Centennial class
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Benjamin Auerbach
Benjamin Auerbach was born and raised in the Bronx in 1919. He was a Allstar basketball player
at DeWitt Clinton High school 1935-1937. Auerbach decided to stay in the Bronx and attend NYU then located in the Bronx, his junior year 1940 he received the coveted Haggerty Award given to the best male collegiate basketball player in the greater New York area.
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Bernard Fliegel
Bernard Fliegel was born on May 13, 1918. His parents, who were Jewish immigrants from Odessa, Ukraine, started developing an interest in this new game of basketball. At 6'3", he was a star player at DeWitt Clinton and led them to a PSAL city championship, an All American, a Haggerty Award winner, and graduated at the age of 16! He enrolled at CCNY and was hailed as the best player in the city. After graduating at the age of 19, he enrolled at Fordham University School of Law. He played professionally in the ABL while attending law school. Fliegel was offered to play for the New York Knicks in the newly developed NBA, but his desire to practice
law made him refuse the invitation.
Joel "Shikey" Gotthoffer
Joel "Shikey" Gotthoffer was born January 1, 1911; his family emigrated from Austria. His family moved to the Bronx, where he started gravitating towards this new game called basketball. "I guess I started playing basketball before I could read," he recalled. I can't remember a time in my life, not playing basketball." He helped form a neighborhood basketball team called The Bronx Owls. Together, they built a basketball court behind the tenement houses they lived in between 165th and 163rd on Union Ave. in the East Bronx. He was already a skilled player by the time he reached high school, He attended James Monroe in The Bronx, where he helped lead the team to three consecutive NYC championships. He attended NYU. Gotthoffer played in the newly formed American Basketball League ABL, played with the Philadelphia SPHA's. When he started playing with them, he earned 35 cents a game; by 1942, he was earning a whopping one hundred dollars. He
won five American Basketball League championships and the MVP in 1935-36. A Bronx Basketball Legend.