Back in the late 1940s – after the end of World War II – there were no summer leagues like the Rucker in New York City and the Sonny Hill in Philadelphia. And that held true for the rest of the country. Hoops were not the most important item on everyone’s agenda. So where could one get a game or two if you wanted to improve?

Why, head for the Catskills, and you would find plenty of basketball on tap at resorts like Brown’s Hotel, Grossingers (which made a name for itself as a sports mecca for top flight boxers to train), the Concord Hotel and Resort, the Alamac Country Club and the eventual stomping grounds for the court sport, Kutsher’s Country Club.

Much of the publicity afforded Kutsher’s – a basketball haven during the summer hiatus from the surrounding metropolitan cities – was due to the diligence of Haskell Cohen, who was considered one of the more astute publicity pundits in the country, and especially noted for getting the names of his clients spread around the tabloids without too much cost to the employer.

Haskell first introduced basketball events while doing public relations for the Alamac Country Club in Woodbridge up in the Catskills. He even brought in the Harlem Globetrotters to play against teams of NBA All-Stars. Milt Kutsher heard about the popularity of the sport at Alamac and soon persuaded Cohen to sign on as his public relations man. The City of Hope games became a charity function of Kutsher’s under Cohen’s aegis, and in 1959, a game was established in the name of Maurice Stokes whose brilliant NBA career was cut short by a tragic illness.

Haskell had a number of prime accounts and was later to head up the National Basketball Association’s first publicity department. In fact, he was the NBA’s public relations guy for decades. Better yet, he knew all the key scribes in the country and virtually everyone connected with the sport – especially in the East – where the cage game was strongest.

Cohen must have suggested that Milt hire a lot of athletes to work in his country club during the summer and Wilt Chamberlain, a high school sensation, was one of the first to grab a spot there – as a bellhop. The Dipper immediately became a big favorite with the guests and soon a basketball team was formed to represent Kutsher’s. Games would soon be played with various other hotels in the Catskills and the area would eventually become a hot bed of basketball. Kutsher’s became the focal point of the cage game for many summers and a basketball court was eventually built to house these “exhibition games.”

I attended several of these games at Kutsher’s, as did a large continent of both NBA officials and players, many of whom coached or played in the charity basketball event. Red Auerbach was often one of the coaches, and many of the stars of the NBA, including Chamberlain, appeared in the game, which was one of the highlights of each summer. Turnaway crowds were the norm for many years and all proceeds from the event were contributed to a fund named in honor of Stokes.

In the summer of 1960, I suggested to the St. Louis Hawks owner Ben Kerner that we move our annual rookie camp to the country club. Len Koppett, the savvy basketball writer of the New York Times, then came up with the idea of having the Hawks play the cast of the hit Broadway musical Gypsy in a charity softball game as part of our stay there.

Since we had formed a softball team during previous summers, we knew that we could field a pretty good athletic unit. But since most of the show’s performers were female – and that was to be the makeup of our opponents – we all agreed to bat left-handed. I don’t think Broadway legend Ethel Merman, the star of Gypsy, attended a game.

Since the “rookie” camp included veterans like Clyde Lovellette, Cliff Hagan, Paul Seymour, Dave Piontek, Len Wilkens (our first round pick that year) and Corny Freeman (another draft choice), I felt we had enough bodies to fill out our roster. Just to be sure, I asked Pete Newell, the veteran college basketball coach who had led the United States to the Olympic crown that year and who was visiting Kutsher’s that week, if he had ever played softball. I needed a centerfielder and Newell said he had played the sport “from time to time.”

I was usually the starting pitcher unless the score got close. Then Seymour, a pro softball hurler in the offseason, would replace me. I don’t remember if Bob Pettit, our ace during our St. Louis years, was part of our camp that summer or if Charley Share, our veteran center, was also there. It was 46 years ago and I just turned 79 this past March so some details escape me. Share had been our first baseman for several years.

It was a high-scoring game and lots of fun for the spectators since our guys all batted from the port side of the plate. I forgot to ask Newell if he was lefty batter. In his first-at-bat, with the bases full, swinging from the left side, he hit a ball so far over the trees in right field that we never found the ball. When he duplicated that feat a few innings later, the Gypsy girls complained and I had to replace Newell. He had neglected to tell me he batted left-handed and I, of course, forgot to ask. He had set all kinds of records playing fast-pitch softball on the West Coast, so the term “ringer,” when applied to him, held true.

I don’t remember the final score – except that both teams scored a lot of runs and everyone, including a lot of guests from Kutsher’s who contributed to the charity, had a fun time with a good amount of money raised.

Another highlight of the week at Kutsher’s was a trip most of us took to the nearby Concord Hotel and Resort, where heavyweight contender Ingmar Johansson was training for a fight with the current World Champion, Floyd Patterson. Lovellette, who never was bashful, even jumped into the ring and jokingly threw some “phony” punches at the Swede. Most of our players and I, and I believe our coach Paul Seymour, had our pictures taken with Johansson, but who would remember to save them. Not I.

Here’s an interesting sidenote to that visit. Both Cliff Hagan and I were actually going to New York City to see the fight a few days later. Someone had invited Hagan to attend the title fight (which was held at the Polo Grounds, home of the New York Giants of the National League). I didn’t realize it at the time of our visit to the Concord, but I was to receive one of the best seats in the house for the fight.

George Puscas, who was the basketball beat guy for the Detroit Pistons, covered boxing for the Detroit Free Press and had hired me to do several “sidebars” for the bout. He knew of my boxing background (I was once the youngest licensed boxing matchmaker in the US and worked for Sugar Ray Robinson, one of the greatest boxers of all-time, and middleweight contender Rocky Castellani among others) before joining the then Milwaukee Hawks in July of 1954.

“I’ve got you a press seat for the fight,” George advised.

I was shocked when the seat turned out to be ringside in the third row. As a result, I incurred the wrath of many famous writers like Cy Burick of Dayton, who was sitting several rows behind me. I made up for it by being the first “writer” to make it to Ingmar’s dressing room after he flattened Patterson early. Ingmar dressed in the New York Giants’ clubhouse locker room which was situated on the left hand side of a building located in deep center field. Patterson’s dressing room was the visitor’s dressing room located on the right side of the complex.

I rushed up the stairs leading to the winner’s dressing room and told the surprised attendant guarding the entrance that I was going to handle the ensuing press conference and that I would OK the writers who were to be admitted to the locker room. I positioned myself at the foot of the stairs and waved up the guys I knew to the Giants’ dressing room. I had quickly set up a rubbing table and stuck two chairs behind, creating a makeshift arrangement which at least kept the photographers and radio guys from taking over the closest positions. I remember it was a madhouse but it did not seem to phrase Ingmar, who intimidated everyone and had predicted the knockout.

As I bid a hasty retreat, my last “official” duty was to okay the entrance of two non-press people (but nevertheless more famous than anyone else attending the post-fight festivities). Making sure one of the ushers cleared a path for the two, I raced for the press room underneath the Polo Grounds to file some background stories and sidebars on the fight.

The two people I had arranged a clear path for were Elizabeth Taylor and Mike Todd. They must have thought I was part of the deal since nary a word passed between us. I made sure all the writers listed the pair as “dressing room visitors” in their stories.

Today, there are NBA summer events in Orlando, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. And three NBA teams play in the long-running California Summer League in Long Beach, CA. High school and college players can play at any number of camps and tourneys sponsored by shoe companies and AAU organizations from coast to coast. Still around are the resplendent Sonny Hill League in the Quaker City and the Rucker event in New York City, plus leagues in Louisville, Houston, Chicago, and San Francisco. You name the city and you’ll find summer league play.

But it all started in the Catskills at Alamac and Kutsher’s.