THE FIGHTING FINNS - Toivo Kangas
New Ipswich Historical Society
FINNS: An Oral History of Finnish-Americans in New Hampshire’s Monadnock Region
Excerpted from FINNS: An Oral History... by Patricia Kangas Ktistes, 1997, all rights reserved.
THE FIGHTING FINNS
Toivo Kangas
Appleton had pretty good basketball teams with my brothers. There also was Butch Somero and McCuddy down here in Greenville: he was a top-notch player. And we had this French guy, Lambert. My parents didn’t go to the games—they had no use for basketball—they were tired from working.We used to beat Milford all the time. They had a fairly good ball club and big crowds at home games. But after my brothers graduated and Bruno Maki was gone, our team went down to nothing. They didn’t win that many games anymore. Peterborough always had a good team. Rarely did Appleton beat them—I think only once. That was in Peterborough, at the old high school. Then Appleton beat them during the finals held at UNH in Durham. everybody on the Fighting Finns [A/K/A ‘The Flying Finns’] team had a nickname. Leo Hill was ‘Ekki.’ My brother Leonard was ‘Ista.’ My brother Ralph was ‘Rouf.’ Lambert from down in Greenville—we called him ‘Momor.’ Our coach, Provenzani, was a hard-nosed Italian but he knew his stuff. He hollered just like Pavarotti. And you had to listen to him. He’d growl at you so your eardrums would vibrate. But all the boys liked him and respected his authority.