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Hunter Society

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[[caption]] THOMAS TANK CONRAD [[/caption]]

Tank Conrad has a dazzling collegiate football career. Tank was a superlative all-around Black athlete who followed the path of the great Paul Robeson and preceded Monty Irvin and Larry Doby, all products of New Jersey. He first gained notice as an All-State football and basketball player when he graduated from Roselle Park High School. He was offered a contract to play professional baseball with the Brooklyn Eagles, instead, he enrolled at Morgan State College on a scholarship in 1930.
  
He was an instant success. In 1930, Morgan College led by its freshman Thomas Tank Conrad, swept to the CIAA football championship. This proved that he was not an ordinary player but the possessor of unlimited self confidence, boundless physical resources which he turned on whenever the big play was needed. Newspapers nicknamed him "Big Tank". Black newspapers treated his exploits in banner headlines.
  
Tracing the treads of his success we find that Black college football reached the peak of its popularity and set attendance records during the early 30s.
  
In the early 30s during the height of the Depression, Black Americans needed desperately a new, fresh and engaging personality. For them, Tank Conrad was their hero, his success gave them a glimmer of their own hopes for the future. Tank made them celebrate their own dreams when they cheered for Tank. Under the tutelage of Coach Hurt, Morgan State established a CIAA conference record of 54 straight victories. Tank was the captain of the team and named an All-American by the Chicago Defender. Tank remembers that they had four basketball players in the backfield and passed the ball around developing the famous forward lateral.
  
Tank competed in basketball and track. He was a forward on the team that had a 29 victory season; suffering no losses. The unblemished record was broken in 1934 when Howard University defeated Morgan it was their first loss as a college team in more than seven years.
  
Tank regards the crowning achievement of his career as the 54 game winning streak but Ray Kemp who played with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1933 had this to say about Tank, in an interview by the Pittsburgh Courier in 1940. "Do you think we have ever produced grid stars to compare with such immortals as Red Grange? Yes, I think we have. Tank Conrad and Doneghy rank with Grange!"
  
Little was heard from Tank at the close of his brilliant collegiate career. He played a bit of professional football for the N.Y. Brown Bombers and baseball for the Newark Browns. In 1937 he was in the starting backfield of an all Black team that lost an exhibition game to the Chicago Bears in Chicago. He accepted a coaching job at Delaware State College in 1943 and coached football, basketball and baseball until 1949.
  
He joined the Winston Salem coaching staff in 1949, rapidly rising among the ranks of CIAA coaches and gaining respect for the outstanding teams he produced. In 1974 he retired from coaching and returned with his wife to Roselle Park, N.J. Recently Tank said, "at times I feel [[?defeated]], I always thought I could play in the big time."
  
Friends of Tank and Morgan State alumnus constitute a legion of supporters who would swear by it.
  
We are proud to have had a small part in spreading the legend of Thomas "Tank" Conrad.


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[[caption]] THOMAS B. LONG [[/caption]]
  
Thomas "Lefty" Long is a pitching virtuoso—that's the highest degree a performer can obtain. Some years ago, Ed Alexander, a former catcher, went on record, "The greatest pitcher I ever saw was Lefty Long. He's fifty-three now, but last year, in the regional championships at Huntington, Long Island, he came in relief and put out fifteen men in a row."
  
When Lefty was in his prime, he was always the most conspicuous player, even when he played four or five games with different teams on a Sunday.
  
Every year the names changed, but the scenario could be depended upon to stay pretty much the same. The infielders, outfielders coached and on deck hitters break into cold sweats when Lefty faces them from the mound. Their hearts beat to watch out for Lefty Long.
  
Lefty's a brilliant pitcher with a firm grip on every pitch, his famed style is historical, as well as his cooly professional delivery, every pitch a mastery of a true dedicated pitcher man.
  
Softball is big in N.Y. It's the only place where you can find bar owners, sporting goods retailers, teachers, beer salesmen and business executives participating even though it disrupts their family lives.

Humanitarian Award
Presented to
MS. DEAN SAYLES

[[image - Ms.Dean Sayles]]

Dean Sayles has been involved with the concerns of children and human rights since the early 1950s, when national attention was focused on Montgomery, Alabama and the bus boycott.
  
Having been born and reared in Birmingham, Alabama, Ms. Sayles was acutely aware of the many human indignities inflicted on blacks, particularly in the areas of segregation in public transportation, schools and other public facilities.
  
Inspired by the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his fight for racial equality in public transportation in Montgomery, Alabama, Ms. Sayles organized and chaired "The Committee for Better Human Relations." a grass-roots organization of approximately 75 young civic-minded citizens whose focus was on raising funds in New York City to assist the Montgomery Improvement Association and to aid the legal and propoganda fights for first-class citizenship for blacks, which were conducted by the NAACP.

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Transcription Notes:
Unclear word marked as "defeated" could also be "cheated"