‘Rough & Ungentlemanly Tactics’
Bret Moore is all smiles as he proudly displays his new book, “Rough & Ungentlemanly Tactics: A History of Sports in Greene County, Pennsylvania,” which is now available for purchase.
A close-up of the cover for Bret Moore’s new and recently published book, “Rough & Ungentlemanly Tactics: A History of Sports in Greene County, Pennsylvania.”
Bret Moore has always loved sports.
The lifelong Greene County native has had sports ingrained in him since he was a young child. His father, the late Jim Moore, was a well-known and respected journalist who covered sports for various newspapers, attended too many local sporting events to count, befriended popular athletes, exuded great passion for all things sports and deeply cherished Greene County sports history.
And from the time he was knee high all the way to adulthood, Bret saw and experienced his father’s passion and enthusiasm for local sports.
With such a strong background in local sports history knowledge – not to mention his own personal forays into playing and coaching a multitude of sports – it seems only fitting that Bret would publish a book that covers a tremendous deal of Greene County sports history.
That book, “Rough & Ungentlemanly Tactics: A History of Sports in Greene County, Pennsylvania,” covers local sports during the period of 1860 through 1960. Bret refers to the book as “Volume One” and intends to release Volume Two – which will cover local sports from 1961 to the present – sometime next spring.
Filled with interesting stories, facts and photos detailing a century of local sports, the book begins with information about teams and individual players in the 19th century in sports such as cricket and base ball (the term was two words back in the day).
Bret said he’d wanted to write the book for several years, and when he started putting it together his first priority was making sure it was “reader friendly.”
“That is why the book is divided by decade, by sport and by school,” he explained. “I also didn’t want it to be just a collection of scores and data. The fascinating back stories and historical perspective are the things that make it interesting for more than just sports buffs.”
Bret said he spent roughly a year researching local sports history at the Cornerstone Genealogical Society and the Greene County Historical Society, and was able to use yearbooks from every county school as well as the archives of newspapers like the Democrat Messenger and the Waynesburg Republican.
He said he was surprised at how many interesting and even unique stories his research uncovered.
“It was fascinating,” he said. “I was surprised to find that women’s basketball and softball was extremely popular for the first four decades of the 20th century. I was in high school when women’s athletics made a comeback in the 1970’s. I’ve always just assumed that was when it started.”
One of the most jarring stories he discovered was of the 1928 Mather Mine baseball team, whose members left their shift early one day to get to a game. An hour later, the mine exploded and killed 196 of their co-workers.
On a lighter side, Bret also uncovered a story about the first Waynesburg College basketball team traveling by horse-drawn sleigh Morgantown to take on West Virginia University in 1904. The team lost badly because the players were not prepared for the “glass-like floor,” and to make matters worse, the next morning the snow had melted and the team had to walk home.
Sports stories such as these, Bret said, is why he wanted to release his book.
“Local sports have always served as a communal glue,” he said. “People love to sit around and talk about who was the best pitcher, running back or wrestler the area produced. The problem is, most people have only a limited time frame as a reference. Eventually, time washes away all those shared experiences.
“Someday, the accomplishments of Cary Kolat, Coleman Scott and Derek Bochna, for example, will be as obscure as the sports heroes of the 1920’s,” he continued. “I wanted to preserve all of the accomplishments of the great athletes of the county, as well as the role sports played in our cultural heritage.
Bret said local sports give small towns a sense of identity when they might otherwise be overlooked by the larger society.
“It was really interesting to see how sports was such an escape from the tough work of the mine or the farm for so many people here,” he said. “Before television, local sports provided one of the few sources of entertainment. Waynesburg College and W&J baseball games drew bigger crowds than the Pirates in the early part of the 20th century.
“In 1920, 4,000 people turned out to watch Rices Landing play Crucible for the Greene County Baseball League Championship,” he continued. “And barnstorming teams such as the Homestead Grays, the Cuban National Team and even the Pirates would come to Waynesburg, Mather or Golden Oaks parks to take on local all-star teams.”
Bret fondly recalled his father’s influence in writing the new book.
“My dad was a local newspaper man and loved the sports history of the county,” he said. “He started his career as a sports columnist before becoming an editor for the Observer-Reporter and the Greene County Messenger. He was good friends with fellow newsman John O’Hara, who wrote a column and two books called ‘Greene County Facts and Folklore.’
“I loved those books, especially the sports stories,” Bret continued. “I wanted to take the writings of O’Hara, as well as other local writers, and add my own research to create a comprehensive collection of the county’s sports history.”
As for the book’s unique title, Bret said “Rough & Ungentlemanly Tactics” was a phrase used in a 1915 newspaper account describing the style of play used by Washington & Jefferson’s football team.
“Penn State, West Virginia University and Waynesburg College threatened to discontinue scheduling W&J because of the on-and-off field attacks suffered by the Jaymen’s opponents and their fans,” he said. “Games were often ended prematurely because of fights, and postgame riots happened on more than one occasion.
“We often romanticize the sports of yesteryear and fall victim to a ‘Golden Age Fallacy’ … as a teacher (in 2015, Bret retired as an English teacher from McGuffey High School after 30 years), I always tried to convey to my students the figures of the past were not really that different from us,” he continued.
“Human nature is relatively constant despite our tendency to deny or or glorify our past. The graciousness of sportsmanship and the ugly side of our competitiveness have been a part of our duality since we started playing games.
“I thought the newspaper’s captured this dual concept perfectly in its euphemistically genteel description of our darker nature.”
Even the cover’s photo is a unique story, showing members of the 1920 Bluff baseball team who were arrested and fined for playing baseball on a Sunday.
In addition to recognizing his father, Bret dedicated the book to his mother, whom he said “drove me to every practice and sat through every game, despite her complete lack of interest in sports.”
The book is available for purchase at The Locker Room, The Perfect Arrangement and Lily Bee’s, Giant Eagle, McCracken Pharmacy, Waynesburg Milling, The Hartley Inn and Pioneer Grocery.
Bret said the book is also available for purchase online at www.drfanwear.com/sportshistory/.
Proceeds from the book sales will go to the Cornerstone Genealogical Society and the Greene County Historical Society.
“They serve a truly important purpose in our community and deserve all of the support they can get,” Bret said.