Award-winning journalist to be this year’s hat bettor
WAYNESBURG – From the first hat bet in 1939 with Pittsburgh sportswriter Al Abrams to last year’s bet with with Bob Huggins, men’s head basketball coach at West Virginia University, many athletes, politicians, musicians, actors and local or regional “celebrities” have been lured into betting a hat that it would not rain on July 29 in Waynesburg.
The hat bet between the Waynesburg Borough mayor and a celebrity has occurred for 75 years and during that time the borough has had to admit defeat and relinquish a hat just 27 times. It should be noted there was no record of a bet in 1940, 1942 or 1943 and in some years, there was more than one celebrity making the bet.
So, who is the likely loser this year? KDKA television news personality Heather Abraham agreed to take Mayor Brian Tanner’s challenge.
“I contacted her because she is popular in the Pittsburgh television market,” Tanner said. “I think she is an excellent choice. I was somewhat surprised, though, that she was not familiar with the Rain Day celebration, so I made sure she received a copy of the book, ‘The Rain Day Boys,'” Tanner said. The book provides profiles on 18 soldiers from Greene County killed or mortally wounded during a single battle in World War I.
Abraham will join a hat bet list of other members of the Pittsburgh print and television media markets, including a host of television weather men such as Bob Kudzma, Joe DeNardo, Willard Scott, Dennis Bowman and Punxsutawney Phil, the greatest weather prognosticator of all. And for the record, all but Scott and Bowman lost the bet as did Abrams and Huggins.
For Tanner, this will be his first year making the hat bet as the mayor. “There’s some pressure, I admit, but I was a borough councilman so I am quite familiar with the Rain Day festival.
Tanner said he initially tried to get Ginger Zee, the ABC meteorologist and regular on Good Morning America.
“Apparently, there were some legal issues with the network, so I went elsewhere,” he said.
Abraham joined KDKA in December 2010 and is an award-winning journalist. She was nominated for several Emmy’s, including for a deeper look into the work of the Pittsburgh Police Vice Squad.
She has also been passionate about breaking news and won a Golden Quill award for her reporting on a seven-alarm fire in Homestead.
Abraham grew up in Shaler and graduated from Shaler Area High School. She continued her education at West Virginia University where she studied Broadcast News.
Before moving back home, she reported at News 12 Brooklyn, a 24-hour cable news station in New York City. She spent four years covering everything Brooklyn: culture, politics, crime and neighborhood news. She also occasionally filled in on the anchor desk.
Abraham is active in the community and has been involved with the Special Olympics of Pennsylvania.
Her husband is a City of Pittsburgh firefighter and they have two daughters and two dogs.