"The Birth of the P.S.A.C. (Panther's Social Athletic Club)" Authored By: Ron Rainer The Site The backyard of 570 Westminister Road (a fancy name for East 12th Street) was an irregularly shaped dirt patch with rocks, a tree and the concrete lip that enclosed it marking an inauspicious place to play tackle football. This spot, simply known as 570, was hidden from the street. Originally the yard could only be accessed by going through one of two tunnels running under the apartment house. A third entrance came into being when someone, whose identity I will protect, bent the iron bars of the fence at the end of a narrow, dark, dank and dismal alley along side the Leader Theatre. Since the site was hidden from the view of passers on the street, only a few knew of its existence. The number grew only by invitation. The Motivation The participants must have thought they were pretty good at the game because one day talk of traveling out of the neighborhood to play other teams arose. The question was how can they play other teams if they don't have a name and uniforms. Uniforms of course meant a jersey because they did not use pads, except for Larry and Monte. Somehow an organizational meeting to form a team happened. Democracy in Action Lenny talked about a guy named Robert. He said something about not having a meeting without Robert. He was told there is no Robert on the team. He explained that Robert was the person that told everybody how to form a democratic meeting. That is how the group learned about Robert's Rules of Order. Following Robert's Rules, a temporary chairman was selected. The process did not run smoothly because Howie* kept interrupting with jokes and objections to the inclusion of certain people in the group. However, the will of the group could not be suppressed. After much exploration, the group named itself the Leopards** and selected a jersey of black and gold spots. At this point, the reader might ask so how did this scruffy group become the Panthers? That is the one dollar and seventy five cent question! The One Dollar and Seventy Five Cents Sellout A committee was formed to go to a sporting goods store on Flatbush Avenue. There they learned that a spotted jersey would be a special custom order costing more than double what a regular jersey wouuld cost. How was this obstacle of an additional $1.75 to be handled? You guessed it! History does not record how the $1.75 sellout occurred but there are undocumented whispers that the movement was lead by Steve F. * As a result of Howie's (mis)conduct, someone was appointed as a Sergeant of Arms and at the behest of the temporary chairperson that someone was authorized to, "throw a bullet pass at the head of anyone causing disruption to the orderly work of the meeting." ** Leopard coats made of cloth were the height of women's fashion at the time and may have entered int ot he reason Steve F was not happy with the election of the name.
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