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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