Sport: Basketball
Born: April 7, 1901
Died: December 23, 1983
Town: Trenton, New Jersey
George Benjamin Glasco was born April 7, 1901 in Noblesville, Indiana and grew up in Trenton, NJ. He was a multisport star at Trenton High School, where he played alongside Teddy Kearns on the great teams of the late ’teens. George was also a talented baseball player.
George’s game was speed and he was able to play both the guard or forward positions, but was more valuable in the frontcourt. He could break free of defenders for layups and score baskets or draw fouls in bunches.
George was 19 when he signed with Germantown of the Eastern League, a sluggish team that built itself around a pair of over-the-hill big men. George put a spark into the club and they recovered from a disastrous start to win the 1921 league championship. The following season, he was signed by the Brooklyn Arcadians, one of the top teams in the nation, but his style did not mesh with the veterans there and he was released. George returned ot the Eastern League and caught on with Coatesville in Pennsylvania. He quickly showed that he was something special and Brooklyn, realizing its mistake, re-signed him to play with fellow New Jersey stars Honey Russell and Frank Bruggy.
Always in demand, George jumped around form club to club—looking for the best team and the best deal—until the formation of the American Basketball League in 1925. He spent his prime years as a star in the first true “national” hoops circuit and , in his final ABL season, he was a member of the 1930 champion Cleveland Rosenblooms.
George remained an impact player well into his 30s. In 1932, he joined the Trenton Bengals for the second half of the Eastern League season. His old friend Teddy Kearns, now a coach, inserted him int the lineup and the Bengals went 14–1 and beat the powerhouse Philadelphia SPHAs to win the championship.
During the summer breaks in his basketball career, George played baseball in semipro leagues and, during the Depression, fielded his own club, the Trenton All-Stars. He also promoted games locally around Trenton. In 1927, three days after the World Series ended, he arranged a game between the Yankees and the Brooklyn Royals, a Negro League team. Babe Ruth hit three homers and Lou Gehrig had a single and a double. Dick Redding was on the mound for the Royals and probably grooved a couple of fastballs to the Babe so the fans could go home with a story to tell.
In the late-1930s, George coached a powerhouse semipro basketball team bases in South Jersey, the Burlington Recs. The Recs defeated many of the tops clubs in the region. After his playing career, George got involved in law enforcement. He ran the Mercer County jail during World War II and continued to work for the county into the 1970s. He passed away in Trenton at the age of 82.