Commentary
Connellsville’s football field already has a name In recent weeks there has been a lot of pro and con talk about naming athletic facilities in the Connellsville Area School District for a couple graduates who distinguished themselves in local scholastic competition, then went on to earn national and world honors.
It was suggested that the Connellsville school board consider naming the track around the stadium football field in honor of John Woodruff, and the field for John Lujack, both Connellsville graduates.
Woodruff went on to earn national distance running honors at Pitt, with his greatest achievement being winning the Gold Medal for the United States in the 800-meter run at the 1936 Olympics, held in Berlin, Germany.
Lujack went to Notre Dame and became an All-American quarterback, winning the Heisman Trophy in 1947 for being named the nation’s most outstanding college football player.
By now you have probably heard arguments on both sides about the naming suggestions, which we won’t go into detail about here.
As far as naming the track for Woodruff, there is no problem, and it would be a well-deserved, well-earned honor. But the field cannot be named for Lujack, or anybody else.
This may come as a surprise to many people, but the athletic facility itself already has a name.
It is called Campbell Field, and is named in honor of D.C. Campbell, who donated to the school district the land on which the field is located. In recognition of this, the board voted to name the facility in his honor.
On Oct. 6, 1938, The Connellsville Daily Courier noted in a history of the project “Campbell Field was designated as the name, at a meeting of the board of directors on December 6, 1937.”
For years, a local resident said that the field was named for him. It wasn’t any such thing. It was named for the man who gave the school district the land on which the field was built.
For those of you who want to check my statement, go to the Carnegie Library in Connellsville and get the Daily Courier microfilm for 1938, and read the front-page stories on Oct. 6, 7 and 8.
All three pertain to the dedication of the new stadium, and there is also a history of the facility.
You can also check the Connellsville High yearbook (The Coker) for 1939.
Understand this – I am not attempting in any way to downgrade anybody or suggest that honors should not be coming to anybody. I’m pointing out a fact, and you have the sources to verify this.
Also, in the news story following the dedication, it was noted in a separate, boxed head item, that “D.C. Campbell, of Knoxville, Tenn., now ill in a New York City hospital, is “deeply grateful” to the Board of Education ‘in honoring me by naming your new athletic field after me,’ he said in a telegram to President Hugh Handford of the Connellsville High School Alumni Association.”
The item continued, “The Alumni Assn. had invited Mr. Campbell to the dedication as its guest, but because of illness, which had resulted in his removal to a hospital in New York, he was unable to attend. The wire that Mr. Campbell dictated from his hospital bed, and which Mr. Handford read at the dedication follows: ‘I feel deeply grateful to the Board of Education in honoring me by naming your new athletic field after me. I feel highly honored that the Connellsville High School Alumni Association invited me to be present on dedication day, Friday, Oct. 7. Illness prevents my presence. With a heartful of gratitude to all of you, I am sincerely yours’ …”
Principal speaker was 24th District Congressman J. Buell Snyder, who played a large part in receiving Federal approval on Government grants for the three-year stadium project. Lyell L. Buttermore, District WPA Superintendent, made the presentation of the new layout and President Clyde R. Weihe accepted for the school board and the city.
Consider this also – in this day of overpaid athletes and professional sports franchises trying to stick the taxpayers for multi-million dollar stadiums, it was stated in an editorial that the Connellsville facility “represents an investment of $230,000 but the board of education, acting for the taxpayers of the city, contributed a comparatively small part of the sum total – $38,770. The remainder came from the federal government, through the agency of the WPA.”
And the wages of that time? It was noted that “hand labor was used when feasible and at one time during the course of construction, as many as 250 men from direct relief rolls were hired there at the WPA ‘security wage’ of $52.80 monthly.”
Monthly! Some people today complain about working for that much a day.
Of considerable interest were some of Congressman Snyder’s dedicatory remarks.
In particular, he told the crowd of about 2,000 that “One of two things this nation must do. It must pay small sums for the education, culture, and refinement of the people, or large sums for the erection of prison walls and for all of crime’s ramifications.”
He also pointed out that “in Pennsylvania, an expenditure of $79 is made to keep every boy and girl in school for one year to be trained for future citizenship, while at Morganza it coats $288 annually for each person, and at Huntingdon (State Prison) $317. Of the 60-odd thousands in the State penal institutions, it costs an average of $320 every year to keep them there. Is it not far better to pay for institutions like these where you can get the boys and girls into the open air and into organized activities of recreation …”
Does all that sound just a little bit familiar?
Jim Kriek is a Herald-Standard sports correspondent.