Out of The Past
1968: Area football players shine To paraphrase Charles Dickens, you might say it was one of “those” times.
While it might be the best of times in other respects, it was the worst of times from a spectator’s viewpoint.
It wasn’t a time for football, for the scholastic season had just concluded, nor was it a time for basketball, for the high schools were still a few days away from starting their schedules.
But there were still some busy times for sports during this week, way back in 1968.
Laurel Highlands had just concluded what you might call a “record” football season. The Mustangs finished 3-7, but along the way they partially rewrote the school record book.
Coach Fred Botti looked at his figures, and found his players had set five individual records and five team marks.
Terry Ryland kicked the first LH field goal ever (against Monessen) and returned a punt 92 yards, Gary Gesso kicked 15 PATs, and Larry Henckel had 28 pass completions (for 431 yards.).
Henckel also tied the record of three TD passes in one game, set by Ray Yauger in 1966, and tied by Ryland in 1967.
As a team, the Mustangs rushed for a new season high of 1,948 yards, and totaled 2,441 yards rushing and passing. That included three records, consisting of 359 yards rushing, 380 yards rushing and passing and 34 points scored in a game, all against Brownsville. The final team record was 165 points scored.
So, even what some might consider the worst of times can also have their best points.
– n –
In other sports events that week:
-Clemson RB Ray Yauger (Laurel Highlands) rushed for 139 yards and 2 TDs against Maryland, for which he was named “Offensive Back of the Week” in the Atlantic Coast Conference. To that point, Yauger led Clemson in scoring (36 points.) and rushing (114 carries, 559 yards.).
-Two former Uniontown High players were in the University of Minnesota lineup. QB Ray Stephens had 143 yards and 2 TDs on keepers, and was 24-for-55 and 402 yards (3 TDs) passing. TE Ray Parson had 24 catches for 241 yards, second best on the team.
-Waynesburg College named two county athletes to its All-Opponent Team for the football season just concluded – DB John Kara (Redstone) of Fairmont State, and DT Bill Beaver (Connellsville). Three California College players were also named, QB Jeff Petrucci, for the second year in a row, Jim Trombetta, and Pete Gialames.
-Latrobe beat Kiski Area, 19-7, in an All-Foothills Conference final for the WPIAL-AA championship, gaining 203 yards on offense (169 rush, 34 pass), while holding Kiski to 104 (43-61). Farrell blanked Freeport, 6-0, in the “A” final, and Chartiers-Houston won “B” honors, 31-0 over Oakmont.
-Final figures showed Don Paull (North Union) finished second in Waynesburg College passing. In nine games, Paull was 9-for-27 for 142 yards, plus third in receiving (25 for 269 yards) and fourth in rushing (145 yards). Defensively, he had two assisted tackles.
-California College completed its first cross-country season ever, with a .500 record. Dr. Philip Coleman coached the lineup of Greg Dunston and Dan Cole (Connellsville). Gary Wilkins (Annandale, Va.), Dave Frey (Scottdale). Richard Mimnaugh (West Newton), and Charles Burns (Wyoming).
-California and East Stroudsburg played to a 28-28 tie in the State College Conference championship game. Cal was down 21-7 and battled back to tie. Terrace Hammons scored with a 45-yard pass interception, Jeff Petrucci scored twice on 1-yard keepers, and passed 11 yards to Jim Trombetta for Vulcan scores, and Paul Zolak kicked four PATs.
-Does this sound familiar? Cleveland intercepted six passes (5 from Dick Shiner) on the way to a 45-24 win over the Steelers. The Steelers defense allowed only 47 yards rushing, but 352 passing. Ironically, Shiner had been traded by Cleveland to Pittsburgh for Bill Nelson, who that day had three TD passes against his ex-teammates.
-DE Melvin Washington (Connellsville) was the No. 2 tackler for the Salem, W. Va., College defense with 40 solos and 14 assists.
-Among 21 basketball candidates at John F. Kennedy College, Wahoo, Nebraska, were Keith Leos (Uniontown) and sophomore Ed Miller (Belle Vernon) who averaged 6-points per game his senior year. Kennedy was coached by George (Roundball) Milby, former head coach at Connellsville High.
-Local players named to the All-Big 10 “33” football team included: E Ralph Evanovich, QB Ted Golembiewski, and RB Syl Durant, Brownsville; E Leonard Sendek, C Frank Joseph, RB Gene Belczyk and Ralph Iacoboni, Belle Vernon; and T Charles Ryan, C Roger Ryan, and QB Larry Henckel, Laurel Highlands.
-Willard Abraham, Uniontown, R.D. 2, won first prize in the Genesee Fishing Contest for the month of October, catching a 16-lb., 3-oz. walleye at Yough Dam. He was using a new lure, called Beno.
-Jim Braxton of Vanderbilt (Connellsville High) is the number two rusher at West Virginia, with 50 carries for 269 yards, plus third best in receiving (17-276), and eight kickoffs returned 135 yards.
-Clemson RB Ray Yauger (Laurel Highlands) was found to have fractured his wrist against North Carolina, and was sidelined the rest of the season. He gained 201 yards in 36 carries against NC, giving him 760 yards for the season, a new Clemson record for a sophomore back.
-When Fred Stuvek was asked to be speaker at a Lions Club Awards Night program honoring the most outstanding Carmichaels High football player for the year, he didn’t need any introduction nor did he have to look up any background information. The honoree was his own son, Mikes QB Fred Jr.
-And what turned out to be the biggest sports story of the week, what raised the biggest hassle, was an event that is still recalled every year at this time. Heidi, an innocent little girl in Switzerland, who only wanted to go visit her Grandfather, is often skewered by NFL partisans with long blasphemous memories. With one minute to go in the game, and the Oakland Raiders trailing the New York Jets, NBC pulled the plug on the game so “Heidi” could start on time. In that final minute, while little Heidi was on the way to the Alps to see Grandpa, Oakland scored two touchdowns and came from behind to beat the Jets, 43-32. How would you have liked to have been on the NBC switchboard that day?
Anybody remember how many commercials were run before Heidi got out of the train station?
Jim Kriek is a Herald-Standard sports correspondent.