1947 UNION STEEL SOFTBALL TEAM

If you get this issue on Saturday, don’t forget my Riverside Cemetery tour on Sunday, October 12. We’ll meet at the Veteran’s Memorial Stage on the south side of the Cemetery at 1:30 pm. Copies of my latest Riverside Cemetery tour booklet are available from yours truly, or at the Albion Chamber of Commerce. Is your collection complete?

Here’s another sports photograph this week for our Historical Notebook, courtesy of the family of the late Victor Buinowski. It is of the Union Steel Products fast-pitch softball “B” team from the year of 1947. That year Union Steel’s two teams dominated the local softball league, and the “A” team defeated the “B” team for the city championship by a score of 5 to 3. This photo was featured on the cover of the September, 1947 issue of the Union Steel Messenger, along with a photograph of Team “A.”

“B” team, front row, left to right: Kenneth Dowding, Donald Snell, team manager Darrell Romans, (below) mascot Mike Cvitkovic, Carl “Hoagie” McCullough, Victor Buinowski, and Sam Markovich. Back row: Don Sibal, John Markovich, Charles Cox, Stanley Tautkus, George Pollman, Mike Romanowski, and Thomas Zasucha.

Next week we’ll feature a harder photograph to identify: a Gale Manufacturing Company softball team from the same era.

	Frank Passic — Albion Historian An Albion native and 1971 graduate of Albion High School, Frank Passic has been researching and writing Albion history since 1976. He is the creator of the Albion Historical Notebook, with hundreds of articles appearing weekly in the Morning Star and The Recorder. Frank maintains an extensive personal archive including Riverside Cemetery records, family surname files, genealogies, photographs, city directories, and high school yearbooks. Support his 2026 research at the Historic Albion Michigan Facebook page. Historical Notebook \| From the Archives \| Subject List \| 100 Years Ago \| Alphabetical Index \| Frank Passic Home Page \| Albion History Books \| Contact Frank
	Michigan Prints by Maggie LaNoue Michigan Prints offers limited-edition archival Giclée prints, miniprints, notecards and boxed sets featuring Michigan landmarks, nature, resorts and nostalgia. Each print and card includes a legend on the back with stories about Michigan history. Albion scenes include the Kalamazoo River waterfall and the Blizzard of 1978. Find Michigan Prints online and at local shops. Michigan Prints \| Albion Scenes \| Custom Cards \| Zazzle Gifts
	AlbionMich.net — General Guide to Albion AlbionMich.net is a hub for community life in the greater Albion area, featuring current news, city council updates, river restoration stories, parks and trails. See Albion's beautiful Kalamazoo River waterfall as it looks today — and follow the story of its future restoration. Includes news from The Recorder and stories about Albion's 17 parks. AlbionMich.net \| Albion Blog \| Frank Passic on AlbionMich.net
	General Guide to Albion AlbionMich.net offers two General Guides to the Albion area — one covering community life including city council, veterans, history, youth and wellness resources, and one covering the outdoors including roads, rivers, parks, trails and downtown. Both guides feature stories by local writers including contributors to The Recorder, sorted by topic for easy reference. General Guide — Community \| General Guide — Outdoors
	Robin James — Indices Unlimited Robin James is the editor of the Albion Historical Notebook and has kept Frank Passic's thousands of articles organized and searchable for decades. A trained librarian and archivist, Robin specializes in back-of-book and online indexing, multimedia collection management, and corporate information distribution. He also enjoys strange music and is a contributing editor for Igloo electronic music magazine. For more about his indexing services, visit Indices Unlimited.
AlbionDesign.com — Communications Specialists Since 1981 \| Advertise on AlbionMich.com