There was a television commercial for
razors in which a medium sized basketball player asks, “How can a
guy 5'-9" have an advantage over these guys?,” as he stands among his
towering teammates. Well, Lou Veltri was a slender
5'-9" when he beat out Red Auerbach for a starting position on the
1940 George Washington University basketball team as a junior.
(Auerbach was demoted to sixth man, but later became the famous
general manager and coach of the Boston Celtics.) Following
graduation in 1941, Lou went into the Army and later
transferred to the Air Force. After his discharge in 1945, Lou
returned to Beaver County and played for the Monaca American Legion
basketball team that went to the Western Finals of the state
playoffs before losing to Conemaugh. When the Beaver Falls Legion
Post formed its famous basketball team in 1946, Lou switched to
his home town club and played for coaches
Dom Casey and Peewee Perkovich. The Tommies won five state Legion titles and a national
championship in 1948 and national runners-up honors in 1950. Lou
was a ball control expert and floor leader in the era of low scoring
basketball. He was named MVP of the Pennsylvania Legion basketball
program in 1948 and also played for
Joe Zerilla’s
“Sonny Boys” and other local teams. Lou played his high school
basketball at Beaver Falls, where he starred as a junior on the 1935
Tiger team that was first from the school to reach the WPIAL finals.
There was a television commercial for
razors in which a medium sized basketball player asks, “How can a
guy 5'-9" have an advantage over these guys?,” as he stands among his
towering teammates. Well, Lou Veltri was a slender
5'-9" when he beat out Red Auerbach for a starting position on the
1940 George Washington University basketball team as a junior.
(Auerbach was demoted to sixth man, but later became the famous
general manager and coach of the Boston Celtics.) Following
graduation in 1941, Lou went into the Army and later
transferred to the Air Force. After his discharge in 1945, Lou
returned to Beaver County and played for the Monaca American Legion
basketball team that went to the Western Finals of the state
playoffs before losing to Conemaugh. When the Beaver Falls Legion
Post formed its famous basketball team in 1946, Lou switched to
his home town club and played for coaches