590 MIGHTY MEMORY #528

PHOTO INDEX: THE WORLD FAMOUS WARM DOUBLE DRIBBLERS FROM THE 1960s. LEFT TO RIGHT: JIM WILDER (DEFENSIVE BACK, NY GIANTS TAXI SQUAD), BILL STEWART (DJ AND MEMBER OF THE WILLIAMSPORT H.S. CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM) CLEVELAND "SWISH" MCKINNEY ( SCRANTON MINERS, TEAM USA 1963 ), DON JONES ( PART TIME WITH WARM), WILLIE MURRELL (ALL AMERICAN AT KANSAS STATE UNIV. MINERS IN 65/66 AND LATER PLAYED WITH DENVER AND MIAMI OF THE ABA}, LARRY JONES (TOLEDO UNIV. AND PLAYED 1964/65 W/ PHILA. 76ERS, 65/66 W/ W.B.BARONS AND LATER WITH SEVERAL TEAMS IN THE ABA ), TOM KROH (SALESMAN WITH WARM AND PLAYED BASKETBALL AND ON SKI TEAM IN COLLAGE IN COLORADO, LAVERNE "DOC" TART (DRAFTED BY BOSTON CELITCS PLAYED 65/66 W/ W.B.BARONS AND FROM 67 TO 71 WITH SEVERAL TEAMS IN THE ABA).. IN FRONT WAS TEAM MGR. JOE "MARK CLARK" VERRASTRO WHO CURRENTLY RESIDES IN DUNMORE.

WARM DOUBLE DRIBBLERS

There was the WARM Softball Softies but when the weather got a little nippy, WARM Radio fielded a basketball team. Called the WARM Double Dribblers the team played for charity events all across the broadcast area for charity. As always the draw and allure of WARM packed gyms like St. John's in Pittston, the CYCs in both Scranton and Wilkes Barre, King's Scanlon gym as well as other venues. This photo was forwarded to us by Don Jones who tells us: "I worked part time with WARM in the mid 60's doing live news, re writing news and working record hops with several of the DJs.. I also played on the "Softball Softies" and "Sensational Seven" Basketball team.. Also raced at PDL in 1964.. I'm forwarding a photo taken by the Times-Leader of the team in the 1965 / 1966 season, at Plymouth H.S. I asked Don who he thought were the best and worst players on the team. He said, "No question, Bill Stewart was the best and Lenny Woloson was by far the worst, 2nd worse was Terry McNulty. " WARM at first didn't have ringers but there was a need to do so because of the people the celebrities were playing. Jones said, "We played various school teams made up of coaches, teachers, parents etc. and often they would have an anal player who had to impress his wife or friends by getting physical with someone like Len Woloson. One night when I was working one of the Scranton Miner games with Ron Allen he was telling about this to some of the players and one of the players, I believe it was Willie Murrell, said jokingly that he should play and nobody would mess with him.. Ron ran it by management and talked to Art Pachter and the W-B coach and put together this team. It was a win, win, win, situation since it brought more fans to the high schools, was positive press for the Miners and W-B and kept down the rough play by opposing teams." But even with the added help, the Dribblers were no slouches. "Bill Stewart played high school ball in Williamsport I believe and was a high school All-Star and Tom Kroh was a salesman for WARM who played some college ball at, as I remember, one of the Colorado colleges, "added Jones. Now the Double Dribblers weren't these guys.....but they came pretty close.