoke, people listened.
"I have been blessed with a supportive and enthusiastic line of mentors and coaches, but I would be remiss if I did not take a moment to thank Neil for all he has meant to me, all the basketball savvy he takes with him and what a fantastic role model he has been throughout his whole life to many,'' Gallagher said.
Cusat and the rest of the Hazleton Area Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2011 will be inducted during a banquet on Sunday, Sept. 18 at Genetti's. For tickets, call Ron Marchetti at 570-956-1532.
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