Billy and Buster Major (below) were among the original Solvay Tigers, a group of Solvay athletes who formed a baseball team in the 1920s. Billy played first base and Buster pitched.

The original Tigers stopped playing after a few seasons, but remained a team in spirit with a goal that was pursued in earnest shortly after World War II.

First they organized baseball and basketball leagues for village youngsters. Buster, then the Solvay mayor, was one of the coaches when the Tigers' 4-team baseball league made its debut in 1951. Unlike Little League, the Solvay Tigers, at that time, at least, would not allow fathers to coach their sons. So on opening day Coach Buster had mixed feelings when son Jack, playing for the opposing team, hit the league's first home run.

The youth leagues were an immediate success. In 1963, the Solvay Tigers, then a full-blown community service organization, raised $300,000 to build a youth center which for more than 40 years has provided recreation for people of all ages. Adults pay a yearly fee to use the facilities, but children have free memberships because the Tigers donate the $5 fee for each one. Also supporting the center are local businesses and the United Fund.

FAMILY NOTE:
For awhile in the
1920s, Billy and
Buster also played
on an all-Major
baseball team
comprised mostly
of their Skaneateles
cousins.

Season two of the Solvay Tigers youth league made teammates of cousins Jack Major (standing, second from left) and Jim Smolinski (kneeling, also second from left). The complete team:

Standing (L-R): Richard Nagen, Jack Major, Dick Callahan, Gregory Bazlucki, Tommy Flaherty, Vincent Veri, Tom Mamorella, John LaValle, Jerry Marsh
.

Kneeling: Tommy Hyland, Jimmy Smolinski, Fred Anderson, Bob Mancabelli, Joe Poli

Thanks to Marie Miczan and her late husband, John, who – with help from Jerry Capella and Bob Mancabelli – provided names that had escaped me.

The painting of the Solvay Process limestone pile, once a well-known village landmark, was done many years ago by artist Edith Noble, a teacher at Solvay High School.