Bryant’s death saddens many from area
Uniontown athletics lost a great link to its glorious past with the death of Willie Bryant this past Friday.
Bryant starred for the Red Raiders basketball squad from 1965 through 1967.
Former Red Raider teammate Wilfred Minor was saddened by the news of Bryant’s death.
“Willie was a quality human being and an inspiring young athlete who always worked to be the best,” Minor stated. “He was a team player who didn’t worry about his indvidual stats. He was one of the greatest pure shooters that I ever played with and he was quiet but powerful in his actions on the court.”
“When I think about Willie, I think about a person with lots of drive that wanted to be a perfectionist,” former teammate Ray Parson said. “He always gave 110 percent on the floor.”
Bryant was the subject of a Memory Lane in 2007, here are some excerpts from that column:
“When I was playing with Ray Parson and the 1966 team, that was probably my biggest memory from those days,” Bryant recalled. “I remember the Schenley playoff game. It was one of the greatest games of all time.”
In 1966, Uniontown lost a thrilling double overtime game to Schenley, 71-67, in the PIAA western final at Pitt Field house.
“Schenley went on to win the state title,” Bryant said. “I don’t have nightmares, but I still think about that game with Schenley and what that meant and the importance of it. I used to always tell the kids when I was coaching that you may never come this way again, lets get it now and you’ve got to do it because you just never know what is going to happen. Had we won that game we’d have gone on to state — again Schenley beat Chester by 30 — so we had a very good chance of winning a third state title in the 1960s.”
In 1967 Bryant graduated and was a highly sought after recruit. He decided to accept a basketball scholarship to Penn State.
Penn State didn’t have a lot of success during his seasons there and it was tough on Bryant who was co-captain his senior year.
“Especially tough, coming out of Uniontown and then finding out what other teams felt like when we beat them so badly,” Bryant said. “Going up there and getting our brains beat out and losing game after game – yeah that was tough. Not saying that Penn State wasn’t trying to be a great program, but they were more football oriented.”
Bryant was disappointed with his career at Happy Valley.
“I was co-captain with Bruce Mello,” Bryant explained. “Anytime you are riding the pines, you are not going to be satisfied. It was not a good experience, sophomore and junior years were great (because) I started, but it was a struggle my senior year and I grew despondent with basketball after that.”
Bryant taught at Lafayette Junior High School after graduating from Penn State.
“I only subbed for about a month and a half before I stated teaching,” Bryant said.
“That’s why I was able to put in 33.14 years and retire at a relatively young age. Of course I was forced into retirement with injuries and illness. Teaching was a rewarding experience. Just like I think of Penn State and Joe Paterno, I think of teaching and a lot of loving kids. I enjoyed them, like anything else you have your good days and bad days. Overall the experience with the young people kept me younger.”
He also got into coaching after he returned to Uniontown. He served as an assistant to Lash Nesser for 11 years and was Uniontown’s head coach for three seasons.
He became Nesser’s valued assistant with the Red Raiders. The highlight was Uniontown’s state title run in 1981.
“It would have to be,” Bryant recalled. “The state championship I never got because of Schenley and I finally got a little redemption. A little bit, anyway, as an assistant coach. They were a great group of kids, their passing was spectacular and the way they played as a team was just great. What they lacked in other areas they made up with their teamwork.”
After Nesser got sick, Bryant became head coach for three years before he retired.
Bryant was a part of the fabric and the history of Uniontown athletics.
“I never planned on being here this long,” Bryant stated. “Or coming back after college, but circumstances just dictated that I stick around and it all worked out all right. A lot of things are involved in teaching and coaching and even playing, but overall looking back, what else could I have done that would have been better than that?”
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