MR. MAL ON HIS 90TH BIRTHDAY!

Bruce           

Mr. Ed Malikowski Celebrates his 90th Birthday with

Bruce and Dee Hench Lindeman

(Scroll down to his bio).

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Note:  The late Barbara Leighton Karas, ’61, and teacher, coach and Athletic Director Ed Malikowski were among many familiar names inducted into the Chester County Sports Hall of Fame in 2013.  Many of the inductees were connected with West Chester University.  The first article is a bio of Barb and her great career, followed by a noteworthy bio of Mr. Malikowski, who joined us at our 50 Year Reunion.  Thanks to Neil Geoghegan of the Daily Local News for forwarding these, and for allowing us to reproduce them here.

Biography:  Barbara Leighton Karas

WEST CHESTER – Eve Atkinson was a swimmer on West Chester State’s 1972 national champion team coached by Barbara Leighton Karas, who was a terrific multi-sport athlete in her own right at West Chester High School and later with the Golden Rams.

Years later, Atkinson was hired by her alma mater to head up the university’s graduate program in sports management.

“When I took the position, they told me to go into the faculty locker room and pick out a locker,” Atkinson recalled. “I picked one out that was closest to the shower area and it had a comfortable chair nearby.

“A few weeks later, somebody said to me: ‘Do you know who’s old locker you have?’ When I told them no, they said to stand up on the wooden slat and you will see that when they painted the lockers, they painted over the nameplate. I looked and who did I pick totally by chance? Barbara Leighton’s.

“I get chills whenever I tell the story.”

Among all of her former players in swimming, tennis and basketball at WCU, Leighton Karas was an influential mentor and admired role model. To her teammates and peers, she was a fearless and talented competitor. And on Nov. 16th, she will be inducted posthumously into the sixth class of the Chester County Sports Hall of Fame.

“She was a great coach, but also a super human being,” Atkinson said. “She was very caring and would do anything for her student athletes. She was just the best. I was fortunate to have her through all of my years of swimming at West Chester.”

When Leighton Karas passed away suddenly in the spring of 2009, she was hailed as, perhaps, the greatest all-around female athlete to come out of the borough and one of the best at tradition-rich West Chester State.

“Barbara was never one to talk about herself,” said Larry Karas, her husband of 36 years. “She would mention some things in passing but it was never about her accolades.

“She would be very humble about this induction, but then again she always was about any accolades. It wasn’t about her but about the people around her – colleagues, friends, family, teammates and her players. All of the people she touched in her life, it’s tough that she is not here physically to accept this honor, but her legacy lives on.”

In high school from 1958-61 she earned multiple varsity letters in three sports. She was the top tennis player for two years, was the leading scorer for two seasons in field hockey and was a feisty 5-foot-4 forward in basketball. She was also the record holder in the 440 run for the West Chester Athletic Club.

In college, Leighton Karas earned 13 varsity letters in five sports and was later inducted into the WCU Athletic Hall of Fame. She was also the tennis team’s No. 1 player in both singles and doubles and was so good in field hockey, she was named to the U.S. National team in 1967 along with teammate Vonnie Gros.

“She was a pretty darn good all-around athlete,” Larry Karas said. “You look at the list of accomplishments in high school and college, she was a star and impact player for field hockey and tennis, and in track, she could run. She was very quick.”

From 1966-74 she coached the WCU swim team to the national title as well as a runner-up finish in 1971. Leighton Karas was a big part of an amazing record as the West Chester women did not lose a duel meet from 1960-75.

And as the head coach of the tennis team for 21 seasons, the Rams were 109-68-1 and were the PSAC champs in 1982 and qualified for the NCAA Tournament five times. Leighton Karas also worked on NCAA Tennis Selection Committee for eight years, chaired the Northeast Region Women’s Tennis Committee (1982-88) and was a site coordinator for Middle States Tennis Association.

“She got to rub elbows with a lot of well-known tennis stars who would come in for the clinics, including Billy Jean King and Arthur Ashe,” Larry Karas recalled.

She was also an accomplished equestrian rider and long distance runner. In 1970, Leighton Karas finished fourth out of 10 to become one of the first women to run in the Boston Marathon. She was awarded the West Chester University Globetrotter Award for running what was equal to one and one-quarter times around the earth.

An avid horsewoman and fox hunter, Leighton Karas rode with the West Chester, West Bradford and Brandywine Hunts. In 1965, she was credited with starting one of the first high school equestrian programs in the country.

“I am happy with the class she is going in with,” Larry Karas said. “That’s a big West Chester University class. I know she is happy right now, going in with a group of people she knew so well.”

As published in the Daily Local News.

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Biography:  Ed Malikowski

WEST CHESTER – Ed Malikowski’s life as a multi-sport star at West Chester State was as crazy and as hectic as you can imagine, for a guy who earned 12 varsity letters playing basketball as well as running track and cross country. But it certainly prepared him for more frenzied days to come as a longtime coach and administrator at the high school level.

“I remember coaching track, coaching basketball, coaching cross country, we had three small children and expecting a fourth,” Malikowski said. “And I was constantly trying to coach, conduct meets, hire officials – and in those days there was no recompense monetarily, it was just part of the job.

“My wife, Genevieve, was fabulous. She raised the children while I was out. I did my best on the weekends when I could, but even that was even difficult at times.”

Malikowski began his well-earned retirement back in 1985, and now, 28 years later at the age of 86, all of his efforts will be recognized when he is inducted into the Chester County Sports Hall of Fame on Nov. 16 at Downingtown Country Club. 

“I was quite surprised,” Malikowski said. “I didn’t think my accomplishments fit the criteria, but I was very pleased needless to say. It isn’t so much the idolitry as it is satisfaction in knowing that somebody recognized all of the work that you’ve done.”

After spending two years in the Navy, Malikowski enrolled at WCSTC in 1947 at the urging of his high school coach, Don Hilbert, who was formerly a classmate of West Chester greats Emil Messikomer and Russell Sturzebecker. Just 140 pounds in high school, Malikowski showed up at West Chester as a 6-foot-1, 165-pound forward, and went on to become a Small College Player of the Year. The Rams went 17-2 during his junior season and Malikowski averaged 12.3 points per game playing for Messikomer.   

“That is probably the best percentage of any basketball team in the modern era, if you can call that the modern era,” he laughed. “We had a good balanced team and I was one of the bigger guys in those days. If I was playing now, I’d be lucky to make the team.”

In addition, Malikowski began running cross country and track as a way to stay in shape for basketball. In cross country, he was the team captain on an unbeaten team during his senior year. In track, he ran everything from the quarter mile to the mile, and anchored the relay team.

After graduating in 1951, he landed the head basketball coaching position at Tredyffrin-Easttown High School, thanks largely to a glowing letter of recommendation from another West Chester icon, W. Glenn Killinger.

“T-E was a great football school at the time, so my success was limited,” acknowledged Malikowski, who spent four years there. “The highlight was a 12-8 season my fourth year and beating Coatesville twice in my third year.”

In the mid-1950s, Malikowski took over for the retiring Hal Zimmerman as the head coach in cross country and track at West Chester High School, and served as the top assistant for Jack McClellan, who replaced Zimmerman as the head basketball coach. The Warriors won two Ches-Mont basketball titles and a cross country crown during his first four years.

“It was the perfect matchup for me,” Malikowski said.

He spent a total of 10 years as a coach before being named the athletic director at WCHS. And then five years later, he began a 13-year stint as the West Chester School District’s Supervisor of Physical Education and Athletics. Before retiring, Malikowski helped layout the facilities for the entire athletic program prior to the building of West Chester East High School in 1973. He also had a hand in choosing the school colors and mascot.

In 1978, Malikowski joined forces with Tony Hicks and Larry Brandon to start Brian’s Run, which began as a one-time benefit for Brian Bratcher, a football player at West Chester Henderson who was paralyzed in a football accident.

“The three of us formed a committee,” Malikowski recalled. “It started as a small race that turned into an event that raised $20,000 that first year and drew 2,000 runners.”

The 36th Brian’s Run will take place on Dec. 1st and has blossomed into the longest consecutively run race in the Philadelphia region. Malikowski was active on the Brian’s Run Committee for 13 years.

He was previously inducted into the West Chester University Basketball Hall of Fame (1988) and the Ches-Mont League Hall of Fame (2010).

As published in the Daily Local News.