ANTHONY ALFANO taught at Camden High School and Cooper B. Hatch Junior High School for 34 years, from 1942 through 1976. He is best remembered as head basketball coach at Camden High, where he succeeded Al Bass in 1944, after serving as an assistant coach for two years.
Tony Alfano was a three sport athlete at Southern High School in Philadelphia, participating in football, basketball, and baseball. After graduation he went to Temple where he played basketball. He was on the national championship NIT basketball team in 1938.
Tony Alfano’s teams never had a losing season, and compiled a record of 428-129 over 27 years. His 1955 team went undefeated within Group IV, winning its first conference championship in ten years. The Purple Avalanche won consecutive state titles in 1959 and 1960 with a team that featured the great Ron “Itchy” Smith. Many other fine players were coached by him, including Golden “Pete” Sunkett, who had a long career with the Camden Police Department and Sam Fisher Jr., who went on to the Camden Fire Department. Clarence Turner, himself a highly successful basketball coach at Camden High, served as an assistant under Alfano. After leaving Camden High he worked at Villanova University in the college library.
Inducted into the South jersey Basketball Hall of Fame in 1982, Anthony Alfano passed away on January 6, 2005.
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Anthony Alfano Eulogy
Note: Loren Tobia, news director at WTVH in Syracuse NY, delivered this eulogy at the funeral of Anthony Alfano. Mr. Tobiua is Anthony Alfano’s son in law. First of all I want to thank all of you for being here today to help celebrate Dad’s life. And this truly is a celebration, for after 94…
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Anthony Alfano
ANTHONY ALFANO taught at Camden High School and Cooper B. Hatch Junior High School for 34 years, from 1942 through 1976. He is best remembered as head basketball coach at Camden High, where he succeeded Al Bass in 1944, after serving as an assistant coach for two years. Tony Alfano was a three sport athlete…
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Alfano Remembered as an Outstanding Coach
Camden Courier-Post – January 9, 2005 By Lavinia DeCastro Anthony Alfano, a legendary boys’ basketball coach who taught at Camden High School from 1942 to 1976, died Thursday. “He was a very personable gentleman,” said Camden school board member Elmer Winston, who taught at Camden High School during Alfano‘s last years there.” He seemed to…
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Camden High School Purple and Gold Yearbook Excerpt – 1960
Ronald Smith, Sam Fisher, Ralph Heath, Golden Sunket, and Reginald Hammond compose the team whose spectacular ball playing has won a record of 48 wins 0 loses for Camden High School. Often called the “Little Globetrotters,” they raised the crowd to its feet during several games as they staged what they call “show time.” Along…
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Anthony Alfano Basketball Yearbook Page
Corky Henson Ducky Birts Ken Fowler Sonny Herman Gerald Davis Monk Welrauch Coach Anthony Alfano T. Bone Morrow The “Tony” Alfanomen, rated as nothing more than average at the season’s opening, turned into a fine, fighting quintet, and roared through the South Jersey Group IV League like a hurricane. For the first time in a…
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