Amazing Scholar Athlete
While our son was visiting us in Florida back in February for his birthday, we discovered he shares the same birthday with one of the long-time residents of our condo building by the name of Ed B, who celebrated his 86th birthday while our son was 42. A week before his birthday, Ed had surgery so was convalescing in a rehab facility that did not allow visitors due to Covid. So a drive-by birthday parade was held in his honor as he sat outside the rehab center as pictured below.
Ed is a very likable guy who was quite an athlete in his day. We’ve come to enjoy the many stories about his sports exploits each Saturday and Sunday afternoon during the snowbird season, when Ed holds court around the tiki bar at our condo’s pool while we watch a football or basketball game on TV. Our son had met Ed during earlier trips and heard his stories as well, so he wanted to spend part of his birthday honoring Ed by joining us for the car parade.
Ed grew up on Long Island in Rye, NY and attended an all boys Catholic high school named Iona Prep in the aerial photo pictured here.
All five starters on their basketball team received college scholarship; Ed to Fordham University in the Bronx. He was also recruited by Tom Blackburn, legendary coach of the Dayton Flyers, but chose to stay closer to home at Fordham. He is enshrined in Iona Prep's Sports Hall of Fame, with the following inscribed on his plaque:
Here are some action photos from his high school yearbook. Note the way the team rested during a timeout!
Incidentally, Fordham originated the three point line in college basketball, experimenting with the concept during the 1940’s. Imagine what Ed’s scoring total would have been the night he scored 60 if the 3 point line was in use? Below is an article about Ed in the student newspaper. While at Fordham, Ed had the opportunity to meet their football coach, Vince Lombardi, who also was an All American player for Fordham in 1937 and later went on to legendary fame with NFL's Green Bay Packers.
After obtaining a business degree from Fordham in 1957, Ed spent the next two years with the Marine Corps, and since his stint was between the Korean and Viet Nam wars and with his athletic prowess, he spent the entire time after basic training playing for the Marine Corps basketball and baseball teams to entertain the leathernecks by holding exhibition games against other military and nearby college teams. Below is a photo of Ed grabbing a rebound in a 1958 game while playing against Camp Lejeune.
Once his Marine Corps tour of duty (if you can call it that!) was complete, Ed became a successful investment banker on Wall Street. One of his perks was a membership in a country club of his choice, so he took the opportunity to join historic Wing Foot, host to many major golf events over the years including last year’s PGA championship won by Bryson DeChambeau as the only player to shoot under par.
It was at Wing Foot where Ed met Anne, the love of his life. The couple was married almost 60 years before Anne's recent death. Both were avid golfers, with Ed not surprisingly becoming a scratch golfer, being the natural athlete he was. Several of their children and grandchildren are also Wing Foot members, with one son playing on the PGA tour and a grandson golfing for Colgate University. In addition to golf, like Ed, family members were skilled athletes, playing championship lacrosse, hockey, tennis, soccer and swimming at the high school and collegiate level.
So needless to say, with Ed’s many personal and family sports endeavors, he could keep us enthralled with hour-after-hour of stories around the tiki bar. Thanks to his connections at Wing Foot, he met many celebrities over the years, stories of whom he would share during commercial breaks. Consider this list: Vin Scully, Rick Pitino, Jim Boeheim, Donald & Melania Trump, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Fuzzy Zoeller, Billy Casper, Hale Irwin and Wellington Mara, plus Larry Bird, Bob Seeger and Johnny Bench, who all have places nearby in Naples. And he had interesting stories to tell about each. For example, click here for his story about meeting Michael Jordan and several of his friends.
After retiring to Naples and buying a unit in our condo building, Ed and Anne were active locally in many civic and charitable affairs. For example, below is a photo of the couple at a costume charitable fund raiser benefitting the school affiliated with their church, St. Anne’s of course!. They weren’t being recognized for their costumes, although creative, but instead for the amount of money they had donated. In Naples, Ed and Anne loved the view from their condo (as do we) watching the manatees and dolphins swimming in Venetian Bay. So in 2014, to better protect the mammals from being injured by boat propellers, they were instrumental in getting the bay declared a no-wake zone to lower boat speeds.
Ed is one of a kind and a real joy to be around. He makes those weekend afternoons a real treat each winter especially as we observe the manatees and dolphins splashing around in the bay to Ed’s delight!
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