Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame

Chad Levitt is a 1993 graduate of Cheltenham High School, where he was a varsity athlete in football, wrestling and track & field.  In 1992, Levitt scored 4 touchdowns to help win 36-0 and break the school’s 10-year losing streak against Abington High School. He ended his senior year with 1601 yards establishing a new Cheltenham High School single season rushing record.  Other football accolades included: First Team and Outstanding Player of Suburban One Liberty League, Academic All-League and Montgomery County All-Star.  In wrestling, Levitt was a State Championship Qualifier and Suburban One All-Star. He was First Team All-League Shot Put and 4 x 100 Relay.  He won the Ben Bell Award for the top male athlete at Cheltenham HS and received the 1993 B’nai B’rith Sports Lodge’s Ted Domsky Memorial Scholar-Athlete Award.

At Cornell University, Levitt was an All-American selection by the Associated Press as a senior, capping a career that saw him named All-Ivy first-team three times.  He set a school and league career record for most rushing attempts (922), and set a school-best mark for 100-yard rushing games in a career (24). He rushed for 4,657 yards, and was prevented from breaking the Ivy-League record due to a late-season injury. He had the second-best season in Cornell history (1996) where he rushed for 1,435 yards on 267 carries and was the ECAC Division I-AA Player of the Year, the Asa S. Bushnell Cup recipient as the Ivy League Player of the Year.  Levitt was selected by Vanity Fair magazine to its 1996 Ivy All-Star issue.  In 1997, Levitt was also honored by the New York Jewish Sports Hall of Fame as student athlete of the year. 

Levitt was invited to play in both the East-West Shrine and the Blue-Gray all-star games. The Oakland Raiders chose him in the fourth round in the 1997 NFL draft.  He also appeared on rosters for the St. Louis Rams and the Chicago Bears and was a member of the 1999 St. Louis Rams Super Bowl team (though not on the roster for the final game). He then spent a year as a track & field coach at the University of Pennsylvania while training for the Decathlon.  In 2002, he came in fourth place at the Penn Relays. Levitt is a member of the Cornell Athletic Hall of Fame.

Roger Schwab gained national recognition from the medical community for his balanced approach to exercise in his book, Strength of a Woman – The Truth About Training the Female Body, published in 1997. The book and its companion video (NFL Films) heralded an emerging trend in the fitness community that encouraged women and men to develop strong bodies through intense circuit-type strength training, Schwab has lectured in hospitals, schools and civic groups on sensible exercise, written countless newspaper and magazine articles and has advised physicians and trainers alike about sound fitness practices.

Schwab’s quest for sensible physical fitness began at Penn State University, where his interest in Olympic power lifting quickly led him to championship status. Early injuries taught Schwab to seek out the common sense truth about training the human body.  Schwab developed his philosophy of improving functional ability, through a basic, twice-a-week regimen that delivers optimum results with a minimum of time spent in the gym and cultivated his enthusiasm into a full-time business enterprise with the opening of Main Line Nautilus in 1976. Today, Main Line Health & Fitness, is a 30,000 square foot, state-of-the-art fitness and sports medicine complex.

Schwab was head judge of the International Federation of Bodybuilders from 1977 to 1982 and judged five Mr. and Ms. Olympia contests.  He has personally trained many of America’s top athletes including U.S. Track Olympian Sydnee Maree, three-time U.S. Amateur Golf Champion Jay Sigel, U.S. Olympic Swim Coach George Haines (and his 1980 U.S. Women’s Swim Team) and the 1984 Bronze medal U.S. Olympic Women’s Field Hockey Team.

Joe Goldenberg is renowned in Philadelphia for his love of basketball, as a player and as a coach.  He played for West Philadelphia High School from 1952-1955, where in 1955 he made the All-Public First Team and earned Honorable Mention All-American.  He then played at Temple University from 1956-1959. Goldenberg played for the Jewish Basketball League for 25 years and in the Brith Sholom League for 22 years.

Goldenberg was the coach of his alma mater West Philadelphia from 1969-1990, where his record stood at 410 wins – 84 losses.  His team won five consecutive Public League Championships from 1975-1979, four consecutive City Championships from 1976-1979 and was ranked the #1 High School Basketball Team in the Country in 1977.  Goldenberg had a 68 game winning streak from 1976-1978.  Other head coaching experiences include West Philadelphia’s baseball and golf teams, Sayre Junior High School’s Varsity Basketball, Softball and Soccer teams, and the first McDonald’s All-America Game in 1978. He also conducted basketball clinics for the Philadelphia School District, Philadelphia 76ers, Seamco, Medalist, Nike, Converse, JCCs Kaiserman Branch and Camp Ramah.  Goldenberg was also the owner-director of the Wildwood Basketball Clinic.

Goldenberg has won numerous awards, including the 1990 William J. Stecher Award for Outstanding Physical Education Teacher, Philadelphia School District; the 1990 William Markward Memorial Basketball Club Award; Commendations from City Council of Philadelphia in 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1988, 1990; and he earned commendations from the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1979 and 1987.

Born in Philadelphia, Samuel Hyman Goldstein became a paraplegic at the age of 14. His disability did nothing to prevent him from participating in athletics and, in fact, served as the motivation to become a top-class athlete in a multitude of sports on a variety of international stages.  His pursuit of athletic achievement began in 1963 at the age of 16.  He was a member of the National Wheelchair Athletic Association and competed in table tennis, bowling, track (discus, 40 yard dash) and swimming, (freestyle, backstroke, and breaststroke).

Goldstein reached the pinnacle of his competitive success in the mid-1960s when he became the first paraplegic to compete and finish the American Red Cross 50-mile swim. He was a member of the 1964 US Paralympic Team at the Tokyo, Japan Games and was a  silver medal winner in table tennis, backstroke and freestyle swimming, and a bronze medal winner in breaststroke. In 1967, Goldstein was a gold medal winner in slalom track, and silver medal winner in the backstroke at the Stoke Mandeville Games.

Goldstein later coached the Easter Seals Philadelphia Paranauts basketball team.  Goldstein passed away on January 15, 1977 and was inducted into the Pennsylvania Wheelchair Hall of Fame as its first inductee in 1979. 

Alan Kline entered his first track meet at the age of 14.  He won the 50 and 100 yard dashes in the Junior Olympics at Franklin Field.  Later, in 1949, Kline won three events at the Maccabiah at Northeast High, which celebrated the first anniversary of Israel.  In his senior year at Central High School in 1951, Kline won the Public High and City Championships in the 100 yard dash and low hurdles.  He also won both events in the Penn Invitational against champions from the Catholic, Suburban, Inter Academic and South Jersey Leagues.  He was Co-Captain of the Central High team which won both the Public League and City titles. At Central, Kline played halfback on the football team and was a pinch runner for the baseball team.  His class voted him Best Athlete.

Kline entered the University of Pennsylvania in 1952.  In his first indoor race in Boston, he beat Lindy Remigino, the Olympic champion.  The following year, he was Ivy League indoor champion in the 60 yard dash.  Later, he won the 100 and 220 dashes at Cornell, and joined them in London against Oxford-Cambridge, where he won gold and silver medals.  He later traveled to Ireland, where he won 100 yard dashes in both Dublin and Belfast.

Kline was second in the Invitation 100 in the Penn Relays.  He was a consistent scorer for Penn in the dashes, and on outstanding relay teams.  His official times of 9.7 in the 100 dash and 21.2 in the 220 dash are still among the all time bests at Penn.  Kline also played for the Sprint (150) football team in his senior year and scored a few touchdowns in a winning season.

After graduation in 1957, Kline ran for the United States Maccabiah Team in Israel.  He won three medals, including a gold in a record-setting 400 meter relay. Kline continued his interest in track as a Penn Relays official and was honored for over 40 years of service.

Barry Love was the first high school basketball player in the Philadelphia area to score 50 points or more when he scored 54 points for the Overbrook High School Basketball Team in 1947. (Wilt Chamberlain broke Love’s record a few years later.) Love was captain of the basketball and track teams and won medals at the Penn Relays. For the track team, he ran the 440 and high hurdles.

Love was unanimously voted to the All Public High School Team in 1947 gathering 45 out of 45 votes of the sportswriters. They wrote “the lanky center dominated the scoring and proved the deciding factor in winning many games.” He was chosen as the Most Valuable Player of the Public High School League by all the sportswriters in the city of Philadelphia and was President of the Boys Athletic Association. He also was recipient of the Aaron Bodek Award for outstanding achievement in basketball.

Love was honored by the Philadelphia Inquirer in March 1947 and won its prestigious Gold Basketball Award.  He also was honored as Star of the Week on WPEN radio in April 1947 and declared a “basketball wizard.”  That same year he played in the Jewish Basketball League for Har Zion and led the team in scoring and rebounding.  Har Zion won the league championship.

Love received a full, four-year scholarship to Lafayette College where he played varsity basketball for four years. He also played in the summer league in the Catskill Mountains on the Grossinger Hotel Team with the top college players in the East.

Joan Bernhang Waldbaum is a member of the United States Masters Swimming Association and has been a top ten swimmer in her age group since 2002.  In 2006, she was on a woman’s relay team that came in first in the USA and seventh in the world. Her specialty is breast stroke and butterfly.

Waldbaum’s love of swimming began as a child where she swam in a creek nearby her home in Oxford, PA. Swimming elevated beyond personal recreation for Waldbaum in 1949, when she entered Temple University. She swam for the Temple team for two years, with a special focus on the butterfly stroke.

Her talent then lay dormant for nearly 50 years.  Waldbaum then swam her first meet in the Montgomery County Senior Games, winning four first place medals. She went to compete in the Pennsylvania Senior Games, where she took a few first and second place medals and one third place medal. She swam in the National Senior Games in Baton Rouge where she surprised herself by taking first place in the 50 yard breast stroke and was presented with her first National Gold Medal by her husband and older daughter.

Waldbaum has traveled to Australia and Argentina as a Masters Swimmer through the USA Maccabi and Maccabiah/Israel.  At both competitions, she was the oldest swimmer from any country and earned gold medals.

Larry “Reds” Cardonick is considered to be one of the great high school football players to come out of the city of Philadelphia. He was the only player in Olney High School’s history and only Philadelphian honored for the 1950 All-State First Team (All-Pennsylvania-Scholastic). He also played for Germantown Academy as a guard. Larry was named to the 1951 A—American National High School squad. He was described as an “entire line” when named to the “All-Interacademic Eleven”. Larry joined the Temple University football program in 1952. He earned the Temple Quarterback Club’s outstanding played award.

In 1954 he was named to the Associated Press “All-State Eleven” as well as the All Eastern United States Team. Larry was honoredas Temple’s Most Valuable football player in 1954 and chosen for the 1954 All Pennsylvania College football – first team. He graduated Temple with a BS degree in business and went on to play three years of pro football in the Canadian Professional Football League for the Sarnia Imperials. Larry received a degree in special education at Glassboro State College and became a renowned special-ed teacher.

He has devoted his life to teaching handicapped children and adults and has created innovative physical education programs. He received the Hannah G. Solomon Award in 1978 for twenty years of tireless work with Camden County developmentally disabled children and adults. The award is named in honor of the founder of the National Council of Jewish Women and is given to “that person in the community who has made known and stimulated interest and action in the unmet needs of the community.” Larry served as coordinator of Project Child Find, a state-mandated program to locate and aid the underserved handicapped.

Cardonick is in the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame and the Jewish Basketball League for his outstanding achievements in football.

The first Jew to be a member of the United States Olympic Team in Sailing and first one to win an Olympic medal, Don Cohan picked up sailing in 1967 at age 37. Within three years, Cohan was competing in top Soling and Dragon-class regattas from Sweden to Tasmania; within five, he was reveling in a classic Walter Mitty moment as he bowed his head for longtime U.S. and International Olympic Committee president Avery Brundage to drape the bronze medal for the Dragon around his neck at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

A Philadelphia native, Cohan graduated from Amherst College and Harvard Law School. He has raced in many countries including: United States, France, Germany, Australia, Canada, Puerto Rico, Italy, Finland, England, Denmark, Holland and Hungary. He has raced in international regattas in 5.5 meters, Dragon, Star, Soling, Tempest and the Flying Dutchman. Cohan has been in various classes including the Chesapeake Bay Champions, Atlantic Coast (14 times), Pacific Coast (2 times), United States, German, European and Australian Champion.

In Jewish communal affairs, Cohan has been a Trustee of Federation, president of JEVS, and Chairman of the North American Friends of Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research. He is on the Board of the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Philadelphia Academy of Music.

Marilyn and Edward Fernberger are thought of often as the “dynamic duo” to the world of tennis. With a shared love for the game, the Fernbergers became involved with the United States Tennis Association (USTA) through the local Philadelphia district and Middle States section. Together, Marilyn and Edward have conducted and promoted numerous youth and adult tournaments. They were the keystones in transforming an amateur men’s tennis tournament, an eight-men draw held at St. Joseph’s College’s field house, into a major men’s professional tennis event known as the U.S. Pro Indoor. During Marilyn tenure (1967-1991) co-chairing the tournament, attendance increased from 2,500 to more than 95,000, and players representing more than 20 countries vied for a $1 million purse.

Marilyn is a consultant, author, journalist, tennis organizer and fundraiser. Her enthusiasm and dedication for the sport of tennis has earned her an induction into the Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island in 2002. She has received awards such as: Coren Award for community service; Kelly Award for humanitarian service; Marlboro Award for service to international tennis; Chairman’s Award of International Tennis Hall of Fame; Mayor’s Award’s from: W. Wilson Goode, Frank Rizzo, William Greene and Ed Rendell. Marilyn is a graduate of Philadelphia High School for Girls and received her B.A. in English and Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania.

Edward Fernberger loves tennis. Tennis is the game he has played and personally promoted for years, making the sport available to diverse populations through several nonprofit and for-profit organizations. Edward retired from the Roger Construction Company/The Mallard in 1994. An avid photographer, he applied he hobby to the tennis world. He published countless photographs in World Tennis Magazine and a dozen other international publications. He donated his collection of more than 100,000 photographs to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island. Edward is a graduate of Germantown Friends School and received his B.A in Arts and Sciences from the University of Pennsylvania. The Fernberger’s have made a difference in the sport of tennis, and more importantly, in many peoples lives.