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History

Around 1946, the original Greek Orthodox Basketball League was primarily set up as a league for returning Greek-American veterans (with no age limit) and church affiliation was pretty loose. Lou Cotronis and Tom Demopoulos were involved in its formation.

In the early to mid-60's that league evolved into a Senior GOYA (18 & over) league (this fizzled out in the early-70's and the Pamas league ultimately replaced it) and a separate GOYA (boys 13-18) league was established and grew to about 10-12 communities with only one division.

Then Yonkers, St. Paul, Jamaica, THY, Flushing, and Staten Island split off into a new league in 1972 because of numerous allegations of illegal players that they felt the leaders of the old league did nothing about. But two years later, when Astoria's gym floor was ruined by a flood (Astoria was the only gym that the old league was then using - the league had 8 or 9 teams, including some B & C teams), the remaining teams from the old league were compelled to join the new league which used the Jamaica and Hempstead gyms. As we got ready to admit the other teams into the league, George Masters, Bill Basedow, and George Papazicos drafted the by-laws of the new league in 1974-75 to ensure that the concerns of the communities which had split off were taken into account. Those by-laws evolved into those the MGOBL was using until approximately 1999 when the Archdiocese began overseeing the league. The Junior Boys division was started in the '70's, and the HANAC Girls basketball tournaments evolved into the addition of a Girls Division in the MGOBL in 1974-1975. In 1998-1999 a Junior Girls division was started.

Anyone with more history of the MGOBL or pictures, please send them to GPlevritis@mgobl.com Thank you!
 
League Matters/General Questions: Commissioner Larry Hatzioannides [mgobl@aol.com]
Web Administrator: George Plevritis
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