Enshrined
Menhart humbled to be inducted into Washington-Greene HOF
John Menhart looked around him and wondered if he belonged.
It was Sunday, June 7 and Menhart was at the Washington-Greene Co. Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame induction banquet, held at Hilton Garden Inn in Southpointe, as part of the Class of 2026.
“My thoughts were, honestly, how humbling it is,” Menhart said in recalling his enshrinement. “Last year I went into the Greene County Sports Hall of Fame and just being there around those people and hearing their accomplishments, and this year, too, it makes you question, ‘Am I worthy of this?’ There are people that have done pretty amazing things and you’re in there with them.”
Menhart, a 1973 Carmichaels graduate, had a major impact himself as a football player and later a coach with the Mikes.
“I see my journey as being lifelong,” Menhart said. “I played here, then I played in college (at Indiana University of Pa.), then I came back and coached here for a lot of years.”
Menhart was a three-year starter in football for Carmichaels and earned all-conference and all-county honors along the way. He rushed for 1,100 yards and scored 94 points as a sophomore and added more than 700 yards as a junior despite missing the first four games due to an injury. During his senior campaign, Menhart rushed for 1,266 yards and rang up 132 points, which led to him being selected to the Big 33 Check List and chosen as the Pittsburgh Dapper Dan WPIAL Class B Offensive MVP.
“My senior year our record was 6-1-2,” Menhart pointed out. “We tied Jefferson-Morgan, 6-6, and they went on and played and beat Midland for the WPIAL championship. There was only one playoff game and it was based on Gardner points. We also tied Fairchance and we lost to Frazier, 7-6.”
Menhart went to become a starter at three different positions at IUP before returning to Carmichaels as an assistant and eventually head football coach. He is the Mikes’ all-time leader in coaching wins with an overall record of 101-69-2 and led them to four Tri-County South Conference championships. His 2002 team reached the WPIAL semifinals.
Menhart was named the Tri-County South Coach of the Year four times and the Washington-Greene WANB/Greene County Messenger Coach of the Year in 2002. He was inducted into the Tri-County Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2007.
Menhart took a look back on his journey that led to multiple Hall-of-Fame honors.
STARTING OUT
Menhart didn’t play organized football until he was a freshman in high school.
“When I was a kid we didn’t even have junior high football,” Menhart said. You weren’t even allowed to play until you got to ninth grade. There was no little league football or anything like that. So I started then.”
Menhart did play organized baseball in his younger days.
“I played baseball forever. That’s all you had around here is Little League baseball at that time,” Menhart said. “I always loved sports. Back then everyone wanted to be Jim Brown and everybody wanted to go to Penn State or West Virginia.”
High school football was unrivaled in its popularity, according to Menhart.
“Back then when you were a kid all it took to get you excited about playing football was to turn the lights on Friday night,” Menhart said. “You didn’t need further motivation, that was enough. That’s the way I felt about it.”
When he did begin to play football, Menhart excelled, as did his cousin Dave Menhart.
“Dave was the quarterback when I was the running back.” Menhart said. “We were in the same class. I actually coached my brother my first year back. I was an assistant coach. He’s five years younger than me. They had a good group.”
Running the ball was the name of the game during Menhart’s playing career with the Mikes.
“Back then things were different. You had 10 men in the box. Everyone was in two tights (tight ends) and you just were going to beat each other up until somebody won,” Menhart said. “It was a true honor back then to get 1,000 yards. Now some of these kids get 1,000 yards in three games,” Menhart added with a laugh.
“We ran 26 Power. My coach was Vic Lapkowicz. I loved Vic. He’d put his glasses down on his nose and he’d look at us and say, ’26 Power. We’re going to run it until they stop us or we’re going to run it until it works.'”
ONTO IUP
Menhart had plenty of options when it came to continuing his football career in college.
“There were a lot of letters, lot of phone calls,” Menhart said. “I actually visited Penn State and talked to West Virginia a lot. It just came down to, I thought my best opportunity to have success was at IUP so I went there.”
Menhart fashioned a solid career at IUP.
“I got to play a lot as a freshman and I was a three-year letterman,” Menhart said. “My senior year I was voted as team captain.”
The versatile Menhart scored touchdowns at tailback, fullback and wide receiver at IUP.
“I actually started at three different positions,” he explained. “Some of that was attributed to injuries. One year through attrition I was a tailback, and we’re at California and two fullbacks went down. Those were the only ones we took so the coach was on the sidelines talking about what are we going to do. I said, ‘I can play there.’ It was a Wing-T. So I ended up playing and starting there. I started at wide receiver, too.”
Menhart’s longest touchdown in college came at wide receiver on a 63-yard reception against Shippensburg.
Menhart graduated from IUP in 1978 with a bachelor’s degree in Health and Physical Education.
“I actually I stayed there (after graduation),” Menhart said. “In the summer there were three sessions, pre, main and post, and I stayed there through three sessions and got certified in safety education as well.”
COACHING CAREER
It didn’t take long for Menhart to get his foot in the door of the coaching profession.
“When I came home in August I interviewed here and got hired, which was really strange because it was hard to get a teaching job back then,” Menhart said. “I went right into it and right into coaching. Vic was the head coach then and after him it was Tom McCombs. I spent 10 years as an assistant and then I got hired as the head coach.”
Menhart favored passing the ball more when he was an assistant coach but that changed when he became the head man.
“Coming from IUP, we were in a Wing-T but we threw the ball a lot,” Menhart said. “When I was a sophomore we had the leading passer and receiver in Division-II, Lynn Hieber and Len Pesotini. In the beginning at Carmichaels I didn’t get to call any plays but I was always tugging on people with suggestions to maybe throw more.
“When Vic left, Tom became the head coach and I called the offense and he did he defense. When he left I stepped into it. It’s more than you would ever imagine. You went from wanting to throw the ball on every down to wanting to run every down, getting the first down and protecting the ball. Personally, I think you become a lot more mindful of controlling the game, like borderline conservative.”
Menhart stressed the amount of talent a coach has mostly determines his win-loss record and what type of team he fields.
“It is what it is. You’ve got to stay within the confines of the cards your dealt,” Menhart said. “Some years your talent at a small school is deeper than it is other years.
“But I never had a team I didn’t love and deeply respect, because they gave us everything and that’s all you can ask from a kid. Everyone can’t run a 4.5 40 and everyone can’t bench press 300 pounds, but they can work as hard as they can possibly work. And that’s what we tried to get out of them. We tried to impress upon them that we wanted them to compete on every single play then we would accept what happened.”
Menhart has great respect from former players.
“I hope so. You earn respect and I tried to do that by doing what was best for my kids, and loving them,” Menhart said. “Sometimes there is tough love, but they were always my guys, it didn’t matter how bad they screwed up.”
Menhart wouldn’t try to get a player out of trouble, rather he preferred to stand by them and face the consequences.
“I’d never try to get them out of anything, but I said look fellows, being in school or society or on the field or at practice, I’m never going to try to get you out of anything but I’m right here with you and we’re going to get you through it,” he said.
MEMORABLE MOMENTS
The Mikes were almost always in the hunt for a postseason spot under Menhart.
“We were in the playoffs a lot,” he said. “We had some heart-breaking losses in the playoffs.”
One in particular came in 1992 when Carmichaels dominated Clairton for much of the game but fell 14-12 when the Bears blocked a short field goal attempt by Tom Ricco in the final seconds.
“I lost sleep over that game for years. I honestly did,” Menhart said. “You know there’s always the second-guessing. Why didn’t I just give it to our fullback Katarsky. But Tommy was a good kicker so we went with that. And they blocked it.”
Menhart recalled another crushing loss when the Mikes blocked a punt which wound up unbelievably costing them the game.
“We lost to Duquesne one year in the regular season, we were up 7-6 and we had them backed up late in the fourth quarter,” Menhart recalled. “It was like fourth and 20 and they couldn’t give us the ball right there so they punted. We blocked the punt, their kid picked the ball up and ran about 200 yards all around the field and wound up going for a touchdown. So we basically lost the game because we blocked a punt.
“We had a few head-scratchers.”
Menhart considered his 2002 team the best he ever coached.
“We had Bobby Hathaway (who went on to become a starting linebacker at West Virginia), my son Jono at quarterback, Colby Giles,” Menhart said. “We ended up 11-1.”
The Mikes defeated Bishop Canevin 42-7, and Fort Cherry 32-0, before losing to Rochester, 34-21.
“We lost in the semifinals to Rochester and it was a good game, played it at Thomas Jefferson,” Menhart said.
Menhart was head coach from 1989 until that season in 2002 before stepping down, but he would return for another stint as head coach from 2009 to 2012.
“It wasn’t the same the second time, probably just the fact that Timmy (Jones) and Gene (Franks) weren’t there,” Menhart said, noting his two longtime assistant coaches from his first go-around as head coach. “We worked well together, we trusted each other. I totally trusted them. They made as many or more decisions as I did and played a huge role in our success.”
Being a coach is about doing what’s right for the kids, according to Menhart.
“It can’t be about you when you’re a coach, it has to be about the players,” Menhart said. “You’re here for the kids, the kids aren’t here for you.”
OUTSIDE OF FOOTBALL
Menhart served as a teacher and administrator during his time at Carmichaels, including time as the high school principal and school district’s superintendent. He’s currently president of the Carmichaels Board of Education.
“I retired about maybe eight years ago,” Menhart said. “I put in 40 years here.”
Menhart also served on the WPIAL Basketball and Football Steering Committees.
“I got involved in the WPIAL, just on steering committees, but I tried to gain respect for the teams on this side of Route 70 in the pairings process,” Menhart said.
Menhart parents were Mike and Alice Menhart and he had three siblings.
“Two brothers, Mike, he still lives in Carmichaels, and Bert, who is deceased, and my sister Linda, she still lives in Waynesburg,” Menhart said.
Menhart has three grandchildren, Max and Kenzie from his daughter Jamie Krull and husband Ryan, and Josie from his son Jono and his wife Jessie Menhart.
Menhart lauded his longtime wife Cassie.
“Cassie’s incredible,” Menhart said. “She was always there. When you’re a coach it’s not just you that are making the sacrifices, your whole family is. I spent a lot of my kids’ younger years with other people’s kids. I missed a lot of stuff of theirs because I had to be somewhere else. And you’ve got to do it if you’re going to do it right. Cassie deserves a tremendous amount of credit.”
Menhart pointed out the Tales on the Trail Carmichaels Elementary Walking Trail, which current theme is America’s 250th birthday, as a project Cassie has spearheaded and helped run.
As for the Hall of Fame ceremony, Menhart said, “It was a true honor. My three grandkids were there and it meant as much to them as it did to me.
“My family was there, Gene and Timmy were there. They do a great job with it. It was a very class act. I’m very appreciative of being included in that group.”