TOM KEANE: Call it a popularity contest, of sorts, but Tom Keane
of Bradford was voted “Sportsman of the Century” in a poll taken
many years ago by the Bradford Journal.

John E. Rimer, who wrote a sports column, conducted the contest
which ran for six weeks with the readers nominating and voting on
their favorite sportsman.

John writes: “The winner was Tom Keane. Why? Well, he was a star
football and basketball player for the Bradford Owls and received a
football scholarship at Penn State University. There he beat out
Milt Plum as the starting quarterback on the freshman team.
Freshmen were not allowed to play varsity ball in the olden
days.”

“Milt Plum went on to have a good NFL career and for some reason
Tom returned to Bradford. He was offered a scholarship to St.
Bonaventure to play basketball but instead he opted to play
baseball with the Phillies. He made it to triple A ball where he
threw out his arm and returned home.

“He excelled for years in the Bradford-Olean area in basketball,
softball and was a better than average bowler, ping-pong player,
and a very good hunter. I guess that was reason enough to name Tom
Sportsman of the Century.

“Another interesting story took place at Alfred University in
the ’60s. Bradford High was playing Hornell there as the Hornell
field was being re-sodded. With 10 seconds left in the first half
Bradford led 21-0 on three Larry Visbisky touchdowns. Hornell
decided to try a field goal, the kick was short and fielded by
Larry who raced 90 yards for the touchdown.

“The Public Address announcer stated ‘Score at the half,
Visbisky 28, Hornell 0.”

STRANGE SIGHT: John Roynan of Ridgway has his own winter weather
story: “With the talk about frost et al., I thought I’d mention
something I’ve seen only a couple times. It was on a very cold
night and the moon was full. There was an ‘aura’ on the moon. The
‘aura’ was a circle of what looked like ice crystals. The ‘aura’
encircled the moon. It was all very pretty.”

TELL US: In our Another Era the other day, we read in “30 Years
Ago” that the temperature was 30 below zero at the airport, and 29
below in Bradford City. Any readers have a story about that frigid
day?