memory lane
Athletic careers can take a lot of twists and turns as plans often don’t work out the way you hoped. Steve Toth went to college to be an All American after a great career at Carmichaels High School. It didn’t go as planned in college.
Toth was an outstanding running back at Carmichaels High School in the late 1960s, the 5-foot-7, 175-pound speedster was a part of some very competitive teams for the Mikes. In 1967 Carmichaels posted a record of 4-4-1, in 1968 the Mikes were 6-3 and in 1969 they posted another 6-3 mark.
“We had very good teams,” Toth recalled. “My senior year in 1969 we should have won it all. The first game we played German Township, who eventually won the Class B championship. Second play of the game I caught a 71-yard pass for a touchdown, and we got cocky. In the second Tim Jackson went for a big 60-yard run and it got called back because of a penalty. We thought we had them, but guess what? We lost a close game 14-8.
“The interesting thing is they went on to win the championship and their big game was against Chartiers Houston and they beat them in a tough game 20-12. We beat Chartiers Houston 30-20. They had a tremendous running back named Jerry Patterson. Chartiers Houston had a great team in 1968 and beat us 37-0, but Mapletown was undefeated that year and had a really good team, they beat us 33-6.”
Toth saw action for the Mikes starting in his sophomore season in 1967.
“Sophomore year I was fourth in the district in scoring,” Toth stated. “I had some injury problems as a junior with two deep thigh bruises that hampered me. I had a big senior year, my big game was a three-touchdown game in a 28-14 win over Bentworth. I remember that game well. I was in a zone, everything opened up and was real easy for me in that game.”
Toth led the district in scoring in 1969 with 94 points on 15 touchdowns and two 2-point conversions. Teammate Tim Jackson was second in the district in scoring with 86 points on 11 touchdowns, the rest of his points were extra points as he had eight 2-point conversions and booted four extra points. In three years of varsity competition at Carmichaels, Toth tallied a total of 178 points.
In 1969 Toth was named most outstanding athlete by the Carmichaels Lions Club, he was All Greene County for three years and All Tri County Conference and All WPIAL as a senior.
“To be honest with you I wanted to play in the Big 33 game,” Toth lamented. “I never even got nominated. I was disappointed about that.”
Toth participated in other sports at Carmichaels.
“I liked baseball the best,” Toth revealed. “I really peaked at 14 and 15 in baseball. I was a third baseman and a shortstop. I played two years of baseball. I played a little as a freshman. My sophomore year I had a broken wrist. I played again my senior year. We were 13-3 my senior year. I ran track when I couldn’t swing the bat when I was hurt. I ran the 100.”
When Toth graduated from Carmichaels he had several offers to play college football.
“I had numerous offers,” Toth said. “I always wanted to play for Pitt. They didn’t even look at me. West Virginia showed interest. They picked a guy named Pete Wood, he took my scholarship. I had Ohio University, Western Michigan, West Point and UNLV. I had two sisters that went to Cal U. My oldest sister dated a guy named Ray Dresh who was a great player at Cal U. A long time ago I used to go down and watch Ray play, before they had the stadium they played at California High School and at the end of the game you had to walk down the hill and it just seemed like it was glorious.
“I had the other offers and Cal was looking at me. I met Ray Greene the basketball player and they had a good team and I liked it there. John Katusa became the head coach and my dad wanted to see me play, so I went to Cal U.”
“I went to Cal U with the idea of being an All American, I was doing them a favor,” Toth explained. “Well it didn’t work out that way and I didn’t become an All American.”
Toth played freshman football in 1970 and then played three seasons for the Vulcans who posted records of 1-8 in 1971, 2-6 in 1972 and 3-6 in 1973.
“I played for John Katusa my first two season and he stepped down because of health issues,” Toth recalled. “Elmo Natali was the coach my senior season.
“I started a few games my sophomore year, I played my junior year and had a broken collar bone before camp and then had a bad thigh bruise going into my senior year. My senior year I played until I got a stinger and didn’t play the final game against Waynesburg. At one point I thought about transferring to Indiana University of Pa., but it didn’t work out. I stayed, I was unhappy, but I stuck it out and I did a lot of growing up. I learned to be a teammate and I learned to stick things out when things are tough. I grew up a lot.”
Through eight games before being injured in 1973, Toth had rushed for 351 yards for the Vulcans.
Following his graduation from Cal U Toth went into teaching and coaching at Stuebenville High School for two years. He went to Palmer College of Chiropractic and graduated in 1980. He then opened his practice in Morgantown, W. Va., and he is still there.
Toth, 62, resides in Morgantown with his wife of 38 years Sheree. They have four children, Steve, Shawna, Shannon and Sabrina.
George Von Benko’s “Memory Lane” column appears in Monday editions of the Herald-Standard. He also hosts a sports talk show on WMBS-AM radio from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.