Monthly Archives: December 2010

       Melwood Norman “Buzz” Guy, Jr. (born March 20, 1936 in New Castle, Pennsylvania) is a former Lincoln High School graduate who went on to play offensive lineman professionally in the National Football League (NFL) and the American Football League (AFL).
      Guy played college football at Duke University where he anchored a top notch line that led Duke to be the best football program in the ACC and considered one of the best in the country. One of the University’s greatest seasons saw the 1957 Blue Devils represent the ACC in the Orange Bowl and finish the season with a No. 16 national ranking.
       Buzz was drafted in the third round of the 1958 NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns. He first saw playing time with the New York Giants (1958-1959) including the 1958 Title game referred to as “The Greatest Game Ever Played” (resulting in a 23 to 17 overtime loss to the Baltimore Colts). Guy earned the rare distinction of being a starter with the Dallas Cowboys during their first season in the league after being selected by the Cowboys in the 1960 NFL Expansion Draft. Mr. Guy also played for the AFL’s Denver Broncos in 1961 and the Houston Oilers.
      The mountain of a man from Ellwood City played offensive guard throughout his career. After his playing days were over, he worked as a salesman for the Borg-Warner Co. Back in Ellwood City with his wife Louise Ramella Guy, Buzz belonged to the Lions Club, was a Cub Scout Leader, and enjoyed golfing and remodeling older homes.
      If you would like to share your memories of Buzz Guy, please leave a comment below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

       James Edward MacMurdo was born in Ellwood City September 2, 1909. Known more commonly as “Big Jim”, he was an offensive lineman in the National Football League, playing for the Boston Braves/Redskins and the Philadelphia Eagles.
      Before Big Jim’s illustrious college football career at the University of Pittsburgh, he anchored the offensive line at the center position on the area’s greatest football team; the 1925 Ellwood City squad. 
      MacMurdo was not drafted out of college but the 6’1″ 209 pound man played six seasons in the NFL at guard and tackle. In 1932 and 33 he played for the Boston Braves and from 1934-37 he wore a Philadelphia jersey. In his six professional seasons, Big Jim started forty-six games and in 1933 he had one rushing attempt for two yards.
      We would enjoy hearing any memories you might have of Mr. MacMurdo. Please share your memories below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

      Nathan Wayne Borders was a 5’10″ 190 pound Safety that graduated from Riverside High School in 1980. Nate was a standout at Indiana University lettering all four years (1981-84). The ex-Hoosier was not drafted into the NFL but signed as a free agent with the Cincinnati Bengals. In 1987 he played in three games for Sam Wyche’s Bengals.
      We would like to hear any memories you might have of the Riverside standout. Please leave a comment below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

       Long before King Cool, Donnie Iris, began performing at weddings at the age of five there was the Hazel Dell Mandolin Orchestra. This picture is believed to have been taken around 1910. Members at that time included, seated left to right, John Snare, Clarence Fox, James Shallenberger Sr., Fred Shelley, and John Clyde. Back row from left, Mack McClintock, Ralph Ott, Jerry Fisher.

        The Road Rebels Car Club was founded about 1958-1959 by Al Schuller, Bob Henry and Tony Tino of Ellwood City, PA. The club had an eight car garage in Ellport where they worked on their cars and installed larger more powerful engines. The Road Rebels held races for their cars at drag strips in Ohio and Pennsylvania. The club had a maximum membership of twenty five active members who all wore black leather jackets with the car club logo on the back. The logo was also on metal plaques attached to the rear bumpers of member’s cars. There was also business cards made that matched the jacket logo. The cards were handed out to a lot of people, especially when we helped stranded motorists.

      The club was sponsored by the Ellwood City Elks Club which let the guys hold their annual meetings there and on Saturday nights and they also held dances for the local teenagers. The rebels also had a good reputation in the community for helping stranded motorists whose cars broke down along the highway or got stuck in bad weather. Member Al Schuller who gave us this information was not sure when the Road Rebels Car Club disbanded because he left for the U.S. Army in 1961 and served overseas patrolling the Czechoslovakian border. However, he was sure that all the members have good memories of those times together. If you remember the Road Rebels Car Club, we would enjoy hearing your memories.

       Please leave a comment below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com. Al Schuller (of Antelope, Ca) can be reached at sagebrushal@yahoo.com

       In his eighteen year coaching span here, the ledgendary coach Bill Spellman turned Ellwood City into one of the best High School teams in the area winning two WPIAL championships back when the league consisted of 130 teams as there were no separations based on school size such as single A, triple A, as it is today. His team barely missed a third title during his tenure on the final at at-bats in the final inning. 
       During Spellman’s final ten years, Ellwood City won the section title eight out of those ten years, won two league championships, finished runner-up once and reached the semi finals three other times. His career total of 320 wins and 87 losses gives him a remarkable winning rate of 79%. His teams compiled incredible records such as 23-3 (1962), 20-2 (1965). 27-2 (1968) 26-4(1969) and 30-7 (1971), winning sixteen games in a row that his final season.

Excerpt from Spellman: One Man’s Influence by Rev. John Zingaro
       “In that day, athletes tended to play two sports, sometime three. Many teens from the schools in the area who faced each other in football and basketball would also meet in baseball. Thus, stars from nearby towns like Joe Namath and Mike Ditka who gave Ellwood City headaches in the autumn and winter also played against the local boys in the spring. But, in the spring, schools which gave Ellwood City trouble in other sports met their match. Ellwood became a powerhouse in baseball. Playing against schools two to five times its size, Spellman’s teams rose to renown in the second largest high school league in the nation, the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL).
      A modest man, Spellman often gave credit to others. And rightly so. He knew how dedicated were many dads and moms in the steel town of Ellwood City – as well as those in its neighboring communities of Koppel, Wampum, Chewton, Wurtemburg and Ellport. They formed the foundation for the coach’s success by creating one of the nations earliest and best-organized sandlot baseball programs. But once the youths arrived at Lincoln High School, it was Spellman who took them to an even higher level.”
 

       It took a couple of tries but Duane Weingartner, 13, was crowned Ellwood City’s 1957 Soap Box Derby champion. 
       Out racing a field of fifty four of his peers including fifty from the Ellwood City Area, Duane Weingartner, won the extremely popular All-American “motorless wooden car running” in Ellwood City Wednesday night July 31st 1957. The champion would move on to represent the city in the world famous national finals held annually at Akron, Ohio August 18th of that year. 
       Weingartner won the highly sought after title before an estimated 3,500 cheering fans in this his third year competing. In 1955 and 1956 he almost made it to the title but finished as a class B finalist each year. Duane captured the 1957 crown by beating Class “B” King Tony Stephenson of 601 First Street by about three feet. He was the fist racer from Ellwood City to win the championship in three years. The 1957 race took place down the two block long Lawrence Avenue track running from Ninth Street to Seventh Street. Weingartner had also won the Orange Crate race held annually in New Castle in 1954.

       In the first heat of the day are left to right, Bob Ross, 12, of Line Avenue, Tom Hill, 12, Park Gate and Earl Tanner 11, of Foch Street. Ross won the heat and received the event’s first silver dollar that was awarded to each heat winner.

       The third picture shows the pride and excitement of the soap box derby entrants as they march toward “derby hill” on Line Avenue extension in 1955.

       The crowd reacts at the big moment when Duane Weingartner was officially presented the All American Soap Box Derby in the fifth picture. Bob Pozzuto, Jaycee derby director, made the trophy presentation as Bob Stahl, Jaycee president, watched in the rear view mirror.

      The final picture captured Ellwood City Champion Duane Weingartner in action at the 1957 All-American Soap Box Derby Championship held annually at the world famous Derby Downs track in Akron. Weingartner finished second in this round losing to Brent Uher from Cleveland who was timed at 27.84. Jackie King, left, out of Waco, Texas placed third.

     The Soap Box Derby was held locally for many years and we know that others have pictures and memories that they would like to share. If you would like to share your story, please leave your comments below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

     During Wampum’s 200th Anniversary Celebration, the smell of black powder and musket rifle fire filled the air. On August fourth, the 19th Ohio Light Artillery and the 63rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Company C reenacted battles fought during the Civil War.
    Captain Bill Smith of the 19th Ohio Independent Battery is standing here with an authentic Civil War cannon that was on hand during the event in Wampum.

     Paul Weingartner owns this original picture from 1951 taken from the location of Paul’s Auto Body showing the intersection of East Line Avenue and Joffre Street. It is faint, but if you look close you can see the Ewing Park baseball field in the background.

      The Ellwood City East Side Switcher Crew switched cars from the B&O Railroad to the P&LE Railroad and vise versa from 1917 to 1920. The engineer at the throttle was known as Con Missouri, and the fireman on the platform was William Goodwin. The rest of the crew on the ground consisted of, from left to right, Doggie Wallace, brakeman; Charles Mincer, conductor; and Lonnie Dunbar, brakeman.
     The original picture belongs to Holt Conner.

     Pictured is the original building in 1898 that housed what would later become Park Gate Baptist Church. Built in 1896 as the Christian Church of Park Gate, it became a mission church of the First Baptist Church of Ellwood City in 1907. In 1920, the mission church became the Independent Park Gate Baptist Church that still meets today in a little bit more modern facility along River Road in North Sewickley Township.

     The former Ellwood City YMCA was located at the site of the former Hazel Dell School on the corner of the College Street and Line Avenue. Area residents enjoyed a number of organized activities that the “Y” offered including basketball leagues, volleyball leagues, soccer, hockey, and many others. The Ellwood City Ledger pictures here were advertisements for new leagues that were starting at the YMCA. The first was for a new floor hockey league for children in fourth grade through sixth grade (pictured from left to right are Erich Weyant, Jeff Boller, instructor Vic Rangel, and Adam Musse). The second picture was for pre-school soccer using a nerf ball. Pictured from left to right are Damien DeCaria, Michelle Rocco, Michael Rocco, Vic Rangel (instructor) and Paul Weingartner. 
     It was reported in the Beaver County Times in May of 1984 that the Ellwood City Council conducted a hearing to air public views on a YMCA request for the borough to create a municipal authority to handle financing of a proposed $1 million structure.
        “The new facility would have replaced the Ellwood YMCA at College Street and Line Avenue permitting it to expand programs with plans that included the installation of a health center with steam room, Nautilus, sauna, whirlpool, exercise room, and weight room that were not available at the old location. The new facility would also permit an Olympic size swimming pool to replace a 3 by 12 foot diameter children’s pool. Regulation size basketball and racquetball courts would have also been installed.
      The new authority would have been in charge of handling funds from private donations that were to be used to pay for the new facility.”
    It was later reported in August 1984, the Ellwood City Council announced approval of leasing land in Ewing Park to the Ellwood YMCA as a locale for the new YMCA. Building upon the site would cost about $500,000 less than previously planned sites including in the US Steel Industrial Park. Council granted the YMCA a ninety nine year lease on the property at a cost of one dollar a year. The double tennis courts would have to be removed to build the building, but would be replaced.