Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame to honor dynasty of local basketball league

After being inducted into the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2011, Leon Rose never thought he’d be recognized for a second time. But the longtime agent to NBA stars such as Allen Iverson, Carmelo Anthony, Joel Embiid, and Dwyane Wade is being honored again by that Hall, this time as part of a story written in his own playing days.

Rose was on a team in the Jewish Basketball League, an adult men’s circuit that ran from 1988 to 2006 at the KleinLife Jewish Community Center in Northeast Philadelphia. The Pine Forest Camp squad — named for the summer camp in Greeley, Pa., that some of its players attended as kids — won 11 titles in a 16-year stretch from 1991 to 2006.

The league drew its name from the original Jewish Basketball League that lived from the 1900s through the ’40s, then on and off through the ’60s, in a part of South Philadelphia that was a Jewish quarter early in the century. Along the way, the league spawned the legendary Philadelphia Sphas team that played in the old ABL.

There are connections between the eras. Norman Millan, who founded the second league in 1988, played in the first. He launched the new league while working as an assistant coach at what was then Gloucester County College, now known as Rowan College at Gloucester County.

Other teams in the league had some notable players, including former Temple star Mike Vreeswyk and former Princeton star Rich Simkus, both of whom were eligible because they married Jewish women. But Pine Forest Camp was the powerhouse.

“They dominated right from the beginning,” said Millan, now president of Kesher Israel synagogue in Society Hill. “They were fundamentally sound, precise passing to the open man, tenacious defense. Even though there were some good teams in the league, they just played at a different level.”

Millan, now 68, jokingly compared the team to “the old Boston Celtics. ... Of course, I’m from Philly and we hated the Celtics, but you had to admire the teamwork.”

At first, there were eight teams in the league, representing many different areas of the region. In 1989, a team came in that had ties to former Sphas player Hughie Black. His son Marvin was Pine Forest Camp’s director for decades. Marvin’s son Mickey now holds the title. Marvin and Mickey were “co-owners” of the Pine Forest Camp team, and longtime Abington Friends coach Steve Chadwin led the bench.

“We were in our 20s and beginning our families. ... We went through a lot of stages of life together during that time we played," Rose said. “The fact that we represented the camp in this league, and, especially with Marvin’s father, who was one of the original Sphas, it was really special.”

Pine Forest’s most accomplished player was the late Howard Lassoff, a Lower Merion product who played college basketball for Jim Lynam at American University in Washington, then spent 15 years playing professionally in Israel for Hapoel Haifa and powerhouse Maccabi Tel Aviv. Lassoff also played for Israel’s national team.

It’s been 13 years since the league folded. Millan hopes that the generation of local Jewish basketball players now in their college years might resurrect it if there’s interest. That includes his son, who plays at Kings College in Wilkes-Barre, and his daughter who plays at Chestnut Hill.

“Of course, they’re trying to make a living now,” Millan said. “It takes time, but that’s all it takes. It just takes somebody to get it started, get some help. It’s a famous league. ... It is well-known, but not lately, of course, because it’s not around.”

The Pine Forest Camp team is being honored with the Simcha Gersh Award at the Hall of Fame ceremony, which will take place Tuesday night at Rodeph Shalom synagogue on North Broad Street.

This year’s other inductees are Eagles executive vice president of football operations Howie Roseman; Villanova-born former NHL player and current TV analyst Colby Cohen; former MLB pitcher Michael Koplove; fencer Christopher O’Loughlin; former Lower Merion High soccer player Myra Sack; and singer-songwriter Chuck Brodsky.

More details are available on the Hall of Fame’s website, phillyjewishsports.org.