Bill Perigo was a three-year starter at Western Michigan University. After graduation, he played professional basketball for four seasons while simultaneously embarking on a coaching career that spanned three decades and included positions  as head basketball coach at Western Michigan and the University of Michigan.

John Pennino was a lifelong resident of  Vineland, New Jersey, a small town in the southern part of the  state that was just a few miles down the road from Millville, one of the most turn-of-the -century basketball-crazy towns in the country. Pennino, who was tall and athletic, excelled on his hometown team and was signed in 1901 to play for Millville in the National Basketball League. By 1906, when the Central Basketball League  was formed, Pennino had established himself as a first-rate defensive guard. In his first two years in the league with East Liverpool, the Potters won more games than any other team and captured the 1907-08 CBL championship. Pennino had some of the best years of his career in Kingston, New York where he appeared for parts of seven different seasons playing for legendary coach, Pop Morgenweck. In 1922, when he was 42 years old, Pennino  appeared  in  the final two games of his career in Kingston.  At his retirement, Pennino was remembered  as being  popular with fans and extremely well-liked by his  fellow players throughout his two-decade long career.