Step back in time features news items from The Daily Star 25 and 50 years ago.
25 years ago
Feb. 14, 1987
LOUDONVILLE _ When the phone rang that July morning almost five years ago, Mike Deane answered the call to the fast-paced world of collegiate basketball.
"I was getting ready to go to the Big Man Camp at Oneonta State," said Deane. "The phone rang at 7 o'clock in the morning and a voice said 'This is Jud Heathcote.' I was half asleep and I thought someone was playing a joke on me. But I quickly snapped awake. I had a tremendous interest in that job."
That call from the famous Michigan State coach was the big break that Deane had always wanted. He is now running his own Division I college basketball team at his own pace at Siena College in the Albany suburb of Loudonville.
Heathcote offered Deane a job as his top assistant in charge of recruiting players for his Big Ten program. For Deane it was the reward for his past efforts.
At Delhi Tech from 1976 to 1980, the former Potsdam State All-American point guard ended a 49-game losing streak, won 69 of 103 games and took the Broncos to the National Junior College Region III tournament.
At Oswego State, he inherited a team that had lost 42 straight games.
Within two seasons, Deane led Oswego to a victory over the defending national champions of Division III _ his alma mater Potsdam State.
In two years, he won 24 of 49 games
50 years ago
Feb. 14, 1962
City officials will meet with representatives of the New York State Electric and Gas Corp. to see if Oneonta's electricity bills can be shaved.
The cost of electricity has been of concern to Public Service Board members for the past two years.
Commissioner Albert E. Farone, at a session last night, estimated that 13 per cent of the gross income in the Water Department is paid to the utility for power.
"That's too much money," he declared.
What city officials will try to get from the utility is a revised rate or some other "type of break," Wingar C. Still, PSB chairman, said after the session closed.
Mr. Sill and C.M. Taylor, Director of Public Service, will meet with the utility representatives.
