Alan Greenwood

DEC. 31, 1951 – “Time may be catching up with Tony Marandos and his schoolboy basketball company. The high school quintet was soundly beaten in its initial public appearance over a week ago by a smooth working alumni crew, and despite indications of tremendous prospects looked to be far from a finished product.

“The full week of vacation-time drills at the high school gym have put some polish on the hoopmen but it is doubtful there’s enough to handle an excellent Keith Academy quintet hungry for its first victory over Nashua on the latter’s home court.”

JAN 2, 1962 – “The Manchester YMCA Seniors are winners of the Y Holiday Basketball championship. One of its team member, Don Tremblay, was named the tourney’s most valuable player and four of its players were selected to the all-tournament squad.

“… Winning places on the all-star team were Ed Cooke of Hudson Legion; Nick Mandravelis and Al Briggs of Nashua; Bob Wheeler of the Concord Patriots; Bill Shaw and George Tzanetakos of Lowell; and Tremblay, Walt Schlender, Dennis Smith and Frank Swierz, all of Manchester.”

JAN. 3, 1967 – “The proposed Nashua Garden sports arena is still in the stock-selling stages but backers of the million-dollar project have erected a sign on the site of the facility (reading Nashua Garden Sports Arena) off the Everett Turnpike and Broad St., near the old Hayward Farms property.

“Louis P. Lemay, coordinator of the project, reports stock sale is continuing at a rapid pace and says plans for construction might be announced sometime this spring.”

JAN. 4, 1972 – “The Nashua High Purple Blades’ winning was halted yesterday by Manchester Memorial at the JFK Coliseum. The game got underway a half-hour late because of a lack of referees. But when it finally got underway Nashua quickly found itself out in front after just 2:03 of the first period.

“The first goal came on a pass from Dave Bodnar to Bruce Whitney. Whitney picked the corner and Nashua appeared to be on its way. But just 31 seconds later a Goal by John Corriveau evened the score at 1-1.”

JAN. 5, 1982 – “Four Amherst swimmers have been invited to compete in the third International Swimming Meet. Nancy McCarthy, 16, Jennifer Carper and Bob Stevenson, both 13, and Jeff Peterman, 12, left last Sunday with other of the Bernal’s Gator Swim Team, which is headquartered at Harvard University.”

JAN. 6, 1987 – “Most games played by the Nashua High School girls basketball team this season are nothing more than show time for the players.

“The Purple Panthers – Stephanie Byrd and Celeste Lavoie in particular – put on a show at home Monday night with a 91-32 defeat of Manchester West.

“… The Panthers were led by Byrd’s 27 points and Lavoie’s 20. Byrd now has 1,039 career points and moved up to sixth place among the all-time area scorers.”

JAN. 7, 1946 – “Last Friday evening’s contest between the Royal Purple and the Giant Killers of Cathedral High School in Manchester one of the hardest fought rivalries in the state today, drew a record audience into the Elm St. gym. … It was understood that the crowd was so large far exceeding expectations, that the supply of tickets ran out and tickets already sold had to be hastily collected at the doors and sold over again.”

Despite fans slowly inching onto the floor under the baskets, Nashua faught them off and won.

Contact Alan Greenwoood at agreenwood@nashuatelegraph.com.