David Wassmer 

David Wassmer was born in Yonkers on June 13, 1895, the youngest of six children. His first basketball experience took place at the Yonkers Y.M.C.A., when it was located on Main Street. He attended School Seven, and graduated from Yonkers High School in 1918. At Yonkers high he earned varsity letters in both basketball and baseball during his junior year. Here he came under expert tutelage of Coach Ed Hasting.

He enrolled in the American institute of banking and worked in the Westchester Trust Company and the First National Bank of Yonkers which he retired in 1963 as assistant vice president.

His basketball prowess became a household word in county court circles and several semiprofessional teams bid his services. He played for the Yonkers Athletic Association in the Prospect House, the fourth Separate National Guard Squad in the State Armory and the famous Ansonia Five in Ansonia, Connecticut.

He devoted full time to his basketball career, playing every night in a variety of league in New York State, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

When he signed to play with Holyoke, Massachusetts, he brought along as a teammate for his first big time competition a tall gangling youngster, Joe Lapchick, also from Yonkers, who was later to be introduced into the National Basketball Hall of Fame as well as the Yonkers Sport Hall of Fame.

Lapchinck and Wassmer were in demand up and down the Eastern seaboard and were widely acclaimed for their play with Amsterdam in Hudson River league. From Amsterdam Lapchick went with the immortal Original Celtics and Wassmer ended up with the Coteville Five in the Pennsylvania League, one of the outstanding basketball teams in the nation.

When he put away his court jersey and trunks for the last time Wassmer kept in top physical condition by taking up four wall handball. In the new Y.M.C.A. on the Riverdale Avenue he won the city singles championship for several years, culminating his play in this sport by winning the Westchester Country Singles Championship in 1930.

His interest in sports continued during his retirement when he served as chairman of the athletic committee for the East Yonkers Kiwanis Club, sponsoring several recreational programs for the youth of Yonkers.

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