Rucker Park - Harlem USA
120 Years of NYC Basketball
From The Playground to The Garden
Board Members
of the
NYC Basketball History Project
Still Under Conctruction
These individuals have motivated and inspired "The Project" even before it began! Their collective knowledge, wisdom, and experience have made a profound impact on New York City Basketball. Their collective contribution to "The Project" is helping to elevate the legacy of basketball in New York even higher!
NATE ARCHIBALD
Really needs no introduction. Born in Harlem in 1948, but grew up in The Bronx, he played his baskeball at powerhouse DeWitt Clinton High School, earned All-City honors and moved on to play at Texas Western University. He was drafted in the 2nd round of the 1970 NBA draft and eventually became the best point guard to ever play the game of basketball. During the 1972–73 season, Archibald led the NBA in scoring and assists (with 34 points and 11.4 assists. A record that still stands today! He has an NBA Championship ring which he earned as the playmaker on the Boston Celtics Championship team during the 1980-1981 season.​
Nate earned a Master's Degree in Education from Fordham University and still looks forward to earning his PhD. Nate has always been a passionate and dedicated contributor to the improvement and growth of the underserved youth in New York's urban communities.
GARRY HOWARD
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Raised in the Mitchell Housing Projects in The Bronx New York, Garry is a graduate of Lehigh University and The Lawrenceville School (1977), where he received a four-year academic scholarship through the *A Better Chance Program*.
Growing up in the South Bronx, Garry gravitated towards basketball excelling at sports and academics, while being mentored by Nate Archibald.
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Garry later worked as an obituary, police and municipal government reporter at The Home News, in New Brunswick, N.J., before joining the Rochester Times-Union, in Rochester, N.Y., as a Sports Copy Editor in 1985.
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In 1994 he accepted the Executive Sports Editor’s position at the Milwaukee Journal, becoming the only African-American Sports Editor at a major metropolitan daily at that time.Mr. Howard was also the editor-in-chief of The Sporting News!
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Past President of the Associated Press Sports Editors and the first African-American to hold that position in the 44-year history of the organization.
RAY HASKINS
Ray Haskins was born in Brooklyn and attended legendary Boys High School, graduating in 1968. Considering the overwhelming talent pool, Ray did not make the team, but still earned a scholarship to Shaw University in Raleigh North Carolina, where he was a star player and earned his Bachelors degree in 1972.
Back in NYC he became a teacher and head basketball coach at Alexander Hamilton HS, winning a PSAL City Championship in 1981. PSAL City Championship. ​
Haskins took over as head coach at Long Island University inheriting 9-19 team led by Charles Jones and Richie Parker. The LIU Blackbirds went 21-9 withan NCAA berth in 1997. Haskins served as an Assistant Coach at Queens College during the 2014-15 season.​​
He was later named Principal at M.S. Thank 390 in Crown Heights for several years and also worked with the Parks and Recration in Brooklyn and an IAABO official in the NYC area.
Ray Haskins mentored he the Jackie Robinson Program in high schools and junior high schools all over Brooklyn, a model for education all over the country.
Haskins was inducted into the Shaw University Hall of Fame in 1985.
More recently Ray Haskins was Director of the PSAl basketball division for New York.
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ALEX WOLFF​
Alex was born on February 3, 1957 in Princeton New Jersey. The family later moved to Rochester NY where he became the captain of his basketball team at Brighton High School. He earned a B.A in History from Princeton University with honors in 1980. Just before that he took off for a season to play basketball for a team in Lucerne, Switzerland. Back in the USA he landed a job at Sports Illustrated Magazine and spent 36 years covering basketball at all levels. He wrote 7 books about basketball. "The In-Your-Face Basketball Book"; "Raw Recruits", a New York Times bestseller; "Big Game, Small World: A Basketball Adventure", which won a 2002 New York Times Book Review Award; and "The Audacity of Hoop: Basketball and the Age of Obama". In 1996, he collaborated on "Team of Broken Dreams", an Emmy-nominated documentary about the Yugoslav crisis facing basketball players from the Balkans. The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame honored him in 2011 with the Curt Gowdy Award for journalistic contributions to the game. As president of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association, he helped found the USBWA’s Full Court Press journalism scholarship and seminar program.
JOEL BERGER
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Joel Berger was born in The Bronx New York and from 1968-1971 attended DeWItt Clinton High School. A recreation basketball player in his Riverdale neighborhood, he had a baptism by fire when he became team manager of Clinton' s powerhouse basketball team. Players like Tom Hemderson, Leon Howard, John Moody, Ron Behagen, Steve Shepard, and legendary Coach John Wyles became his daily companions!
During the !984-1985 season Joel served as an Assistant Coach at Scottsdale Community College, in Arizona, a junior college powerhouses of that era.
He taught Physical Education Teacher in the Roosevelt School District, in Phoenix, then in Glendale Arizona from 1995- 2008.
Back in New York he became a Phys. Ed teacher, at the Saint Simonf Stock School, in The Bronx, NY.
Retired, Joel acts as the CFO of the organization.
KEN SARGEANT
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Ken was born and raised in the heart of Harlem New York. He rubbed shoulders, witnessed, played with and against some of greatest basketball players in the city, right outside his front door in the Riverton Houses.
He attended the Bronx High School of Science and was a varsity player on two consecutive B League PSAL City Championship teams, from 1970 through 1971.​
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​ Ken attended college at Middlebury College and The Center for Media Arts(Germaine School).
He is the co-founder and co-Executive Director of the Harlem Cultural Archives historical society. He is a veteran commercial and editorial photographer, filmmaker and cultural entrepreneur, with a specialization in neighborhood and organizational documentaries.
Ken currently chairs the Village of Croton on Hudson’s "Arts and Humanities Council.​
RALPH MENAR​
​​​Ralph was born in 1955 and raised in Staten Island, NY. He won back-to-back CYO City Championships as a kid. At St. Peter’s HS, he led his JV team to an undefeated season, wwon a CHSAA State Championshipas a sophomore and went undefeated in New York as a junior but lost to John Thompson's St. Anthony's HS in the Knights of Columbus Tournament in Washington DC.
He was an All Star in every tournament he played in high school, a Street and Smith Honorable Mention All American, and MVP in the United States Youth Games leading NYC to a National Championship.
He played for Hall of Fame Coach, Lou Carnesecca at St. John's Universty.
He had a 13-year career playing in the Puerto Rican Professional League (BSN) and was a member of the Puerto Rican National Teamle and played for coaches such as Gene Bartow, Rollie Massimino and Lou Rossini.
Back in NYC, he was Director of the Special Education Drug Program, the PAL, the Children's Aid Society and Riverbank State Park. He coached the 16 and under All City PAL team that won championships in Russia, Philadelphia and Washington DC. and assisted hundreds of youth high school and college scholarships. He is currently an assistant coach for Moe Hicks at Cardinal Spellman HS in the Bronx.
PAT MARRINAN​
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Pat Marrinan was born in The Bronx but traveled downtown to attend Rice High School in Manhattan.
An avid, if not fanatic playground basketball player growing up as a youngster, he did not get an opportunity to play at powerhouse Rice.
Still, he was offered a scholarship to play briefly at Dominican College in Orangeburg, New York.
Pat finished his education and became a telecommunications specialist, but maintained his deep love of the game, playing in various leagues around the city against some of the best competition New York had to offer!
A die-hard Knick fan and first cousin of Manhattan University All-American, Bill Campion, he has never quit the game and still plays two nights a week in a recreation league at the age of 71.
Pat is the Marketing Officer for the group and brings, his expertise, creative ideas and his network to our team at the NYC Basketball History Project! Pat lives in Carmel, New York.
