Three Inducted into Pittsfield Hoop Club Hall of Fame
PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- Three new members Friday were inducted into the Pittsfield Hoop Club Hall of Fame at the Boys and Girls Club.
The club recognized Jim McNeice, Brendan Burke and Tyrone Gadson in a ceremony held between the Pittsfield and Taconic varsity boys basketball games.
McNeice, a graduate of the former St. Joseph High School, was honored for his decades of commitment to local youth, principally at the Pittsfield CYC, where he served as executive director and helped found the city’s first youth girls basketball program.
McNeice also helped found the city’s Big Brothers/Big Sisters Program and co-chaired the local United Way Capital Campaign.
Burke, a 2005 St. Joe grad, led the Crusaders to back-to-back Western Massachusetts semi-final appearances, setting a school record with 16 assists in a 2005 sectional quarter-final.
Burke averaged 17 points and seven assists per game as a senior and followed that campaign with all-State recognition on the baseball diamond that spring. He went on to serve as a Division I women’s basketball assistant coach at Boston University and Cornell before returning to Pittsfield to pursue a career in real estate management.
Gadson was inducted posthumously and represented by his family at the ceremony. He attended St. Joe, Taconic and Pittsfield but is best remembered for scoring 32 points in a 1984 game at the Boys and Girls Club, when he scored 32 points to lead an underdog PHS team past St. Joe.
Gadson settled in the Atlanta area after his days in Pittsfield and worked in the Georgia city of Duluth with at-risk youth up until his death in 1999.
