Melvin Silva

Doc Silva was an athlete, coach and sports writer for the Reading Times. Doc played college football at St. Mary’s under coach Slip Madigan. He had a 105-yard kick-off return to beat California and scored four touchdowns in a game against Navy. He played minor league baseball and stole 85 bases during one season and had six hits in one game. Doc coached Gregg Post to seven American Legion state championships and helped develop some major league players.

Doc’s fellow sports writers at the Reading Eagle-Times had this to say about Doc in 1975: “As an athlete-coach-writer... and as an unassuming, courtly, soft-spoken gentleman, Doc Silva has earned more than just a footnote at the bottom of a ladder of cold sports statistics. As members of an organization for which Doc has worked since 1931, we are happy and thrilled that honor should come to a guy who never mentions his own exploits, which, as one can gather, are legendary. Certainly, all the guys he ever coached in American Legion baseball will concur that Mel Silva, who captained the Galloping Gaels of St. Mary’s back in 1917, is one beautiful guy.

Too frequently, the sports fan dwells only on the present, tending to forget luminaries of the past... guys like Doc Silva, who could run the 100 in 9.8 in full sporting gear, produce seven state American Legion championship baseball teams and write authoritative, readable sports columns since the late 1930s.”

Deceased