Memory Lane
Deafness didn’t hold back Gary Klingensmith Playing sports at any level is a difficult task; playing sports with a disability makes that challenge even more daunting.
Former Brownsville High School football and baseball star Gary Klingensmith never let the fact that he was deaf deter him.
Klingensmith starred on the gridiron and the baseball diamond at Brownsville in the late 1950’s despite the fact that he lost his hearing at the age of 6.
“I don’t think it ever really bothered me,” he said. “I adapted right away because of my parents, the foundation they provided me with and proper upbringing. I owe everything to my parents. With parents like them, it didn’t matter to me that I couldn’t hear.”
Klingensmith was a part of some competitive Brownsville football teams. The Falcons posted a 3-7 record his junior season and a 4-6 mark in his senior year.
“We had a good bunch of boys,” Klingensmith recalled. “We played some close games. We had a young line, particularly my senior year. We played some tough teams with some good players.
“Connellsville had a guy named Bo Scott who eventually played for the Cleveland Browns. We played mostly in the Big 6 Conference against the steel mill towns along the Monongahela River.
“We played Uniontown, which had a boy named Bob Turpin, and of course, Redstone with Fred Mazurek. It was a tough schedule.”
John Popovich was Brownsville’s head football coach at that time.
“Mr. Popovich came to Brownsville my junior year,” Klingensmith said. “He came out of Waynesburg College. He was a good fellow. I was also very close to a couple of assistant coaches – Charlie Slick and Dave Simon. They all worked very well with me, including my junior high coach Jack Henck.”
Despite his hearing loss, Klingensmith played at a high level, garnering honorable mention All-County honors in 1959 and 1960 as a halfback and linebacker.
“In high school I really didn’t have any problems,” Klingensmith said. “We never checked off any plays or any thing like that. I remember my junior year our quarterback wrote all the plays on his pant leg in case I didn’t hear him in the huddle. You have 20 seconds to get up to the line of scrimmage, and he’d point to the play on his pant leg. I don’t recall busting any plays or making any mistakes because I couldn’t hear. You had to concentrate in the huddle, and I became adept at reading lips.”
Klingensmith also excelled at baseball.
“I played a lot of baseball, and perhaps maybe baseball looked like my strongest sport at times,” Klingensmith said. “I played in Little League all the way through to the men’s County League. Two of those teams – the 15 and 16 year olds -went to the World Series in Springfield Ill. I played center field. The Luzerne Township kids didn’t have anything but football and baseball. We also went swimming in the Mon River, and that’s about it.”
He adapted well on the football and baseball fields, but in the classroom he really had to work hard.
“I was able to do all right,” Klingensmith said. “I picked up as much as I had to, and my parents always stressed that I get good grades. I was a good “B” student and I did the work.”
When he graduated in 1961, several colleges courted him.
“The Mon Valley was quite a recruiting hotbed,” Klingensmith said. “Just about all the coaches came through there, and we had so many stop at Brownsville. I visited Notre Dame and Rutgers. I considered going to Arizona State and playing for Frank Kush, but, hands down, Penn State was where I really wanted to go. My sister was a student there, and I developed an allegiance when I went up to visit her. I thought this is where I wanted to go, and fortunately they took a chance on me.
“Of all the scholarship offers I had, Penn State was probably one of the most reluctant to give me a scholarship,” Klingensmith said. “I remember Rip Engle telling me that they wouldn’t be able to hold back for me. I would have to make it on their terms because one mistake could cost them the game at that level. I made up my mind right there and then that I would never use my deafness as an excuse, and there had to be a solution to every problem on that football field.
“I would concentrate on reading the quarterbacks lips in the huddle. He would call that play only one time, and going up to the line of scrimmage, I would try to go on movement. I would position myself in the backfield so I could see the center’s hand and concentrate on the first three steps and get a terrific start, so I never broke the rhythm. I had a few problems to overcome, but it all worked out.”
Classroom work in college was a real challenge.
“When I went up to Penn State and got into a higher level, that’s probably the hardest thing I had to do,” Klingensmith said. “I had a lot of friends who were willing to let me use their notes. I pieced it all together, and somehow, I graduated in four years with a low “B minus” average. I was proud of that.”
Klingensmith was a part of some solid Penn State teams. His sophomore campaign the Nittany Lions were 9-2 and lost to Florida 17-7 in the Gator Bowl. In his junior year, PSU posted a 7-3 mark, and as a senior they went 6-4.
“It was quite an experience,” Klingensmith said. “I remember the first game my junior year we played at Oregon. They had a good team and were favored to beat us. Mel Renfro, a great player with the Dallas Cowboys, was on that team. It was the first game of the season, and up to that point no one ever wrote anything about my hearing loss, but when we got off the plane in Portland, Ore., they had my picture, the quarterback and Coach Engle’s picture at the ramp of the plane, and the newspaper said, ‘Deaf Halfback Comes to Town.’
“The very first play of the game my assignment was to lead the fullback into the line and block the linebacker. I got a little nervous, and their linebacker made a move. I shot off through the line and knocked him down and started running at the safety, and I realized the ball wasn’t even snapped yet. Going back to the huddle I made a quick peek over to the sidelines, but the coaches stayed with me. I played one of the best games I ever played, and more importantly, we beat Oregon.”
Some other Klingensmith highlights were his first college touchdown, which came against West Virginia, and beating Ohio State in his junior season.
“During my sophomore season we got real close to the goal line at Mountaineer Field,” Klingensmith said. “I got the call. There was a white line on the field and a gold line. I wasn’t sure which one was the goal line. I knew I made it over the white line. I was under the pile and trying to get the ball over the next line, but I was already in for the TD.
“Probably my biggest thrill was the Ohio State win my junior year. We beat them, 10-7, and they were No. 1 against the rush in the country. In the third quarter we drove the ball 80 yards on them in Columbus. We went in and scored, but I remember how hard we had to fight against that great Ohio State team.”
Klingensmith led Penn State in rushing in 1963 with 450 yards and had a total of 871 all-purpose yards.
When he graduated in 1965 Klingensmith became head coach at Gallaudet College in Washington, D.C. – a college for the deaf.
“After my senior year, my goal was to try to sign on as a free agent with a pro team,” Klingensmith said. “I always wanted to play pro ball, and I feel to this day I could have, but of course the hearing handicap turned some people away.
“The President of Gallaudet called and offered me the head coaching job. I went down. It was a tough situation. They hadn’t won a game in four years. They had kids that talked with their hands, and I had no experience with that. I spent three years there and had that team on the verge of winning. My last year we won three games and we lost four by a touchdown or less.
“I met wife in Washington. My wife Linda is a Brownsville girl. She was in junior high when I was in senior high, so I didn’t know her that well. We got together down there, and that was probably the best decision I ever made.”
Klingensmith left coaching and went to work for Lincoln Electric in Cleveland, Ohio, for one year and the went back to coaching, taking a teaching position and head coaching job at Juniata High School in Pennsylvania.
He is entering his 40th year as a head coach and has retired from teaching. He has compiled a 258-151-6 record at Juniata. His greatest teams were the 1987 and 1988 teams that won 28 games without a loss, including the District 3 championship.
His son, Don, was a star player on those teams.
Juniata also had a 21-game win streak in the early 90’s.
Klingensmith also started the track program and was very successful before giving that up. He still enjoys coaching football.
“I retired this past year from teaching and coaching track. My daughter Kim took over the track program,” Klingensmith said. “But football is something I want to keep doing. We had a good team last year, finishing 7-3 and making the playoffs. I know all good things have to come to an end, but we’ll just see how things go. I really enjoy it, and I feel very lucky.”
Klingensmith, 65, has been married to the former Linda Fletcher for 41 years. They have three children – Kimberly, Donnie and Susie and six grandchildren.
He still gets back to Fayette County to visit his mother and has great memories of his home area.
“I’m very proud. Maxwell was a perfect place for a football player to grow up,” Klingensmith said. “There were a lot of kids, and you could get a football or baseball game on any day. We all felt like we had our own swimming pool in the backyard with the Mon River. It was a great place, and I had some great experiences.”
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.