Thanks to Charlie Clark for providing us with the late Dwight Whikehart’s collection of Better Sports Club of Arlington programs. We think you will enjoy them. They provide a slice of Arlington History.
Professional athletes are not who they used to be. With today's salaries and demands the Better Sports Club could not afford to bring in this many Major Leaguers for an awards night. Note the letter from J. Edgar Hoover.
For Arlington's Outstanding Junior Bowler, Bill Dailey was the presenter. He was from Arlington and is shown in our Collections tab under Sports Trading Cards Collection.
Presenter Fred Valentine's best season came in 1966 with the Washington Senators when many considered him the best player on a bad team.
Listed under acknowledgements, the Northern Virginia Sun newspaper would eventually become the Sun Gazette. Pla-Mor Bowling Lanes was located in Ballston off Fairfax Drive where the CACI building stands today.
Note the venue for the awards night was moved from the Elks Lodge in Fairfax to Knights of Columbus Hall in Arlington.
The presenter for the Junior Boys Baseball Sportsman Award was Clay Kirby who was a legendary junior baseball player in Arlington. The Outstanding Golfer recipient, John Daniel, is better known as Spike Daniel of Washington Golf & Country Club, and he can still play well.
Presenting that evening was Jay Franklin, another youth sensation who played Little League in Arlington before his family moved to Fairfax, and Bert Whittington, one of Arlington's most treasured Little League coaches. Washington Senators favorite, Frank Howard, presented to long-time Washington-Lee coach Dick Mitchell.
Billy Castleberry Memorial Award presenter was Don Lichty, sadly, his funeral was one day after this posting. I searched presenter John P. Mohr and according to Wikipedia he retired as the number four man at the FBI, and even then some FBI heads were in trouble. Former Arlingtonian and Congressman Joel Broyhill presented that night. A Clarendon Trust ad is shown and its main office stood where Bao Bar in Clarendon is today.
This is one of my favorite of all the BSC program pages because it describes the Club, lists past prominent names in Arlington sports, and shows photos of two of Arlington's most storied pitchers, Clay Kirby and Jay Franklin.
Notice the ad for Underwood's, their location is where the G.O.A.T. Sports Bar is today in Clarendon. The old metal Underwood sign was above the entry door for years and likely still is. Long-time Arlingtonian, Vincent Kirchner was on the BSC board and committee, you can see his son Bernie's story in our Collections category.
One of the great supporters of Arlington sports was also one of its greatest baseball players, George McQuinn, owner of the McQuinn's ad. I attended this awards night and was very excited to get the autograph of one of the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame. I still have it. Reach out to us if you recall Bo Kinnal, he's listed as providing the music that night.
It's fun to see Danny Pototsky's name listed on this page since I played with or against him from Little League through high school at Washington-Lee. He later coached the baseball team at W-L for many years. My brother Dick Thomas is also listed on this page. He went on to win the club championship at Washington Golf & Country Club four times and at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club twice.
Two winners are listed for Arlington's High School Coaching Achievement Award, Jim Allen, who coached at Yorktown and has been a long-time member at Mount Olivet Methodist Church on Glebe Road, and Del Norwood, who is best known for being the head baseball coach at Washington-Lee for many years and for being the father of former NFL kicker Scott Norwood.
It would be interesting to know if Bob Connor's H&H Exterminators became Connor's Pest Control. Let us know if you know. Biggs & Kirchner, yes, this is the same Kirchner sports family of Arlington. Listed is another super golfer at Washington Golf, Mark Siciliano, and another one of Arlington's greatest baseball players. Jim Barbe, who played for Del Norwood on W-L's Northern Region Championship team in 1972,
Another brother note, see Harry Thomas listed as the Arlington Athlete of the Year in 1972. He played with Jim Barbe at W-L and went to the University of Virginia on a full football scholarship only to switch it to a full baseball scholarship his sophomore year.
This page has so many of the great old names of Arlington sports and even two young girls I went to school with, Paula Ramsay and Darlene Carter. Paula's father coached Dick Blanken Ford's little league basketball team in the 1970's and won the league championship in 1972.
This page is a classic with former local channel 9 sports anchor Warner Wolf who left for the big money in New York. His favorite line was, "Let's go to the video tape!"
This appears to be the first year a hockey award was presented.
Melissa Belote was quite famous at the time of this awards dinner. She won four golds and two silvers in her Olympics career, along with setting two world records. She attended Robert E. Lee High School in Fairfax.
Note the name of the trophy for Athlete of the Year, The Merrill Hoover Memorial Trophy. Ask some seniors in the Washington-Lee area and they'll recall stories about Hoover being the "greatest athlete" in W-L history. It appears Sen. Harry F. Byrd, Jr. was a presenter that night.
Fun autograph. Nancy Stitt, shown here as Miss Virginia Teenage 1974, went on to be Miss District of Columbia in 1976, the same year Donna Lynn Dixon was Miss Virginia. We all know Donna went on to marry actor Dan Akroyd.
A ticket from that evening.
Yes, that is Enos Slaughter, National Baseball Hall of Fame member, as the guest speaker.
The late Mike Wood is listed as the winner for Outstanding Golfer on this page - Mike's grandfather Brick Wood has a story in our Collection category.
Must be Redskins great Charley Taylor's autograph.
Note the award donation and dedication to the Whikehart's son, the brother of Dwight who collected these programs.
This is an outstanding page. It's always fun to see old Redskins but shown here is Washington-Lee graduate Jake Scott. In addition, the BCS finally added two new names to the Arlington Sports Hall of Fame, John Youngblood, the long-time heart of Washington-Lee sports (coached Jake Scott), and Tut Tuthill, whom, I believe, is pitching great Jay Franklin's grandfather. Need confirmation.
Peter Crosby was throwing wicked curve balls as a teenager but is now a successful State Farm agent in Fairfax. David Morgan was later inducted in the Arlington Sports Hall of Fame in 2005, the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA) Hall of Fame in 2015, and the Washington-Lee H.S. Hall of Fame in 2018.
J. Elwood Clements was an Arlington legend, just read his bio.
Football Sportsmanship Award winner Robert Oxendine went on to play at Duke University.
Walter Masterson started the 1948 Major League Baseball All-Star Game for the American League so he had that going for him. Mike Dillon was a member of the Washington Diplomats soccer club in the now-defunct North American Soccer League.
T.A. Sullivan & Sons was one of the long holdouts in Clarendon but finally sold their location and up went another high-rise, diagonally across from Lyon Hall Restaurant. T.A. Sullivans has been in business since 1885 and is now located in Leesburg, Virginia.
The old Alpine Restaurant building still sits vacant on Lee Highway but will soon come down for a new business.
Presenter Terry Metcalf is listed here, his son Eric may have just started playing at O'Connoll High School the year of this awards night.
Carl Anderson's Locker Room was formerly Samson Sporting Goods, once standing on Wilson Blvd across from the Ballston Mall. Now there's a high-rise.
One of the BSC officers listed is Chuck Bonneville, a former police officer and coach in Arlington whose daughter Cathy Bonneville Hix became president of the Arlington Historical Society in 2018.
Born Johnny Holliday Bobbitt, he's still going strong in the Washington area with sports announcing.
We love these ads. Joyce Motors is still operating at their location on 10th Street North in Arlington, they started in 1940; Arlington Heating is still operating on Four Mile Run, they started in 1944; and there is still a cleaners in the Westover Village Center but we're not sure if this is the same one in the ad.
The Westover Market is still around but it's better known today for it's Beer Garden, a local watering hole.
Yes, Dixie Liquors is still open across Key Bridge in Georgetown. After several owner changes and many battles with residents, the 1934 establishment has survived.
Fun to see this old Dan Kain Trophies ad, the building where they were located is now Lyon Hall Restaurant. The trophy store can be found today in Merrifield.
