Football is in Bartolomucci’s blood
It would be an understatement to say that football has always been in Don Bartolomucci’s blood.
His journey started in Brownsville, and for his career both on the field and on the sideline, Bartolomucci is a member of the Mid Mon Valley All Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2017.
“This one is pretty special,” he said. “The Mid Mon valley is where I coached and played.
“The caliber of people that have been inducted into this Hall, I don’t know any other place in the United States that has had the players and coaches that have participated here.
“It is a special place.”
A four-year starter in high school at Brownsville, he earned All-Big Six honors in 1954 and 1955 after being honorable mention as a sophomore in 1953.
Bartolomucci hurt his knee his senior year and his participation in the 1956 Washington County-Fayette County All-Star game led to him earning a scholarship at Waynesburg College.
There, he earned Little All-American Honorable Mention honors in 1958 and 1959 and played in the Gem Bowl in 1959 where his head coach for the team was Ara Parseghian, the legendary Notre Dame coach.
After working for New York Life Insurance from 1960-1965, Bartolomucci became an assistant coach at Beth-Center High School in 1965.
At the time, coaches had to have a teaching certificate which Bartolomucci did not.
He went to Education Department in Harrisburg with Marion “Slugger” Klingensmith, who helped Bartolomucci get an emergency certificate.
Bartolomucci needed 13 or 14 more credit hours which he earned at California University.
After coaching at Beth-Center from 1965 through 1978 as an assistant, Bartolomucci was the head coach from 1979-1987.
After resigning when one of his assistants died in a tractor accident, he coached one year at Jefferson-Morgan as an assistant and returned the next year to Beth-Center where he was an assistant in 1989, and was head coach again from 1990 through 1994.
He was 99-46-4 at Beth-Center as the head coach and led the team to the playoffs five times, winning Century Conference title in 1986 and 1994, and his team was the WPIAL runner-up where it lost to Burrell, 3-0.
He took over his alma mater and took over a program that had gone 3-37 the previous three seasons.
Three years later, Bartolomucci led Brownsville to the WPIAL Class AAAA title game where it fell to West Allegheny, 51-24.
The team also qualified for the playoffs in 1998, ’99 and 2000.
During his two stops as a head coach, Bartolomucci’s teams went 147-82-4.
Look no farther than the number of his ex-players who went on to coach to see the number of lives he helped shape.
“I have been involved in football a long time and it is very meaningful to me,” he said. “I don’t know if you can find a better occupation than teaching and coaching young people.
“I have had 19 kids who went into coaching and that is pretty special to be able to touch lives and it is very meaningful.”
Bartolomucci resides in Scenery Hill with his wife, Marjorie, and they have three children and eight grandchildren.
For his efforts during his career, Bartolomucci is a member of the Mid Mon Valley All-Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2017.