Connellsville’s Laughery used athletics as stepping stone for college
Like many athletes of his era, athletics was a stepping stone to a college education for Connellsville’s Bob Laughery.
“If it had not been for an athletic scholarship, I would not have gone to college,” Laughery stated. “My parents didn’t have any money. I figured athletics was the only way out, football was the key.
Laughery was a standout football player and track performer at Connellsville High School in the late 1940s. He was part of Coker grid squads that posted records of 2-8-1 in 1947, 3-7 in 1948 and 3-7 in 1949.
“We didn’t have the material really at that time,” Laughery recalled. “It was a little bit of a down period. We didn’t have the big guys on the line at that time.”
Laughery was a two-way player for the Cokers at halfback and safety.
The late Art Ruff was head coach at Connellsville when Laughery played.
“I loved him as a coach,” Laughery offered. “He had the ability to get along with people and motivate them. He was a guy you wanted to play for. He would never criticize. He always had confidence in you.”
Laughery has fond memories of some of his Connellsville teammates.
“We had Lew Mologne, who was the other halfback,” Laughery stated. “We had George Connors, who was an end, John Pittsment, a 125-pound guard, and Dick Smith, who was the center and just died a couple of weeks ago. I loved my teammates and enjoyed playing with them.”
Connellsville’s big rivalry game was with Dunbar Township, and Laughery had some of his best moments against the Mules. As a junior in 1948, Laughery scored four touchdowns in a 26-6 win in front of 6,000 fans at Trotter Stadium. Laughery scored on runs of 40, one, 60 and 55 yards. Laughery had 22 carries for 258 yards.
In 1949, Laughery’s senior campaign at Connellsville, he scored three touchdowns as the Cokers beat the Mules, 32-6, in front of 6,000 fans at Connellsville Stadium. Laughery tallied on runs of 15, two, and one yard.
“It was a great rivalry, always,” Laughery said. “I always played well against Dunbar.”
Laughery was honorable mention All-Fayette County in 1948 and first team All-Fayette County in 1949. He played in the Fayette County All-Star Grid Classic on a team called the Wings against a team called the Tees. Laughery had a great game running the football and scored a touchdown, as his team prevailed, 20-0. He was named MVP of the game.
Track & field was the other sport that Laughery excelled at for Connellsville High School.
“I loved track,” Laughery revealed. “I figured track was the answer to being good at football. The training and the endurance and building your body up were positives. We had a good track team.”
When Laughery graduated from Connellsville High School in 1950, he sifted through several scholarship offers to play college football.
“My first choice was LSU,” Laughery explained. “That’s the school that I wanted to go to. My parents said you are going to Maryland. My parents said LSU was too far away. You listened to your parents, and I did. I went to Maryland.”
When I played in the All-Star football game in Uniontown the coaches were there. When I got finished playing in the game, my Dad said, ‘You are going to Maryland.'”
Laughery played freshman football at Maryland in 1950, and played varsity ball in 1951 and 1952.
The Terps were coached by Jim Tatum.
“I had a good relationship with Coach Tatum, he was good,” Laughery said.
The Terps posted a 10-0 record and won the Southern Conference title in 1950. It was the school’s first perfect undefeated and untied season since 1893. Maryland also secured its first berth in a major postseason bowl game, the 1952 Sugar Bowl, where it upset top-ranked Tennessee, 28-13.
“When I was on the freshman team in 1950, the varsity beat Michigan State, 34-7,” Laughery recalled. “That was the turnaround for Maryland. They really became a very good football team from that point on.
“We had some very good players like Jack Scarbath, Bernie Faloney and Ed and Dick Modzelewski. I was supposed to take Ed Modzelewski’s position at fullback, and I broke my arm in spring practice and I missed quite a bit of time.”
In limited time at fullback in 1951, Laughery carried the ball six times for 28 yards.
“We lost two games in 1952,” Laughery said. “The loss against 14th-ranked Mississippi ended Maryland’s school-record 22-game winning streak.”
In 1952, the Terps went 7-2 and Laughery scored one touchdown and booted one field goal. He carried the ball 12 times for 58 yards and had two kickoff returns accounting for 62 yards.
Laughery entered the United States Army from 1953 to 1955. While in the Army, he drove an ambulance and also played football at Fort Jackson, South Carolina.
“They went to one platoon football in 1953,” Laughery explained. “I thought I hadn’t played defense so I’m not going to play. I went to the service to play to get some experience on defense. Then I came back to Maryland. I played in the Army with Rick Casares, who went on to play for the Chicago Bears. We had a great team at Fort Jackson.”
Laughery went back to Maryland and played in 1955. The Terps’ perfect 10-0 regular season culminated with a bid to the 1956 Orange Bowl, where they faced top-ranked Oklahoma and lost, 20-6.
Place kicking was Laughery’s niche in 1955. He was 14-20 on PATs and 0-3 on field goals.
“I kicked extra points in high school, and I also was a punter until I hurt my ankle,” Laughery offered. “I was a self-taught place kicker. I started practicing with kickers at Maryland and they found out what I could do and I had some big kicks.”
Laughery was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the 10th round of the 1956 NFL draft. The signing of the 215-pound place-kicking specialist was a move to replace the retiring Fred Cone. But Cone came out of retirement and Laughery went back to Maryland and got a Masters Degree in education.
An interesting side note to Laughery’s football career occurred after he left the game.
“Little did I know that when I played I had a heart arrhythmia,” Laughery said. “I never knew it, it never was revealed in high school physicals or college, and it didn’t show up when I got my pro football physical.
“I found out when I got an insurance policy. The insurance salesman was Billy Cox, who played for Duke. He said it showed up on my physical check up. He didn’t say anything and I got the policy. I went to the doctor and he explained the problem. Looking back, I couldn’t figure out why I would train so hard, but yet I would get so tired so quickly. That said I had the condition from childhood when I had pneumonia. I was very lucky that something didn’t happen when I was playing.”
Laughery taught physical education for three years at Laurel, Maryland, Junior/Senior High School. He coached baseball and football, and won the first baseball championship in the school’s history.
He then taught physical education at Charles Carroll Junior High School in New Carrolltown, Maryland, for 26 years. He won a baseball title there and coached an undefeated basketball team. Laughery retired in June, 1988, after 31 years of teaching, including receiving two-years credit for military service.
He returned to Connellsville to care for his ailing mother, who is now deceased.
Laughery, 85, resides in Scottdale with his second wife, Nola. They have been married 24 years. He has four grown daughters from his first marriage: Greta, Pamela, Denise and Carla.
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.