Out of the Past
A peek back 45 years ago to Dunbar Township’s 2-win football week How many times have you heard it said that this or that team, whatever the sport, “couldn’t win two games in a year?”
How about winning two games in less than one week?
Dunbar Township High did just that during this period awayyyyyy back in 1960.
The Mules, then coached by the late Stan McLaughlin, started their season on a Saturday afternoon, by routing Bentleyville, 27-0. Ed Butela, Larry Bosley, and Rich Karpiak led the solid ground offense that typified McLaughlin’s teams of that era. BHS fumbled the opening kickoff and DT recovered at the 20. Karpiak rammed ahead 12, four plays later Butela scored from the two, and Copey Lewis ran the PAT. Then came a 17-play, 67-yard march, Bosley going the last 10, and Ted Skonezny got the PAT. Bosley scored from the 25 for a 20-0 halftime lead. In the fourth, Alan Fant recovered a fumble at the B-25, and six plays later Butela scored from the two, and Lewis added the PAT.
Five days (or nights in this case) later, the Mules opened their home slate with a 33-7 win over Turkeyfoot. They drove 69 yards in 12 plays for the first score, Butela the last three. Butela would score again from the six, plus two PAT, Karpiak ran 11 and added a PAT, Lewis swiped a Ram pass and returned it 50 yards, and Bosley from the three. Tom Montague ran 60-yards for Turkeyfoot’s score, and the PAT, in the third.
And how about this officiating crew – long-time friends Fred Funari, Boots Salotti, and Jim Leeper.
In other action, Perry-Lower Tyrone won a 21-13 battle with West Greene. WG led 7-0 as Jack Patterson scored from the three. Then Len Pirilla went 32 and Don Giovanelli ran the PAT for a 7-7 tie, that held into the fourth. Perry put a punt in play at the 50, and scored in 11 plays, Bill Vargo passing seven to Charles Petrosky for the TD, then to Bob McKeene for the PAT. Eli Visnick recovered a fumble at the WG-30, and Charles Bednar scored the clincher from the 15, Vargo running the PAT. Bob Spragg ran 78 with a recovered fumble for the last WG score.
Connellsville opened its season, and earlier in the week, the Boosters Club held their annual Kickoff Party. Head coach Dan Hamill told the group “we’re not going to win all our games, but somebody’s going to know we are there.”
If they were, nobody saw them. Washington won, 18-0, but during Hamill’s tenure that could be called a “narrow defeat.”
Two of the Washington subs were Jerry Sandusky, who would go on to have a great career as a long-time assistant coach under Joe Paterno, and John Kazarick, now of Uniontown, who is still a great broadcaster for local sports teams.
Elsewhere that week:
-Does this sound familiar? It was noted on the sports pages “Hurricane Donna, a huge storm that wiggled up the Atlantic seaboard, yesterday washed out harness and thoroughbred racing programs, golf and tennis championship matches, major league baseball, a benefit boxing show, and college football practices.”
-Nine new members were inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, led by QB John Lujack, graduate of Connellsville High, who went on to be an All-American and Heisman Trophy winner at Notre Dame.
-A sports headline read “Syracuse Again Top College Team in East, Pitt Tough.”
-The College Football Coaches Assn. made their annual choices for All-American honors that year. They included FB Jim Cunningham, graduate of Connellsville High, then at Pitt, who would go on to a fine career with the Washington Redskins, and the late Ernie Davis, Syracuse RB, who had a Uniontown background, and who would win the 1961 Heisman Trophy.
-The Connellsville High cross country team, coached by Wilmer Burkholder, got their first win, sweeping the top five spots to beat Johnstown and Ferndale. Winner was Ken Lint, in 10:21, to tie the school record. (The overall course record then was 9:57, by Uniontown’s Joe Thomas). Then came Craig Seese, Harry Burkholder, Prosper Friguglietti, and Richard Turney.
-Sutersville, led by Mrs. William Ferrington and Ray Landini, with perfect 25 scores, won the championship of the Twilight Trap League.
-The Chicago Bears scored with 15 seconds left in the game on a 31-yard pass from Zeke Bratkowski to Angelo Coia to tie the “Stillers,” 21-21.
-Pitt opened with an 8-7 loss to UCLA. Pitt took the opening kickoff and drove 64 yards to score, Jim Cunningham going in from the one. Fred Cox kicked the PAT, and that lead held until 23-seconds remained in the game.
Remember?