It was 50 years ago this year that the Cape-Atlantic Boys Basketball League (CABL) was formed.

People like Wildwood youth sports icons Tom Jorgenson and Jack Buchanan, former Middle Township star athlete John Roberson and the late Ed Gargan, a well-known area sports personality, helped create a league that gave young basketball players a chance to play.

Ocean City was represented in the league by The Chatterbox Teams, sponsored by Jean Campbell’s restaurant. The team was especially important to Ocean City because there were no school basketball teams for players in grades five through eight in the town.

The interesting thing about looking back on those teams is the identity of some of the players, many now well-known throughout the community.

The Chatterbox team actually started in 1958, a year before the league began, and played a limited schedule. John Cranston, who would lead Ocean City High School to a state championship five years later, was the team’s MVP. Dick Wertley, who went on to a good career at Mainland Regional High School before dying way too young, was the team’s leading scorer.

Things picked up in the 1959-60 season as the league action started. The local team had three players in double figures – Les Oliphant, Earl Tarves and Craig French. The following year produced a championship team, led by Randy Fox, Barry Banks and John Laudenslager – all key juniors on Ocean City’s 1964 state champions. And Bud Wertley who, like his older brother, played successfully for Mainland.

The 1961-62 team was led by Butch Gleason, who was the league’s most valuable player, leading scorer and top free throw shooter. Gleason averaged 18.3 points a game, hitting 30 or more three times, including a 36-point game against Wildwood in the playoffs. Gleason was backed up by Ron Fox, Lew Mawson and Bill Maurer. A JV program also grew that year and Dave French led that team in scoring.

The next year the JV team won 15 games, led by John Huff , Tom Kravitz and Mike Tolson. The 1962-63 varsity team was led by Mike Pritchett, Jack Wheaton and Jerry Bixler. In addition to the two teams in the CABL that year, there was a Chatterbox team in the the prestigious Spencer Bennett Tournament in Atlantic City and they won the championship. That team featured Jim Fusco, Alan Pierce, Andy Raffa, Alfonza Gayle, John Kiphorn and Dave Beyel.

The two teams combined for 37 wins in 1963-64. Jim Tarves, Dave French, Terry Howell and Larry Masi led the varsity team. Tom Kravitz, Tom Tolson and Danny Town led the JV team.

The following year the varsity team won 21 games, led by Howell, Huff, Bruce Beaver, Frank Bixler and Gary Gans. The JV team was paced by Chuck Gargan, Glenn Wiesenthal and Ron Pennington.

In the final full year of the Chatterbox team, the varsity won 17 games with Bill Rolls averaging 15 points and 18 rebounds a game. Kravitz, Gene Davis and Skip Given were also key players. The JV team featured Dave Andrews, Steve Faragher, Guy Gargan and Rich Krattenmaker.

In the fall of 1966, Ocean City finally created school basketball teams, hiring Herk Lamley, who would later become a head coach at Oakcrest, as the junior high school coach. Consequently, the Chatterbox team played a very small schedule that year and disappeared the following year.

In the nine years that the Chatterbox teams existed some five decades ago, they played 304 games and won 182. The teams had no home court and played most of their games on the road.

Prominent members of the Ocean City community were part of the program – Joe Foglio, Jim Tarves, Glenn Wiesenthal, Rich Booth, Craig French, Harry Vanderslice, Bruce Beaver, Mike Gill, Ron Pennington, Rich Krattenmaker, Jerry Klause, Scott Simpson, Dave Turner, John Huff, Gary Gans, Mike Tolson, Earl Tarves, Larry Masi, Glenn Darby, Mike Monihan, Bill Maurer, Randy Fox, Butch Gleason, Ron Beaver – the list goes on and on.

And the players on the other bench were pretty impressive, too. Guys like Mainland legend Skip Castaldi; future Wildwood High School stars Chuck James, Meredith Campbell, Jim Waicus, Harry Hayward and Chick Ludman; Wildwood Catholic players Al Corchianni, John Newdeck and Joe Bimbo; Atlantic City’s Phil Juliano; Steve Brady, Dennis O’Brien and Jack Matthews from Holy Spirit; and another Spirit grad who had great success in college and the NBA, Chris Ford. There was also future South Jersey media superstar Bud Rinck.

It was great basketball. It was great fun. And it was made possible in Ocean City by Jean Campbell’s support. You can now look back with more detail on those teams by clicking the link at OceanCitySports.com, where there are stats and photos.

And a lot of good memories.