Rakow Library Presents:

On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of glassmaking coming to Corning, New York, the Rakow Research Library of The Corning Museum of Glass decided to put together this resource guide to help visitors to our website, our city, and our Museum learn more about area history and the legacy of glassmaking in Corning. We also encourage you to visit the Crystal City Gallery at the Museum, which was completely reinstalled in Spring 2018!

Much more to come from from the resource guide of the Rakow in the days ahead

Basketball In Painted Post, NY

The Basketball Plaque and the Rabbit-Foot Five

One of the Carder plaques shown in the Gazette last week was an image of basketball players.

In addition to the unusual yellow color, the subject matter of the plaque – basketball players – seemed to me out of keeping with other Carder plaques. Tom Dimitroff thinks that Carder’s inspiration for the plaque was the 1924 Painted Post High School basketball team.

That team won the local and Section tournaments and participated in the state tournament. Though it lost in the first round, the team was selected by the New York State High School Athletic Association to represent New York State in a national tournament in Chicago. The team won its first round but lost in the second round.

A Chicago sportswriter noticed that each member of the team had a rabbit foot attached to their belt and he christened the team the Rabbit-Foot Five. Despite not advancing past the second round, the team inspired enough civic pride to be a major factor in getting Painted Posters to vote for the addition of a gymnasium and other athletic facilities for the new high school.

In addition, the teams’ equipment is housed in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.

A more complete discussion of the team and its achievements can be found in Tom Dimitroff’s and Lois Janes’ book “History of the Corning Painted Post Area: 200 Years in Painted Post Country” at page 210.

Scott Hansen