Frank Wydo: A giant on and off the gridiron
Through the years Fayette County has had some outstanding football players. Big Frank Wydo from German Township ranks with the best of them. Wydo was a standout tackle for coach Lou Rozzi’s Uhlans. The 1939 squad posted a 7-1 record, and the 1940 team went 8-1-1.
After high school Wydo opted to play college football at Duquesne. The Dukes posted a record of 6-3-1 in Wydo’s only season on the Bluff in 1942.
He entered the Army and served until he was discharged in 1945. While in the Army, he played a lot of football. During his wartime service, Wydo was an aerial engineer in the Air Corps.
“I once helped fly the President to Washington,” he admitted years later. “Well, he became President. He was Vice-President Harry S. Truman then. He’d just been elected along with President Roosevelt, and we flew him from Kansas City to Washington just after the election.”
Wydo made quite a reputation as a lightning quick 6-foot-4, 215-pound tackle, playing for the Air Transport Command.
“Finest line prospect I’ve seen,” remarked coach Dick Emerson of the Air Transport Command.
When his discharge papers came through, Wydo wanted to return to college, get his degree and play football.
Several schools clamored for his services.
The University of Kentucky brought him to their campus, but he chose not to play for the Wildcats.
Another college coach dispatched a special plane to Pittsburgh to pick him up and bring him back to campus. The 22-year old Wydo was being pulled in many directions.
Aldo “Buff” Donelli, who coached Wydo at Duquesne, had moved on to Columbia as an assistant and he put out a call for the big tackle.
In the meantime a former Army teammate had returned to Cornell and told coach Ed McKeever about Wydo.
On the way to Ithaca, N.Y., Wydo stopped off at Columbia to visit Donelli. Once Lions coach Lou Little got a look at Wydo they tried to get him to stay, but at the urging of his Army buddy he went up to Cornell.
At Cornell coach McKeever gave Wydo the grand tour, McKeever turned on the charm and later told the story of Wydo’s recruiting visit.
“We sat at the kitchen table in my home,” McKeever said. “We talked football and I got a bottle of beer. Wydo picked up the beer bottle cap and calmly twisted it out of shape with two fingers. I noticed his mind was wandering and I talked as never before, and an hour later Wydo agreed to enroll at Cornell.”
Wydo played two years for the Big Red on squads that posted records of 5-4 in 1945 and 5-3-1 in 1946. He was accorded third-team All America status in 1946 and was named first team All East in 1946. He was named to Cornell’s All-Time team in voting conducted in 2003.
Looking back at his college career, Wydo singled out one highlight, the 12-0 upset of Columbia in 1946.
“I played for Donelli at Duquesne,” Wydo said. “And knew Lou Little since I had been there a few days; I got quite a kick out of being on the winning side.”
Wydo was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers with their third pick in the 1947 draft.
He played for the Steelers from 1947 to 1951 and was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles and played there from 1952 to 1957. He garnered second team All-Pro honors in 1953.
Wydo was sent to the Eagles by Steelers coach Joe Bach in exchange for quarterback John Rauch who never reported to the Steelers.
The Eagles finished second to the Cleveland Browns three years running after Wydo arrived to take a spot on the offensive line.
“That might have been the best trade I ever made,” Eagles coach Jim Trimble would opine years later. “I didn’t expect it to be initially. Wydo came to us, a team of superstars, and fitted in with all of them perfectly.”
The Eagles were loaded with talent, players like: Chuck Bednarik, Bucko Kilroy, Pete Pihos, Tom Scott and Bobby Walston.
“I really didn’t expect much from Wydo,” Trimble recalled. “I never thought much of him as a defensive player. When I got him, I didn’t know where I’d use him, but I gave him a shot at offense. He turned out to be a fine tackle, a great one at pass blocking.”
When he left pro football, Wydo returned to his roots in Fayette County. He was a longtime tax collector in German Township, and in 1962 he became head basketball coach at Father Kolb High School in Masontown.
Even though football was his sport, Wydo produced some very competitive basketball teams at the small Catholic school.
“We were informed that we were getting a professional football player as a basketball coach,” Former Kolb High School standout John Hudock recalled. “We were all wondering how that was going to work out. It was strange, because our school was pure basketball; there was no football. We were amazed because we had success that first year. Obviously he knew what he was doing. We loved him; he was a gentle giant. All he had to do was say something and we would do it.”
Wydo coached the Knights from 1962-63 to 1968-69. The school closed in June of 1970. He compiled a record of 80-65 in seven campaigns.
The high point for the Knights was the 1962-63 season when they went 16-6, and defeated St. Mary’s of McKee’s Rocks in the PCIAA playoffs, and then lost to Greenville St. Michaels, 72-63.
Following that first successful season, Wydo looked back on a magical season.
“When you have four boys with the scoring ability of that crew, it makes the job easy,” Wydo remarked. “But you can see the problem I have this year in finding replacements to take up the scoring slack.”
The 1965-66 season saw Father Kolb almost capture the PCIAA Class C championship. The Knights went 15-7, in the playoffs the downed St. Gregory of North East, 84-64, to win the Western title. They lost to Hazelton St. Gabriel in the championship game, 91-59.
An interesting footnote is that St. Gabriel was coached by Richard “Digger” Phelps who was later the longtime coach at Notre Dame.
During the 1967-68 season, the Knights posted a 12-7 record and lost in the playoffs to Titusville St. Joseph, 81-77.
Father Kolb had spirited rivalries with Uniontown St. John and Connellsville Father Geibel.
Former Geibel coach Ken Misiak remembered Wydo and the rivalries.
“He was big, and I think the kids were afraid to make a mistake,” Misiak offered. “He knew enough about the game to be successful. He had some good athletes and he did an excellent job. He was a good coach to coach against.
“The only thing is I hated to shake his hand because his hands were big and strong. That’s why they called him the cruncher I guess because he’d crunch your hand. I had a lot of respect for him. He was a big giant with a big heart.
“We had some good games. Every place you went it was like a pit. When you went to Father Kolb, they had the balcony going around, and when you went down to St. John’s it was a close atmosphere. If weren’t there by 5:30 you would never get in. There were good rivalries with Father Kolb and St. John’s. We had a nice little league going for awhile.”
Wydo was inducted into Pittsburgh Sports Hall of Fame in 1976. He died at the age of 54 on Feb. 17, 1979
George Von Benko’s “Memory Lane” columns appear in the Sunday editions of the Herald-Standard. He also hosts a sports talk show on WMBS-AM radio from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.