Monthly Archives: March 2009

    The first football team to go undefeated from Ellwood City since 1925 was the 1944 squad. The Ellwood City team was led by All-State end Leon Presto. Presto and the Wolverines carried their perfect season into Pitt Stadium for the W.P.I.A.L. Championship against Donora High School.

    Ellwood City’s starting lineup for the Championship game was Cartwright, Lucas, Chiaro, Geneviva, Konyak, Cintani, Presto, Desport, McClintick, Manauzzi, and Tillia. The Ellwood City P.A. announcer Mr. Chuck Hall, was invited to announce the game by the WPIAL and he shared with us a story about the Head Coach Mr. Howard Gills… 

       “Howard Gills was the Coach and a fine person, but very high strung with his football team. I went to the dressing room to get the lineups from Howard, but was intercepted by Faculty Manager John King. John said Mr. Gills was too strung out to talk to so John had to get the lineups for me.”  

Howard B. Gills

    Coach Gills was the assistant coach for the Wolverines the previous year to Head Coach Thurman “Dutch” Croft who took time off to fight in World War II and returned in 1946 to take the helm again. When Mr. Croft left coaching after the 1953 season, he held the distinction of winning more games than any other coach in Ellwood City history with 10 winning seasons in 15 years. 

    Coach Gills and the Beaver Valley Champion Ellwood City Wolverines fought hard but lost a very close game to a terrific Donora team 13-0. Donora was led by quarterback Arnold Galiffa who would later become an All American at Army. Two other Donora players later earned distinction in college, Dan “Deacon” Towler was a great one and Roscoe Ross was named on several All American Teams. 

     Ellwood City finished the season with a record of 9 Wins – 1 Loss – o Ties and finished the regular season undefeated and crowned as the Beaver Valley Champions.

44 – Union – 0     Total yards 398-67
39 – Farrel – 7     Total yards 366-185
26 – Rochester – 6     Total yards 279-129
35 – Butler – 0     Total yards 357-96
40 – Monaca – 0     Total yards 407-76
14 – Beaver – 7     Total yards 292-132
13 – New Brighton – 6     Total yards 197-185
18 – Beaver Falls – 0     Total yards 320-103
20 – Aliquippa – 0     Total yards 388-183
0  – Donora – 13     Total yards 186-279

1944 Ellwood City Wolverines Roster

M. Abbaticchio   I. Gatto      C. Morrison
C. Agostinelli     A. Geniviva   N. Paglia
J. Bender         W. Greene    L. Presto
B. Calderone      R. Houk      M. Raykovics
T. Cartwright     F. Konyak    L. Shirey
R. Chesko         J. Lindgren   T. Slevin
I. Chiaro          R. Lucas       R. Stone
J. Cintani         E. Luxenberg  F. Sulia
R. Conner        V. Manauzzi    J. Thomas
J. Desport        S. Mastilak     D. Tillia
D. DeGennaro   W. McClintick  J. Vargo
J. Eonta           A. Miller         C. Weigle
J. Fehl             C. Milnes        B. Young

Head Coach – Howard B. Gills
Asst Coach – Ted Wallace

    Please share your memories of the 1944 Wolverines by clicking on the “comments” link below or EMAIL us.

Ellwood City Memories would like to thank Chuck Hall for providing information for this post.

St Agatha Church and Parsonage

    In September of 1895, the Pittsburgh Diocese of Catholic Church began a solid parish in Ellwood City. The little old wood frame church was built for $1,000 in September of 1895 at the corner of Spring Ave & Locust Way. The old church was used until the dedication of the large Stone Church on the corner of Spring Avenue and Fifth Street. With a seating capacity of 750, the new building served Ellwood City until September 8th 2007 when it consolidated with it’s own mission church the Blessed Virgin Mary Church and was renamed Holy Redeemer Church.

St Agatha Church apprx. 1918

    We can list the history of the church in Ellwood City, it’s various missions, attendance numbers, so on and so on. However that is not really what we started this site for. We need MEMORIES. Funny stories, touching stories, you know, the good stuff. Stories like the time that certain alter boy almost burned down the church, the dinners, or the entire church coming together to help one family. If you have a story you would like to share about Saint Agatha, please EMAIL us or click on the “comment” link at the bottom of this post.

    The Providence Baptist Church in North Sewickley was originally formed November 4th, 1801, making it the oldest place of worship in the county. Providence is the mother of many churches in the area including the Baptist churches of Ellwood, Park Gate, Harmony, Unity, Harlansburg, Beaver Falls, New Brighton, Grove City, Cannelton, & others. The current building is about three quarters of a mile from where the first group of Christians organized into a church.
 
    We can list the history of the church, date it was built, locations, so on and so on. However that is not really what we started this site for. We need MEMORIES. Funny stories, touching stories, you know, the good stuff. Stories like the time Mary forgot her words at the manger in the Christmas play, the volleyball team winning the Church league Championship, or the entire church coming together as one to help another. If you have a story you would like to share about Providence Baptist Church, please EMAIL us or click on the “comment” link at the bottom of this post.

    Slippery Rock is one of the original churches in the area. The first meeting took place April 13, 1802 at the Allen Grist Mill at the mouth of the Slippery Rock Creek. The original church structure “log Church” was built towards the end of 1802, built on the hill near present building. The first pastor, Mr. Alexander Cook and the congregation Worshipped at the Log Church until 1825 when a frame building was erected. The framed building stood until 1863 when the present building was erected. Until 1835, it was customery to have one service with 2 sermons. Between sermons there was an one hour break when people would eat their lunch, discuss the sermon, talk about the topics of the day & perhaps take a smoke.

    We can list the history of the church in Ellwood City, date the locations were built, list the pastors, so on and so on. However that is not really what we started this site for. We need MEMORIES. Funny stories, touching stories, you know, the good stuff. Stories like the time old mister whatzisname snored so loud the preacher had to stop the service, the kids growing up in the church, or the entire church coming together as one to help. If you have a story you would like to share about Slippery Rock Presbyterian Church, please EMAIL us or click on the “comment” link at the bottom of this post.

Saint Elias Orthodox Church

     We had a difficult time finding the history of St Elias Orthodox Church in Ellwood City. It wasn’t until we discovered St Illies Romanian Church, that we found out that the church was built in May of 1918 on East Park Avenue.

St Elias Orthodox Church

    We can list the history of the church in Ellwood City, date the three buildings were built, list the church leaders, so on and so on. However that is not really what we started this site for. We need MEMORIES. Funny stories, touching stories, you know, the good stuff. Stories about the members, the children of the church, or the entire church coming together as one to help another. If you have a story you would like to share about St Elias Orthodox or St Illies Romanian Church, please EMAIL us or click on the “comment” link at the bottom of this post.

St Elias Orthodox Church Parish Life Center & Romanian Club

Lighthouse Assembly of God

    The First Church of God started in Ellwood City during 1904 with small gatherings in various homes. Then Samuel Tritt donated a building in the West End for church gatherings which was used until 1912 when the church gained permission to use the Hazel Dell School on Line Avenue. The School was used until July 1913 when work began on a small chapel on First Avenue that would be home to First Church of God until Dec 1929. During the early part of 1930, the church sold the building on First Avenue and moved into their new building on North Street & Orchard Avenue.

    We can list the history of the church in Ellwood City, locations, date they were built, so on and so on. However that is not really what we started this site for. We need MEMORIES. Funny stories, touching stories, you know, the good stuff. Stories like the time Mary forgot her words at the manger in the Christmas play, the preacher falling off the stage, or the entire church coming together at the alter to pray for you. If you have a story you would like to share about Lighthouse, please EMAIL us or click on the “comment” link at the bottom of this post.