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"Captain Solochek" Steve, from the Scroll, the Washington High School (Milwaukee) yearbook's page of Team Captains, 1961. |
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"Varsity Basketball as Senior" From the Scroll, 1961. Top Row: Manager W. Cory, Mark Wasserman, Paul Kasbohm, Jeff Wertz, Thomas Schoeneck, Ralph Herro, Dennis Williamson, Gary Kindwall, Tom Fredenberg, Manager Jordan Reich. First Row: C. Liefert, Barry Usow, Steve Solochek, Coach Ruehl, Henry Wolinsky, Thomas Schneider, Fred Rice. |
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"Varsity Basketball as Junior" From the Scroll, 1960. Top Row: Manager Jordan Reich, Ralph Herro, Joel Lowe, Terry Heinrich, Allan Bollhagen, Dennis Williamson, Jeff Wertz, Robert Wisotzke, Timothy Wheeler, James Johnson, Sheldon Forman. First Row: Steve Solochek, Barry Usow, Ken Knueppel, Coach Ruehl, James Crowley, Mark Sessler, James Burgardt. |
| What did others see when they looked at Steve "back in the day"? Interestingly enough, one person's impressions were actually recorded and it happened to be the present day Webmaster of this site in his role, at the time, as sports reporter for the Washington Scroll weekly newspaper. (The weekly had the same name as the yearbook.)
The following was written in either 1960 or 1961: Brief Biog... Uneven Steven "I get a kick out of the way opposing captains who seem to be about seven feet tall give me the "who-are-you-trying-to-kid" look when we meet before the games."Who else could have made that statement besides Steve Solochek, captain of the basketball team? He has reached a height of 5 feet 7 inches. This draws stares of disbelief from cagers—the odds against him are mighty uneven. But don't sell Steve short. Just one of his many achievements is having made 44 consecutive free throws in practice, second only to Ron Glaser in unofficial Washington records. Despite his size, Steve had enough courage to try out for the football team as a senior. "I was playing quarterback in a scrimmage," he recalled, "when I lined up behind the guard, called the signals and waited for him to center the ball to me. Little things like that led me to believe that I wasn't cut out to be a football player." Steve is easy to get along with. The only people who bother him are those who ask him to sing all the time because of his resemblance to Johnny Mathis. |