His talents from the guard position helped lead the Red & Green to back-to-back Lake Shore League titles. Prior to coming to JHS, one of the Washington highlights was an overtime win over the Jamestown Reserves as Pischera scored 17 points and the winning basket. This was the only junior high club to ever whip the Jamestown Reserves.
In football, he was stationed at center and linebacker with his senior campaign (1942) seeing the Red Raiders record a 6-1-1 slate for departed Coach Dent Moon. His final game against Erie Academy saw him just miss a drop-kick field goal but later in the contest it was a teammate Joe Sanfilippo, who had a fabulous coaching career at Salamanca and Jamestown, who booted through a field goal for a 10-7 victory.
The spring season saw Pischera toss the shotput and discus.
After graduating in 1943, Pischera enlisted in the United States Navy and played football, basketball and softball at the North Carolina Naval Base. He was a pitcher-centerfielder on the softball team, which won the East Coast Navy championship. The football team was also untarnished four years in a row.
Frank Pischera
Pischera bowled the first 700 series in five years at the Bowling Lanes in Orlando. Also, he competed in the Navy finals at Charlestown, South Carolina, after winning the qualifier at Key West, Florida.
Pischera was a guard on the highly-touted Jamestown Vikings' semi-pro basketball team for three City League championship seasons (1946-1948). The Vikings won a City record 27 straight games before losing by a point to the Gowanda Legion and also scored another record 44 points in a single stanza. Some of the other teams they scheduled were the original Harlem Globetrotters, the House of David, the Cleveland Browns and the New York Americans.
During World War II, he served as a minesweeper in the Pacific Theatre off the coast of Japan aboard the U.S.S. Ruddy (AM380). He later was recalled to active duty during the Korean conflict.
Pischera played semi-pro football with the Jamestown Legion and eventually was the line coach for the semi-pro Jamestown Dukes.
He was an assistant golf pro to Ivar Johnson at Moon Brook Country Club in 1949 and many years later shot a hole-in-one at Winter Pines in Florida. From 1958-1969, he was chairman for the annual Jamestown area Sportsman's Cafe Toumament.
Among his golf accomplishments was capturing the Navy Tournament at Disney World in Orlando, Fla.
Pischer was superb in bowling, winning the National Tournament two straight years in competition at Jamestown and Baltimore, thus qualifying him for the Hawaiian Bowl-Around National Pin Tournament where he placed fifth at the Stardust Lanes.
He competed in the Satellite Bowl Classic and had highs of 289-714. He averaged 194 per game and was on a championship team comprised of Sam Munella, Moody Garfield, Piney Johnson and Hy Williams.
Pischera bowled the first 700 series in five years at the Bowling Lanes in Orlando. Also, he competed in the Navy finals at Charlestown, South Carolina, after winning the qualifier at Key West, Florida.
He was the horseshoe champion at the Naval Center in Orlando for two straight years and earned 19 medals, including 11 gold, in the Senior Olympics at Sanford, Fla. He received a Navy Commendation letter and was on the front page of Navy Recruiter Magazine with a picture of his medals won over a three-year span.
While with the Navy in Daytona Beach, Florida, he volunteered to repair and paint wheelchairs for disabled persons. He organized the Rolland Taft Memorial Fund in Jamestown.
Pischera received such recognition from the Navy as a Navy Achievement Medal, and the Silver Wreath Award plus a Certificate of Appreciation for his accomplishments in the 1982 Senior Olympics when he copped six medals, including a gold medal on a football throw, in Orlando.
He retired from the Navy after 20 years of service and remained active in hunting, fishing, bowling, softball and had an eight handicap in golf at the time of his induction.
