Into the Hall: Bill Buehner
Bill Buehner was born into a family of athletes and eventually made a name for himself in sports.
The 1987 Laurel Highlands graduate was a three-sport star in high school who went on to be a four-year starter in football at Tulsa. Now he is regarded as one of Western Pennsylvania’s top high school officials, working three different sports.
Buehner’s impressive career led to him being the top vote-getter for the Fayette County Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2026, which will be inducted at a ceremony at Pleasant Valley Golf Club on Friday.
Buehner’s father Bill and his uncles Jack Buehner and Bob Buehner were all great athletes at Laurel Highlands and his mother Diane was a cheerleader.
“They were my biggest help,” Bill Buehner said while discussing his impending enshrinement on Hall of Fame co-founder George Von Benko’s Sports Line Talk Show on WMBS Radio. “I wanted to emulate and be as good as them. That was a goal of mine, to hopefully be as good as they were.”
When asked if he felt pressure following in the footsteps of his talented relatives, Buehner said, “I did but it made me work harder and want to be better and do the things that they did and try to achieve as much as they did, and maybe more. I always wanted to be kind of like Uncle Jack and I wanted to go play D-1, and I got lucky enough to be able to do that. That was something that I strived to do.”
Jack Buehner played football at Penn State under Joe Paterno.
Bill Buehner jumped into sports at a very young age.
“My dad had me out there as soon as I could walk, I think I was playing baseball there in the backyard,” Bueher said. “It started early and I loved every minute of it.”
When he got to Laurel Highlands, Buehner became a three-sport athlete, lettering three years in both football and basketball and one year in baseball.
He commended his coaches at LH.
“Mr. (Bill) Elias, Mr. (Mark) John, Mr. (Tom) Landman, they were all great mentors growing up as far as being my high school coaches,” Bueher said. “I can’t say anything bad about any of those guys. They helped me out tremendously.”
Elias coached football, John coached basketball and Landman coached baseball, which Buehner played his senior year.
“I was trying to get stronger and faster for football,” Buehner said in why he didn’t play baseball before his senior season. “Once football was over and basketball was over my senior year and I got my scholarship I was like, ‘Hey man, let’s go play some baseball.’ So that’s what I did, I went and played baseball my senior year.”
Buehner excelled greatly at football, but that wasn’t his favorite sport.
“Basketball,” Buehner said. “But I wasn’t good enough. When I was younger I was the biggest and I thought I was going to be in the NBA. That didn’t work out, so I figured I better go play football.”
The 6-foot-1 Buehner played running back and cornerback and scored nine touchdowns during his junior year at Laurel Highlands when the team went 6-4-1 in 1985. He scored 12 more TDs playing running back and linebacker his senior year.
“My junior year, we were very competitive,” Buehner recalled. “If it would be this day and age we would’ve made the playoffs. We had a very special team. Paul Kovell, my best friend, we were pretty dang good. We missed out going to the playoffs on the Gardner system. We are all still close-knit.”
Buehner scored 478 points for the Mustangs in basketball.
“Basketball was the same thing, great group of athletes my junior year,” Buehner said. “We lost to West Mifflin on a last-second shot to go to the finals. Paul was a good player, Jody Shelby, the Brookings brothers (Karl and Kent). We had a really solid team there, too, and my senior year same thing.
“I still loved the game. I didn’t get any taller. They didn’t have the 3-point line back then either. It might’ve been a different story if I was as big as Uncle Jack (6-foot-5).”
Buehner drew attention from college football coaches.
“It was smaller schools. I really thought I might go to Shippensburg, but at the last minute I got a call from the coach from Tulsa to come down and visit,” Buehner explained. “Once I went there and got off the plane, I was like this is where I want to be.”
Jack Buehner put in a good word for his nephew at Tulsa.
“That’s the reason I even got the look,” Buehner explained. “Coach Mark Thomas and Jack played together at Penn State and he was the offensive line coach down there. At that time he was recruiting Western Pennsylvania real heavily. There were eight of us at the time from Western Pennsylvania on the team.
“It was nice. I had people I could relate to and talk to. It made the transition from leaving home a little easier. Probably the most famous was the Ford City quarterback Gus Frerotte. He ended up playing in the NFL for many years.”
Buehner went on to be a four-year starter for the Golden Hurricane under coach Dave Rader.
“The offense they ran, it was a one-back with an H-back, like a glorified fullback blocker,” Buehner said. “The position was a perfect fit for me. I just fit in well with the scheme of things. I ended up being the H-back on the team for four years. I might catch one or two passes a game but most of the time I was probably blocking. It was fun.”
Buehner ended his college career with 35 receptions for 330 yards and five touchdowns. He also returned a couple kickoffs, remembering the first one in particular.
“That was the scariest thing ever,” Buehner said. “We were at Arkansas. When you’re standing there and there’s 60,000 people screaming ‘Pig Sooie’ at you before the kick … I looked at my best friend Gary Treat, my roommate, I said, ‘Bro, I don’t know if I can do this.’ Then the ball came to me and I had to run and I was like, ‘OK, let’s go.'”
Buehner, who was red-shirted for the 1988 season, played 11 games in 1989 as a freshman when Tulsa went 6-6 and lost in the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, Louisiana, 27-24 as a heavy underdog to Oregon. Buehner played 11 games in 1990 when Tulsa went 3-8.
The Golden Hurricane had their best season during Buehner’s time there in 1991.
“My junior year we went 10-2, played in the Freedom Bowl, beat San Diego State (28-17) with the famous running back Marshall Faulk, wide receiver Hart Lee Dykes,” Buehner said of the game which was played in Anaheim, California.
“We lost to Miami, Florida, which ended up winning the national championship, 30-15, and then we lost to a Kansas team that we should’ve beat, it was just a bad day. But we beat Texas A&M that year, which they were No. 6 in the nation. It was an awesome team, awesome guys.”
Buehner played in all 11 games his senior year when Tulsa dropped off to 4-7. He enjoyed his time with the Golden Tornado.
“It was a great choice,” Buehner said.
After college, Buehner eventually caught on working for Frank B. Fuhrer Wholesale.
“It’s an incredible working place,” he said. “It’s a great job, a great living. I love it. It works out well for me.”
Buehner didn’t get out of sports after leaving Tulsa. He eventually delved into officiating.
“My first relationship I was married to Joni Steratore, which obviously the Steratore name is synonymous with officiating. I started doing it, fell in love with it, now I do three sports, football, basketball and girls softball,” Buehner said. “I just worked the WPIAL championship on Tuesday (May 26, Class A, Carmichaels vs. Union). It’s just amazing at how good the girls have become in playing softball. It’s fun to watch them and be out there and participating.”
Buehner has worked five WPIAL softball finals, 14 WPIAL basketball finals and seven WPIAL football finals. He’s also done one PIAA basketball final and two PIAA football finals.
“Luckily I got a good group of mentors around me to help me and I gradually kept getting better and kept getting bigger games and now I’m at where I’m at in my career,” Buehner said. “I moved up on the pecking order.”
As for his induction coming on Friday, Buehner said, “It’s a great honor to be recognized with all the great athletes that came from Fayette County.”
Buehner also recognized two of the top women of his life.
“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for my wife Amy and my mom,” Buehner said. “She’s something. She’s my biggest fan for sure.”