German’s Petcheny played for the love of sports
Ed Petcheny played sports simply for the love of the game. He was a standout football and basketball player at German Township High School during the late 1960s.
“I played both football and basketball just to play the sports because that’s all we did back then,” Petcheny offered.
The Uhlans posted records of 3-7 in 1964, 4-5-1 in 1965, 8-2 in 1966 and 6-1-1 during Petcheny’s senior season in 1967.
“I played as a freshman a little bit on special teams,” Petcheny recalled. “I started my sophomore, junior and senior years and I never missed a play. I was an offensive end and played middle linebacker on defense. I also handled the punting chores and averaged 42 yards a kick my senior year.”
Adam Donnelly was the head football coach at German and Petcheny has fond memories of him.
“He was a great man,” Petcheny opined. “I had a great relationship with Coach Donnelly and my athletic director Frank Hrivnak. Coach Donnelly cared a lot about his players and he did things for other players that their fathers didn’t do. He took care of me in a lot of ways because my father wasn’t around at the time. He was a father figure to me and everybody else. He knew the game real well, and he wanted you to do it his way and he meant business.”
The Uhlans lost to Mapletown, 14-13, during Petcheny’s senior campaign and tied Beth Center, 0-0. The highlight of the season was defeating arch rival Albert Gallatin 14-13.
“The Albert Gallatin game was probably the best game I ever played,” Petcheny stated. “I’m talking on defense and I loved playing defense and that game was played in my backyard because I lived in Masontown at the time. I just got up for the game and I just played hard, that’s the bottom line. Our loss to Mapletown, people don’t realize under Fred Answine they had a real good team that year.
“Our tie against Beth-Center was a tough game. It was a very hot day on a Friday afternoon, it was very warm and it was a tough football game.”
Petcheny butted heads with some pretty good football players from his middle linebacker spot.
“I remember Fred Pagac from Beth-Center, he was an outstanding player,” Petcheny said. “I also played against Ray Yauger of Laurel Highlands in 1966 in a 26-14 loss. He gave me a few hard hits, he was one of the best players that I played against. I was thrown out of that game. My idol was Dick Butkus as a middle linebacker, so that tells you all you need to know.”
The 6-foot-1 185-pound Petcheny also excelled on the hardwood at German on squads that went 5-17 and 5-7 in Section 18-B in 1965-66, 8-11 and 7-7 in Section 19-B in 1966-67 and 13-8 and 9-5 in section play in 1967-68.
“I liked basketball, I liked it a lot,” Petcheny said. “Ray Still was a good player and we had a good team. Adam Donnelly was our basketball coach and Ed Colebank was an assistant. We were real competitive. I was the point guard on the squad.”
Petcheny tallied 603 career points, his high game was 20 in a 69-39 win over Jefferson-Morgan his senior season.
After his senior football season Petcheny was selected for the West squad in the prestigious Big 33 game that was played on Aug. 12, 1968. The East edged the West 7-6 in a defensive struggle.
“I’ll be honest with you I was shocked about being selected,” Petcheny stated. “At the time I didn’t know much about it. I played and I made it as a middle linebacker. They played a 4-3 defense and they had four linebackers and I was the odd man out, so they had me play tight end and punt in that game.”
Petcheny received some scholarships offers from different schools.
“As far as going to college I never thought about going to college,” Petcheny explained. “I just thought about graduating and getting a job, but through Coach Donnelly and Frank Hrivnak and Colebank they pushed to help me make some honors and the next thing I know I had a lot of phone calls from different schools, but I really never wanted to go to college.”
Petcheny decided to accept a scholarship to the University of Georgia.
“Coach Vince Dooley came to Uniontown and wanted to meet me,” Petcheny recalled. “We met at Howard Johnson’s on Route 40. He told me I was a little bit small, we want to offer you, come to Georgia and we’ll make you bigger and stronger. I decided to go. I never played a game at Georgia. I returned to Masontown to help with family matters.”
Petcheny attended California State College after returning home and played two seasons for the Coach John Katusa and the Vulcans as a tight end and linebacker before an injury ended his football career.
“I blew my knee out in a game against Waynesburg,” Petcheny lamented.
Petcheny got a job in Cleveland working for 10 years for Fisher Fazio warehouse where he was foreman. He returned to take over the Route 40 Diner and has run it for 41 years. He also has run Ed’s Diner in Connellsville for 22 years.
Petcheny and his wife of 42 years Ann reside in Fayette County and have two adult children, a son and a daughter.
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.