Football was a way of life for AG’s Valencik
Friday night lights in western Pennsylvania is still a pretty big deal, but back in the day when Jerry Valencik played it was like a religion.
“Football on Friday was the king,” Valencik stated. “Everyone went to the football game, and especially when we were winning, in that era of Albert Gallatin football, we were very good. It was a family tradition from generation to generation. We played the single wing and we weren’t pretty to watch, but we were very effective.”
Valencik was a standout on the gridiron and the hardwood for Albert Gallatin in the 1960’s.
He was on AG teams that posted records of 6-3-1 in 1964, 9-0 in 1965 and 5-0-2 in 1966.
“I played football as a sophomore,” Valencik recalled. “I started as a junior and a senior.
“We were very good, it was very simple we had a bunch of good tough kids from a small coal mining town. My senior year, out of 11 starting players, eight of us went on to play football at the next level. That says something about a small town football team.
“Gene and Doc Franks took over when Coach Lozar died suddenly in the middle of the 1965 season,” Valencik stated. “In retrospect I think John Lozar was really coming into his own as being a very, very good head coach. He was a very disciplined coach, you called him Mr. Lozar. I thought Gene Franks could have been a very good coach, but he had to make a choice and he chose to be principal. Doc Franks assumed the coaching duties my senior year, Doc got the most out of his talent, he was very organized and he had his father and his brother scouting. I think he was a little ahead of his time to tell the truth. He just lived and died football and he still does.”
The 1965 team went 9-0 and averaged 27.3 points per game while allowing an average of 6.3 points a game. Gardner points kept that team out of the playoffs.
“We were very disappointed with the playoff snub,” Valencik opined. “We felt we had a really good team that year and we were a victim of Gardner points, I don’t think anybody can really explain to me what the system was. It was a flawed system.”
Albert Gallatin was one of the last teams to run the old single wing attack. Valencik was the right end and defensive end. He hauled in four touchdown passes as a senior in 1966.
“It was all tight formation,” Valencik explained. “In the single wing you would snap the ball back to the left halfback and he had to run three yards before he got to the line of scrimmage. It was just power football nothing fancy. We had some size for that era, we were tall and averaged around 190 pounds, which was a big team for that era.”
Albert Gallatin’s big rival was German Township.
“Those games were wars,” Valencik said. “It was a great atmosphere for that game, always a sellout.”
At 6-2 and 210 pounds, Valencik also excelled at basketball, and was on AG teams that went 13-9 in 1964-65, 10-12 in 1965-66 and 12-2 in Section 19 B and 17-6 overall in 1966-67.
Valencik, in limited playing time, scored 13 points in 1964-65. He tallied 221 points in 65-66, and during his senior year in 1966-67, averaged 15 points a game and had a season total of 345 points. His high game was a 27-point effort his senior season against Fairchance-Georges.
“I played American Legion baseball because we didn’t have a high school team,” Valencik offered. “I actually enjoyed basketball more than I did football and as I got older out of college I coached basketball.”
Valencik played at AG for Rudy Marisa as a sophomore and junior, and Ray Trincia as a senior.
“Rudy Marisa was probably the most organized person I’ve ever been around,” Valencik stated. “I really think he was ahead of his time. Trincia spent a lot of time with me and helped me. He was a hard nosed coach, but I’ve never seen a harder worker. He was very intense. My junior high coach Don Barnhart was the guy who really started me loving the game of basketball.”
AG played in the WPIAL playoffs against Shenango when Valencik was a senior.
“That was a big thrill playing at the Pitt Field House,” Valencik said.
Shenango hung on to beat the Colonials, 76-73, Valencik scored 18 points in the loss.
Valencik sifted through several college offers when he graduated from Albert Gallatin in 1967.
“I had some offers,” Valencik explained. “I was all set to go to the University of Wyoming. Fred Answine recruited me and I had a chance to go to Miami of Florida. John Katusa, an assistant at California University of Pennsylvania, practically lived at my house, so I went there. The only thing I wondered later was could I have played big-time college football?”
Valencik played freshman football in 1967 and was on Vulcan squads that went 6-2 in 1968, 1-6-1 in 1969 and 5-3 in 1970.
“I played two seasons for Bill Hepner at Cal and my senior season for John Katusa,” Valencik said. “I played defensive end in college and we had some good players like Jeff Petrucci and Pete Gialames. In 1968, we were Pennsylvania Conference Co-Champions with East Stroudsburg.”
When Valencik graduated, he was self employed for 43 years, mostly in real estate. He also was an assistant basketball coach for Ken Misiak at Geibel Catholic and George Bortz at Brownsville.
Valencik, 66, resides off Route 21 in Balsinger with his with of 38 years, Georgette. They have one son, David.
George Von Benko’s “Memory Lane” column appears in the 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.