to download the PDF - Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame

JOHN “JACK” BALY
Jack Baly and basketball were linked for over 50 years
in Delaware, first as a player, then as a school coach
and finally as a basketball official. Baly came from
Union, N.J., to play under coach Irv Wisniewski
(DSMHOF 2006) at the University of Delaware from
1958 to 1961. His senior season, Baly captained the
Blue Hens and was their leading scorer (17 ppg). Some
50 years later – as of the 2011-12 season – Baly is still
among Delaware's top 50 all-time career scorers. Baly
made the decision to make the state his home, coached
both high school and junior high basketball, and was a
successful head golf coach at Concord High for
16years where he also served for a time as the Raiders athletic director. Baly, however, is
probably best known as one of Delaware's most respected basketball officials – for more
than 45 years. Baly was a member of Wilmington-based IAABO Board #11 from 1963 to
2009. During his career he was selected to officiate eight state championship games. But,
Baly served Board #11 in many other ways: rules committee interpreter, executive
committee, vice-president, workshop committee chair, membership, ratings committee,
etc. Baly founded the Board #11 mentoring program and assisted in recruiting and
training new officials. Baly also served as a volunteer official for a number of charity
events like the Delaware Special Olympics, the Diamond State Girls Classic and the
Delaware All-Star games. He received a gold watch and lifetime membership on his
retirement from active officiating.
REV. JOSEPH BEATTIE
Coaching Salesianum to 13 state cross-country
championships in 15 years, Father Beattie had the most
consistent run of success of any Delaware high school
coach in any sport. He also coached Salesianum to four
straight track championships, 1971-74, before stepping
back to an assistant's role, coaching hurdles, distances
and relays – technique events where coaching is crucial –
where the Sals had 17 individual and 14 relay state
champions in his 17 years. Before Father Beattie began
coaching in 1966-67, the school had no success in track
or cross-country, never finishing among the top three
teams in either sport. By 1969, Salesianum began a run
of cross-country dominance that prevailed over a decade and a half, interrupted just twice
through 1983-84. With six state champions and 69 first, second or third team all-staters,
the Sals comprised over one-fifth of the statewide All-State list. Yet, Salesianum could
win without first-tier runners. Two title teams had no members on the seven-man All-
State team. Three others only had one first-team All-Stater. In 1984, Father Beattie
moved to Fort Myers, Florida to help the Oblates establish a new school, Bishop Verot,
where his teams won five district championships in eight years. Father Beattie's advocacy
secured many advances in both sports. Instrumental in creating the Brandywine Creek
State Park course, he began Delaware's oldest cross-country festival in 1974, the
Salesianum Invitational. In 1994, he was in the first class inducted into the Delaware
Track and Field Hall of Fame.