Bengals Club was an Amsterdam institution
By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History, Daily Gazette, 12-10-17
Young men in the predominately Polish neighborhood on Amsterdam’s Park Hill formed the Bengals Club in 1937.
“A few guys hanging around Ruby’s Confectionery store on Park Street--which had a back room for card games evenings--decided one day to have their own place,” wrote former Bengal George Spakoski in 2007.
Spakoski was born March 8, 1922 in Amsterdam, a son of Michael and Emilia Pomuz Spakoski. Described as hardworking, early on he was a pin setter at Bannister's Bowling Alleys on Division Street. For a short time, he was in the federal Civilian Conservation Corps serving in Idaho. Returning home, he worked for Bigelow-Sanford, the large carpet manufacturer adjacent to Park Hill.
The boys hanging around the Park Hill candy store fixed up a small abandoned shop on nearby Grand Street as the location for their club house. Dues were one dollar a month. Twenty young men signed up at first and eventually the club had 60 members.
“There was an old pot-bellied stove in the place which was a Bengal stove,” Spakoski wrote. “That was the name that was picked—the tiger.”
The Floyd-Wells Company of Royersford, Pennsylvania made Bengal brand stoves starting in the 1880s.
One of the Bengal Club’s first outings was at Phillips Park south of the Mohawk River. “That was one fun day,” Spakoski said. “We had a cookout and games.”
The Bengals had a baseball team in the city’s Knothole League in 1940. Most of the club members joined the armed forces in World War II.
Spakoski became a Petty Officer 3rd Class in the Navy from 1942 through 1945. He was in a dozen battles in the Pacific including Guadalcanal, New Georgia, Tarawa, Kwajalein, Eniwetok, Palau, New Guinea, Philippines, Okinawa, Halmahera, Marianas and Borneo. He was awarded two Presidential citations, nine medals and fourteen Bronze Stars.
The Bengals started up again in 1946. That summer, club members spent two weeks at a Lake George campsite. Spakoski recalled it rained only ten minutes in the two weeks and the Bengals won a series of softball games played against the Lake George village team.
Pete Marie was the Bengals pitcher. Other players included George and Joe Spakoski, Tom Kryszak, Frank Kwiatkowski, Joe McKay, Butch Mills, Matt Pazak, Eddie Pod and Walt Suda.
On November 25, 1948, Spakoski married Jean E. Bylina.
A Bengals softball team won championships from 1948 through 1951 in the “AA” Amsterdam league and then upgraded to city “A” ball.
“The club had no problems with neighbors,” Spakoski said, describing his fellow Bengals as a “well-behaved bunch.”
The club disbanded in 1966 but held yearly reunions for a number of years. Spakoski recalled that other Bengals included Pete Bielicki, Steve Bubniak, Bill Davies and John Hughes.
George Spakoski worked for over 30 years at General Electric in Schenectady, retiring in 1987.
In later years he lived in the Town of Florida. He died last October 10 at age 95, survived by his wife and two children, grandsons, brothers, one sister and one sister-in-law.
According to historian Tony Pacelli in his book “Past and Present,” three Amsterdam clubs formed in the 1930s to compete in basketball and baseball--the Lightnings, Avengers and Sagamores.
There also was athletic rivalry between the Amicus Club of the former St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church and a similar organization at Mount Carmel Church.
The Gas House Gang hung out at Larry Natale’s gas station in the East End. Members included Joe Serge, Jimmy Phoenix and Nick Fratangelo, a well-known barber. The group went on outings with lady friends at Lake George, often enjoying an Italian feast.
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