Rich Constantine has run the athletic gamut
Uniontown’s Rich Constantine has been involved in every aspect of athletics in his career, player, coach, official and administrator. Constantine was a standout football and wresting star at Uniontown High School in the mid 1960’s.
“Those were the glory days,” Constantine stated. “It was really fun to play football back then.”
In 1962, when Constantine was a sophomore, the Red Raiders went 10-0 and won the WPIAL title. He lettered on two very good teams in 1963 and 1964. The 1963 Raiders posted a 7-1-1 record, with a 20-20 tie against Charleroi and a 20-19 loss to Washington.
The 1964 squad suffered an opening game 6-6 tie with Johnstown and wound up 8-0-1, but it didn’t make the playoffs because of the Gardner Points system.
“That tie knocked us out, and that was a big disappointment.” Constantine offered. “The tie was in the mud at Johnstown. We walked out on that field and your shoes just sunk down up to your ankles.”
Constantine played for two high-profile football coaches during his career at Uniontown.
“Bill Power was the coach when I was a sophomore, and Leon Kaltenbach took over my junior and senior seasons,” Constantine recalled. “Coach Power came from Point Marion and produced some great teams. That was when the program started.
“He was a gentleman, and I remember how professional he was. He just had a way of motivating the team, and he never raised his voice. I never remember him showing any anger, but he had a way of motivating us that in his own way, was very professional.
“Kaltenbach could instill fear into you, but he was very respected, and I respected him a great deal. He knew his football, and he motivated us because we thought he would kick our butt if we didn’t do it right. He had great teams through the ’60s into the early ’70s.”
Looking back, Constantine marvels at the great talent on those teams.
“We had talent coming out of our ears,” Constantine said. “Guys like Ray Parson, Wilfred Minor, Phil Vassar and the Hull brothers, John and Tom, who were younger and coming up right after me. We had Pope Gregory, who played at Nebraska, and Nick Caromano; we had tremendous talent.”
Constantine, a guard, garnered All-State honors as a senior and was All-Western Conference and All-WPIAL.
“Coach Kaltenbach was a Clemson guy and played under Frank Howard. He had a lot of Frank Howard characteristics. He was the line coach, and he was my line coach when Coach Power was there,” Constantine remembered. “He helped me develop as a lineman – he and Joe Yourchik. Those guys probably developed me more than anybody. Yourchik was my wrestling coach, and Kaltenbach was my position coach and head coach.”
Constantine received a big honor when he was selected to play in the Big 33 game in Hershey.
“It was a thrill to play in that game,” Constantine stated. “We lost to Texas, 26-10, but there were some outstanding players in that game. Pennsylvania had Terry Hanratty, Mike Reid and Ted Kwalick, and Texas had Bill Bradley, Jerry Levias and Norm Bulaich.”
As good as Constantine was in football, he really made his mark in wrestling and almost succeeded in securing back-to-back state titles for Uniontown.
In 1964 Carl “Putsy” Carbonara won Uniontown’s first state championship in wrestling and Constantine almost captured the crown in the same 180-pound weight class in 1965.
“Carbonara and I used to go head to head in practice and that was tougher than any matches that we had,” Constantine said. “Kaltenbach was Yourchik’s assistant in wrestling, and he would egg us on a lot of times. We would really go at it because we knew that was going to make us better. Carbonara was so strong that I had to be quick. I wasn’t as strong as he was.
“When I became a senior, Joey Nypaver would push me in practice. The things that happened to me with football really motivated me in wrestling.”
Uniontown High School’s bid for a second straight 180-pound championship in the Pennsylvania State Wrestling Tournament went awry before a record turnout of 14,215 fans at Penn Stale University’s Recreation Hall.
Constantine, attempting to follow in the footsteps of Carl Carbonara the 1964 Red Raider great, was sidetracked in the 180-pound title bout.
The unbeaten Raider lost a 6-2 decision to Joe Yerg of State College – his first setback after 17 triumphs.
Constantine gained a place in the finals with a narrow 3-2 decision over Steve Diacont of Easton in the afternoon semifinals. Yerg nipped Dave Laboesky of Springfield-Delco, by the same score.
But it was sweet revenge for Yerg in the finals against Constantine. It was an ironic twist of fate that paired the two in the title match. In 1964, Yerg met Uniontown’s Carbonara in the 180 finals, and the Raider flattened Yerg in the third period for the crown.
“I remember there was a huge crowd,” Constantine recalled. “I was nervous, and at the afternoon match I was nervous, but somehow I pulled that one out. I took Yerg down and he reversed me. After that, I kind of froze up. I don’t know what happened. It was not the usual kind of match that I wrestled. He beat me, 6-2. It was a big disappointment because I didn’t wrestle that match like I did the rest of the matches.”
Constantine graduated in 1965 and had several colleges pursuing him.
“I was wrestling at the time, and I wanted to make a choice quickly,” he reported. “I made a couple of trips to Lafayette, William & Mary and Virginia. I was in the honor society and had good grades. I liked the area, and I liked the attitude at Virginia. At that time it was a coat and tie school, and I just liked everything about the school.”
Constantine played four years of football in Charlottesville. He was on the freshman squad in 1965. In 1966, his sophomore year, the Cavaliers went 4-6. In 1967 they posted a 5-5 mark, and they went 7-3 in 1968.
“My senior year was the first winning season in 28 years,” Constantine said. “We felt really good about that season. My coach was George Blackburn. He was a lot like Bill Power. He was an offensive mind and an innovator. He was one of the coaches that started red shirting. We had a lot of fifth year seniors on that team. I had a nice career. I started for three years, and I loved the guys I played with. I won some awards – senior with the highest academic average, and the most improved player from my junior to my senior year.”
Constantine wrestled for a couple of years at Virginia, but football took too much of his time for him to really get into wrestling shape. He was runner-up in the ACC in the heavyweight class his sophomore year.
When he graduated from Virginia he came back to Uniontown and took a spot on Leon Kaltenbach’s football staff in 1969. He has enjoyed a 41-year career in education. Ten and a half years as a teacher, eight years as an assistant football coach, 10 years as the head wrestling coach, two and a half years as assistant principal, 19 years as principal, four years as assistant to the superintendent and five years as administrative director of athletics. He took that part-time position after he retired in 2005. He also was a football and wrestling official.
Constantine is the current president of the WPIAL and has served in many capacities over the years with the WPIAL and the PIAA.
Constantine, 62, and his wife of 38-years, Marcia, still reside in Uniontown. They have one son, Richard, 28, who is a dentist in Greenville, S.C.
“I’ve had a wonderful career,” Constantine said. “I’ve had a wonderful life. I take a lot of pride in the fact that I have run the gamut with athletics. I was a player, a coach, an administrator and an official. I’ve seen every aspect of athletics, and I’m proud of that.”
George Von Benko’s “Memory Lane” columns appear in the Sunday’s edition of the Herald-Standard. He also hosts a sports talk show on WMBS-AM radio from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.