PHOENIXVILLE OLD TIMERS

The Phoenixville Area Athletic Association (formerly Old Timers) is having its annual banquet Saturday night, April 5, at the No. 1 Fire House on Church Street in Phoenixville.
Longtime community sports activist Abdul Ford-Bey will be honored during the program portion of the event.
The Old Timers used to hold dinners twice a year, one in the fall and one in the spring, to renew acquaintances from the past and to honor former sports stars from the Phoenixville area, a living Hall of Famer in the fall and a deceased member during the spring.
Huge crowds used to jam the Polish Club on High Street and other sites to attend the dinners. However, since the membership consisted of older citizens, numbers gradually diminished. There has been little influx of younger members to maintain the numbers in the organization.
There is now just one banquet per year, if that, instead of two since membership and attendance dropped off so drastically.
The group decided to try to revive it this year in order to honor Ford-Bey for his work with the Phoenixville Marian Youth Club (PMYC) in football, basketball and field hockey as well as the Phoenixville Youth Babe Ruth League (PYBRL) for work with baseball and softball.
These dinners have always been fun, entertaining nights with notable guest speakers. I have covered many of these banquets.
It is nice to try to see the tradition maintained since Phoenixville has such a great history in athletics of all sorts, both boys and girls.

Posted by
Barry Sankey