1. George Buck, 2. Logan Benninghoff, 3. Billy Williams, 4. Bion E. Leech, 5. Luthar P. Shaffer, 6. Bob Gillespie, 7 Ray Leech, 8 Alex Orr, 9 Fred Foxall, 10 Mike Curran, 11 Edward Hildebrand, 12 Frank “Indian” Craig, 13 Harry Y. McCool, 14 Dave Carson, 15 Rex Piersol, 16 Herman Buck, 17 LeRoy Beatty, 18 Edwin “Shaggy” Logan, 19 Charles Keefer, 20 Charles Carson.

I have posted a number of pictures from older football teams from Ellwood City  and heard many stories of the great Shelby baseball teams and Shelby basketball teams but no one mentioned the 1906 Shelby Tube Mill Football Team (oops Foot Ball Team, in 1906 that was two words.)

    I have to thank Ms. Miriam Filer for taking the time to send me all of these pictures along with the story of the 1906 Shelby team that was another great team that before now, seems to have been forgotten and to be honest, great is not a strong enough superlative. The 1906 team beat teams such as Youngstown, Sharon and Butler by scores of 10-0, 27-0, 23-0, 21-0, 44-0. Franklin was the only team all season to score a point against our boys in a 5-5 tie; touchdowns then were only worth five points.

    The more recent photographs are from 1949 when ten members of the 1906 Shelby Team held a reunion dinner at The Fireplace but got together at Robert W. Gillespie Sr.’s home to share stories and catch up. Those attending the reunion included 1. Bion E. Leech, 2. Harry Y. McCool, 3. Logan Benninghoff, 4. Mr. Gillespie, 5. Luthar P. Shaffer, 6. Edwin Logan, 7. W.R. Williams, 8. Fred Foxall (manager), and 9. M. J. Curran. George G. Buck was also at the reunion but was not pictured. He must be the one taking the picture (?). Only four other members of the 1906 undefeated team were still living in 1949 but were unable to attend the reunion including Frank Craig, Herman Buck, Charles Carson, and Edward Hildebrand.

    I would like to thank Ms. Filer again and apologize at the same time. She had sent me these pictures in April of 2011 and I am just now (January 2012) putting these onto the site. I was very excited when I received these pictures especially since I had never heard of them and do not know how they were skipped.

Jo Ann Oxsen from Kingman, Arizona came across a stack of old yearbooks and shared this picture of the 1922 Ellwood City High School Football Team with us. This team included many future Ellwood City High School Hall of Fame players, numerous Division I football players, a future Lawrence County Sports Hall of Fame player, and a future NFL player.

Team members (not as pictured): Howard Law, Bob Thompson, “Red” Jones, “Whitey” Asper, Cliff Ewing, Bob Morrow, Wayne Miller, Kenny Baker, Carl Ketterer, Harold McKim, Ken Ketterer, Hiert Scheidemantle, Frank McKim, “Chief” Parillo, Anthony Lordo, “Pony” Johnson, James Barile, “Mac” MacMurdo, Thad Young, Bill McCarthy, Raymond Marshall, Robert MacMurdo, Ben Chambers, Frank Piscitelli, Fred Johnson, Andy Biordi, Joe Paglia, Fred Lordo, Warren Wilson, Berline Smith, Carmen Perriello, Ray Maines, John Streeter, Ross Parker, Bill Herge .

The picture is from page 70 of the 1922 Ellwoodian – Photo by Bill McGlincy (1922)

I recently posted an article about the old bowling alley on Lawrence Avenue and the response was outstanding. As of half way through January, there have been twenty three “comments” or memories shared about the bowling alley or any of the bowling alleys in town. Mr. Dave Patterson went a step further and shared this picture from the mid-1950’s of his mother’s bowling team. Dave’s mother, Hazel Garwig Huffman is pictured in the back row, in the middle.

    Thank you Dave for sharing.

I recently posted an article on the first Little League Baseball League champions, the 1950 Moose Lodge sponsored team. As world famous as that team is, I quickly got this autographed photograph of “Ellwood City’s FIRST Little League Baseball Team” compliments of Chuck Hall.

     Members of that team included, front from the left, Dick Gaskell, “Flip” Hill, Charlie Hall, John Agostinelli, Art Loccisano, and Bob Kimpel. Second row from left, “Grumpy” Franz, Jim Staggers, Elliot Hall, Dick James, and “Ziggy” Liebendorfer. The back row was coach Jack Barnett, “Chuck” Timblin (Mgr.), and Lloyd Hamil. Thank you Mr. Hall for sharing this picture and other pictures with us all.

   The City of Champions, Wampum Pennsylvania. In 1963, a banquet was held to honor a handful of the champions that have come out of Wampum including athletes and coaches. Seated in front from the left were Buzz Ridl, Basketball coach at Westminster College, and the famous basketball coach L. Butler Hennon who led Wampum to unimaginable success including numerous State Championships.

Standing from left to right were Major League Baseball player Harold Allen, basketball player/coach Ronald Galbreath, and one of Major League Baseball’s greats Dick Allen. All three athletes played for Coach Hennon at Wampum High School and Galbreath played for Ridl at Westminster College for perhaps one of the school’s greatest teams, the 1961-62 season.

      The Champions of the 1981 Riverside Farm League was the Royals. Team members included first row from the left Randy tomsic, Randy Chesko, Chris Barnes, and Allen Walker. Players in the second row from left are Gerald Main, Ricky DiFrischia, and Sam Pistachio. Standing included Coach Joe Pistachio, Todd Todorich, Mike Nelson, Manager “Todd” Todorich, Frank White, Ricky Tillia, and Coach Randy Chesko. Team member Bryan Greer is missing from the picture.

      Legendary baseball Coach Bill Spellman’s 1962 Lincoln High School squad won the WPIAL Championship. those pictured above were: first row, from the left, Bill Pratt, Randy Chesko, Toy Laitinen, Trippy Blythe, and John Pratt; Second row, Jim Bucac, Pat White, Bob Latino, Bob Poholsky, and Alex Herman; third row, Tom Webster, Gary Docchio, Bruce Smith, Jim Birtalan, and Ralph Bognosky; fourth row, Mike Tomeo, Bill Smeltz, Joe Listorti, Ernie Funari, and  Jim Filippone; back row, Coach Bill Spellman, manager Bill Lively, manager Bob Lordo, Charles Belonzi, and John Matrangol.

I was saddened to see the recent obituary for a long time equipment manager for Ellwood City football Mr. Joseph P. Ferruchie and it reminded me of an email Jim Hardie shared on August 22nd.

In Jim’s words…

     No one has talked about football equipment before the advent of plastic in 1961.  Prior to that time most of the padding was made of leather including the helmet.  1960 was my 9th grade year and the last with leather.  I loved the leather.  It was comfortable and had a great smell.  There were shoulder pads, hip pads and the helmet, all of leather.  You always see old time players with helmets that look like padded pilots helmets with a strap flying in the wind.  Our equipment was not like that and was a quality product.  I thought they were comfortable and preferred them to the plastic ones we received the next year.  The exception was the girdle which was foam hip pads in a cloth undergarment.  This replaced the hip pads which strapped to your waist. Years later when I played as a freshman in college I had to wear the old hip pads to my amazement!!!  Our equipment in high school was every bit as good as what was used in college which shows the backing of Lincoln and the football support group.
     One other thing that changed about 1962 was the practice jerseys.  They used to be a loose knit flexible ribbed material which was very comfortable but in my junior year they switched to a fine weave, with no give, cotton which had a shine to the fabric.  We loved the older ones and bought several to wear as street clothes.
     Our uniforms were state of the art and were worn with blue and white leggings.  If I remember correctly we wore one uniform for our sophomore and junior years and got a new one for or senior season – the fall of 1963.

The Little League Baseball league started in 1950 with six teams, but it was the Moose Lodge sponsored team that won the very first Little League Championship.
      On the 1950 team were, first row from left to right, Jim Navolio, Bob Koach, Rocco Manzo, Ron Hughes, Mike Nocera, and Mario Morini. Second row: Ron Mazzano, Ray Foley, Bob Mallory, Joe Cioffi, and Jim Tammaro. Third row; Dick Gordon (scorekeeper), Walt Feerst, Frank Rocco, “Grundy” Volpe, Dick Friedhoff (manager), and “Skippy” Friedhoff (bat boy).

In 1953, the US Steel national newsletter, US Steel News, honored the men in Ellwood City that worked long days at US Steel and still volunteered their time in the evenings and on weekends for Ellwood City youth baseball leagues. This photograph of the team managers and umpires of National Tube made the cover of the January 1953 newsletter.

    Pictured from left to right in the first row include R.P. Friedoff, N.J. Pack (president of the Little League), J.P. Smith, Charles R. Hall, Nick Perry, and Frank Volpe. Second Row: Paul Reinheimer, Walter Feerst, Robert Mohrbacher, Erwin Campbell, and Charles Maggi Third Row: Thomas Hughes, Wayne Baird (President of the Knee-Hi League), William Frazier, Carl Meise, Merle Means, Chester Shaffer, and E.J. Corrigan.
Other men associated with the various leagues but unable to attend the photograph session included John Matrongol, Wilbert Covert, George Thornhill, Louis Oliastro, George Patterson, Albert Ruhe, and Elwain Richards.
A special thank you goes to Pudue LaCava for taking the time to send us this photogaph – Thank you.

     Ellwood City has had some great fighters but only the men of the first half century of our town are recorded. The great boxers from the first 50 years of our town included Earl Woods, Jimmy Gibbons, Dinah Christie, George Milnes, Tommy Evans, Kate Houk, Red Maloney, Bill Henderson, Charlie Strouse, and  Howard McCloskey who fought all over the world as part of “barnstorming leather pushers”.
In 1929, Ring Magazine ranked Emmett Rocco of Ellwood City, PA as the number two contender to the Professional Boxing Heavyweight Title of the World and ranked him number two again in 1930.
    The only thing that stood in the way of fighting Gene Tunney for the title was the number one contender Jack Sharkey and a lingering injury to his hand. Emmett broke his right hand in an amateur rematch fight with Sandy Seifert in 1928 which Emmett won in twelve rounds despite the broken hand. The injury sustained in that Youngstown battle occurred less than one year before his professional debut. The hand did not affect him in the ring but it forced him to take more time than most others would take between fights to let the hand heal.
By 1931, Rocco was hailed as the best looking prospect in the Heavyweight Division, National newspapers fell in love with his Blue Collar, “Up form the Mills” story. Newspaper and magazines alike played up the fact that he was a mill worker that began to box to provide luxuries for his parents and younger brothers and sisters. Unfortunately later in 1931, while training for a fight with King Levinsky, Emmett suffered a leg injury that would end his career prematurely.
    Joe Cumo was Emmett’s manager for most of his career until his untimely passing. Joe helped guide Rocco’s career to the highest levels with the love of that of a brother. After Joe’s death, Emmett had various trainers including a younger brother Benny Rocco. Another younger brother (George) became a successful amateur boxer in 1934 & 35. He lost a bout to the national amateur welter weight champion Jimmy Clark right before the Olympics. When Clark returned with the Olympic title, Rocco got a re-match in Beaver Falls and won decisively.
Ellwood City Memories would like to thank Joe Rocco of San Diego, CA and Casey (Foley) Lawrence of Beaver Falls, PA for providing information for this post.
We know that Ellwood City has produced additional great boxers, but we need your help to fill us in. If you know of a great boxer from Ellwood City, please leave a comment below or EMAIL us.

      In 1952, the Ellwood City Fraternal Order or Eagles Knee-Hi League team won the championship for the second consecutive year. Those pictured were, front row left to right, Don Covert, Amy Alfonso, Tammaro, Fox, and vic D’Angelo, Second row, Bud Majors, Dick Gaskell, Joe Cioffi, Larry Carinci, Bob Timmerman, and Ray Gosciewski. Coaches standing Tom Hughes, Bud Campbell, Lou Oliastro, and John Hulick.

      1954 Knee Hi Champions- the Sons of Italy. This picture was donated to us by Pudue LaCava but unfortunately we do not have any names. If you recognize someone, please let us know below or email me at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com