Posts Tagged football

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 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.

      I recently attended an engagement where the speaker spoke on Ellwood City Area Athletics. Most of the presentation centered on baseball and football but the topic of basketball stirred up some conversation. It was suggested that Joedy Gardner was the most valuable basketball player in Ellwood City history. The speaker conceited that he may not have been the greatest in Ellwood’s history, though he was great, but the most valuable. He credited Gardner with changing the way the other schools around the area viewed Ellwood City Basketball.
A number of people have shared with us how good Joedy was, so if he wasn’t the greatest in Ellwood City history, who was? I guess that comes down to how old the person you are asking is.
Ellwoodians that are around the century mark remember players like Dip McDaniel, Merit Book, and Sing MacDonald as phenomenal players. Dip has been credited with getting people in Ellwood interested in basketball during his games at the Shelby clubhouse as these men played before Ellwood City even had a high school team. As a matter of fact, for the first fifty years of Ellwood’s existence, Dip was widely regarded as the greatest athlete to come out of our tube making town.
      Then that was about the time Joedy Gardner hit the scene. As mentioned above Joedy turned the tide for Ellwood from consecutive losing seasons to an actual contender. He starred at Lincoln from 1951 to 54 before playing on nationally ranked teams at West Virginia University.
      Dan Aloi is probably the other great basketball player to be mentioned in this conversation. Having ended his career in Ellwood with a number of records including single game scoring record, single season scoring record, and the career scoring record. He was also named to the National High School Boys Basketball All-American team in 1987.
However, if the conversation is about the greatest basketball player in Ellwood City history, you have to include Anne Malkowiak who graduated as the all time leading scorer in Beaver County, all time leading scorer in Lawrence county, the first boy or girl to score 2,000 points for Ellwood, and the all time leading scorer for Lincoln High School.
It is a tricky conversation to have as there are a number of reasons why it is difficult to compare these great players to each other. Not to mention whenever the conversations start to get heated, someone throws in the legendary Don Hennon whose 2,376* career points at Wampum from 1951-55 stood as the WPIAL record for 38 years (I added the asterisks because Don earned his points without the benefit of a three point line). As many of you know, the Wampum school district closed and is now part of Ellwood City and Mohawk so he might deserve to be added to this conversation. How good was Don, consider this, the 1958 he was selected for the Associated Press All-American team, along with future NBA stars Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Elgin Baylor, and Guy Roger.
      By default, if you are going to include Dr. Hennon in this conversation, I guess I feel inclined to also add Sean Miller to the mix. True he played his high school ball for his dad’s teams at Blackhawk High School, but he was born and raised in Ellwood City before moving to Blackhawk for his varsity years.
Okay, there you have it, who did I forget? I am sure you will point out great players I forgot like Joe Dougherty but I assure you it was not intentional. I am just going off of previous conversations/arguments I have had or overheard. Please feel free to correct me below or email me at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

      If you stop for a second and ask yourself what was the most dominant high school sports team in Ellwood City history, what comes to mind? Perhaps it was the 1925 football team considered by many as the best football team to come from the area. Or perhaps you thought of one of the other teams from Ellwood to win the WPIAL in their sport including the 2005 Boys Cross Country team, the 1942 Football team, the 2000 Girls Track and Field team, the 2008 Girls Softball team, or a number of Baseball teams including the 1945, 1962, 1968, and the 2001 teams.
      The 2003 Baseball team won the WPIAL & the State PIAA Championship as did the 1930 Track and Field team. However, when you hear dominant, you think not just one great year, but a number of years like the Girls Cross Country teams that won the 1992 and 1993 Class AA WPIAL and PIAA Champions.
Though they never won the PIAA State Championship, one Lincoln High School sports team dominated the WPIAL year after year after year. The Boys Gymnastics team coached by the legendary Mr. Ansell produced nine consecutive W.P.I.A.L. championships, eight consecutive A.A.U. championships and despite not winning the state championship, his teams had two third place finishes at the P.I.A.A. meets and in 1951 they came in second place at the P.I.A.A. State Finals.
 
    
Having won so many WPIAL championships in a row like they did is a testimony to how good the TEAM was and their success was not the result of any one or two particular players. However, these teams did produce some phenomenal athletes. I got these pictures from various Ellwood City Yearbooks. The pictures include Joe Barbati in the middle of a flip during his thrilling floor routine, a perfect lever exhibition by F. DeNome, a giant roll on the parallel bars by F. Wallace, hand stand by Mark Jamison, a hand stand on the rings by team captain Roland Stone, and State champion rope climber Leo Minotti displaying his perfect form that he used to pull himself up the 20 foot rope in 4.0 seconds to repeat as State Champion.

    
  These men were just a small handful of the spectacular student athletes that competed for Coach Ansell. We would all enjoy hearing from any of those that competed on one of these championship teams or just remembers these teams. Please share your memories of Mr. Ansell or the Ellwood City Gymnastics Team by leaving your memories in the comments section below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

          I was talking to a young man that is in the fifth grade about what he thought about going to Hartman “Intermediate School” this year instead of North Side Elementary as he did last year. His biggest complaint was the different playgrounds. I agreed, there was a big difference, but I told him “Back in my day…”, you know, etc. etc.
I have never been on Perry’s Elementary school’s playground but have heard from former students that claim it was the largest recess area of all the schools. I will have to take their word for it as I said I have never seen it, but I have heard of the big field behind the former Wayne Elementary School that also had two playgrounds. Another school with an exceptionally large recess area was the former Walnut Ridge Elementary school as its yard was bigger than the school itself. As a kid, I remember having little league baseball practice there and we would not even come close to disturbing anyone who was playing on the playground at the time.

I was also fortunate enough to attend the old North Side Elementary school when the yard was located where the current school stands. The field behind the school was big enough to have a game of kickball going on at one end and a game of football at the other end. The flat field was big enough that when you were down at the other end, it felt like you were no longer even at school. All of a sudden you were just out playing with friends in a field.

The yard at Ewing Park Elementary School at one time had a slide and swing set, but little else except grass. Kickball and tag were the more common games played at recess. From what I have heard, another popular game at Ewing Park School was “chase the ball across the road”.

Then we get to Hartman Elementary School. Not the fancy state of the art one that stands today, but I am talking about the original one that had coat rooms, old wooden creaky floors and eight foot wooden heavy doors. That school had a unique playground to say the least. It had a very big metal swing set, metal slides, eight foot high metal monkey bars, a big metal jungle gym; all on blacktop. Ahh, just what every kid wants, to have recess in a parking lot. At least the modern school today has a grassy area, it’s only 8 foot by 8 foot, but there is grass. Today, Holy Redeemer is the only school where the children scrape knees and elbows and occasionally rip a pair of pants playing on blacktop. At least the playground equipment at Holy Redeemer is not bent and crooked from cars backing into them as was usually the case at Hartman.

We have heard from a couple of you about the playground at the former North Side School, but we would like to hear your memories. Please share your memories of recess in Ellwood below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

      I have been asking for any team pictures from the area and was recently given a picture of the 1916 Ellwood City High School football team that included; front row left to right, James Marshall, Thomas Baird, Corey Asper, Rodney Dean, Max Ewing, Dewey Cunningham, George Fike, B. Asper and Virgil Cosby.
      Back row, left to right, Allan Thomas, McElwain, Jack Harper, Dewitt Goodrich, Baker, Edwin French, Clifford Camp, Adam Dambach, Charles French, and Norman McCreary, High School Principal and coach;
      Who knew that your great-great grandfather George Fike was a football stud back in the day?

      Jim Hardie may have said it best when explaining the dance craze that hit Ellwood City in the late 50’s, 60’s & 70’s. “That timeline would include the very first of the Baby Boomers and the last teenagers of the 1950′s. Those that had one foot in one generation and the other in a new one got to experience  the birth of Rock and Roll, Doo-wop, Folk and the music of the 60’s.”
      I have gotten more than a handful of people that keep mentioning the dances in Ellwood City. Having not come from that time, the only dances I know about are the ones held Friday nights after the football games in the Lincoln High School small gym where three quarters of the students leave at half time of the football game to walk over to the dance. From what I have been told, the ones held today would not even be considered a dance, but rather a “gathering”.
      We have heard stories of dances held in Ewing Park shelters with Christmas lights strewn about and the record player belting out the tunes (for those that do not know what a record player is, you’ll have to Google it.)
      We have heard about different clubs in town that put on the best dances as fundraisers for their clubs including the Road Rebels Car Club and the Kingsmen Car Club. The Son’s of Italy hosted weekend dances, the Jaycees also sponsored dances for young people, as did the Shuffle Shop after the game.
         The Shuffle Shop was a teen dance hall operated by local citizens inside the former Circle School Building. The Shuffle Shop (also known as the “Can”) is remembered today as always having dance floor crowded to the limits with enthusiastic jitterbugs and dance contests.
      Tree of Life Jewish Synagogue hosted open dances for Jews, Protestants & Catholics in their new recreation hall at the end of the Ewing Park Bridge. Even the high school had a Dance Club. E.C.M. contributor Danny John served as president of the club whose job it was to put on a dance every Friday evening throughout the school year.  The club took care of security, setup, arranging for a DJ, running the concession stand and cleanup afterwards. 
      Jim Hardie mentioned that the Dance Club would not have functioned without the guidance of the faculty sponsors: George Reese and Lou Oliastro. “They were exceptional men who allowed us the latitude to have a great time while gently, usually, keeping us from getting into trouble.  Lou passed too soon but George is still around with his quick wit and humor.”
    Jo Ann (Miller) Oxsen shared a personal memory of the Dance Club’s Friday night dances in the early 60′s. She recalled the time she and Vinnie Jeoffre (sp.?) won the Twist Contest (grand prize: Peppermint Twist record album). To this day she believes that Vinnie chose her as his partner because she was the shortest girl there that night.
      I am sure all of us would enjoy hearing your memories of the dances held in Ellwood City. Please leave a comment below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com. Please be sure to mention where the dance you recall was located.

      Denny Schill is known for many things during his tenure as the executive secretary of the Ellwood City Area Chamber of Commerce, but before he got that job and began refereeing high school games, he coached one season of football at Lincoln High School. The 1935 Ellwood City team ended a streak of losing seasons when they finished the season 8-1-1. Mr. Schill retired from coaching with the highest career winning percentage and is only one of four coaches in Ellwood City football history have posted career winning records.

This is “his” team…

According to the Ellwood City Ledger, from left to right in the first and second rows are; Bill Young, Al Biego, Robert “Jiggs” Hazen, Dave Luxenberg, Joe Pishioneri, Abe Pratt, Harold Young, Simon Hughes, William Hienz, Jim Flanagan, captain Mike Kraynak (holding football), Francis Miller, Augie Metz, Phil Tammaro, Bill Daufen, Andy Conti, Milton Young, Chester Bognosky, Onarato “Russia” Funari, Mike Perry, Nick Gib, and Tony Scopellite.

In the third and fourth rows with white shirts, from left, Jim Beemer, Bob Schantz, Carl Zeigler, Adam Izzo, Dorace Shapiro, Louis Butchelle, Chuck Rupert, George Ungham, Ben Keller, Dan Fenechi, Eugene Sam, Kenneth Welsh, Vince Galati, Mike Santillo, Sam Leopardi, Harold “Mac” Miller, Mike Gaydosz, Tony Cipro, Ben Bartle, Fred Teolis, and Floyd Rocco.

In the fifth row (in black jerseys), from left, Delmar Wiley, Ed Snyder, Herman Berendt, Art Kaufman, Bob Koah, Don Muir, Dale Worley, Bill Meyer, frank Blaine, Chester Franus, Andy Fehl, Joe Janose, Jim Hall, Donald Marshall, Al Morabito, Chuck Shaffer, Phil Wiegel, and Jack “Sparky” Adams.

In the next to last row from the left, Harry O’Brien, Ralph Tritt, Mark DeBortoli, Gene Massine, Martin Shaffer, Sam Costantino, George HAll, Walter Robuck, and Kenneth Price, managers, and Chester Swick.

At the top, from left were, Ralph Shaffer, principal; Thurman “Dutch” Croft and Gerald Newton, assistant coaches; Vaughn DeLong, superintendent of schools; and Schill, head coach.
Missing from the photo were Nick Frisk and George Robuck, who were out of the lineup with broken legs when the picture was taken.

Please feel free to share your memories below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

      We already have posted the story of the 1985 WPIAL “AA” Champion Riverside Panther team. We mentioned how the back yard rivalry game in 1985 came down between Riverside and Ellwood City for the MAC Championship. The MAC conference was considered one of top conferences in the WPIAL as was always one of the toughest to win.
      The Riverside Panthers won the MAC that year and the WPIAL Championship. That team brought home more than just the championship that year as many of the players mad the all-MAC team. Those receiving the honor from that Panther team were; from left Mark Altsman, Derek Foley, Don Prestopine, Mark Melfi, Jim Buccelli, Keith Nelson, Mike Potter, and Curt Houk.
      The players were not the only ones to be honored at the MAC Coaches banquet as Riverside Head coach Karl Florie was named MAC football coach of the year.

      Long before Lincoln High School there was the Ellwood City High School out of the Central School on the corner of Lawrence Avenue and Sixth Street. The School did not field a football team in 1902 as there were not enough boys in the school to put a team on the field but the community still had a team. A great team as it turns out. 
      The Ellwood Athletic Club put together a football team to take the field for Ellwood and in turn, that team finished undefeated and attracted crowds estimated at 1,000 for most of its games. The climax of that history making season was on a snowy Thursday afternoon in the final game of the season when the Ellwood A.C. team defeated a Grove City team by a score of 11-0. Touchdowns at that time were worth only five points.
      That game and the others played by the team were probably played in Burnstown. The Ellwood Citizens band was on hand that day and furnished some music, according to a Dec. 5, 1902 edition of the Ellwood Citizen.
      The team was organized in September of that year by the Ellwood Athletic Club. John Offutt, superintendent of the Shelby Tube Company, was in charge of finances and also played in the teams first game a 24-0 victory over New Castle – but apparently did not play after that.
      The picture here is of the 1903 Ellwood City Athletic Clubs football team. Pictured include back row Aussin, unknown, Bill Robbins, unknown, unknown, Al Crone, Bid Gillespie, Judd Turner; Front row, Govern (Mack) McMurdo, unknown, Dave Havise, Laughlin McConahy, unknown; Front; Bert Gates. This picture of the team was taken in front of the Central School. It too was an independent team, and not affiliated with the school. It was not until 1904 that the Ellwood City High School fielded its first football team and not until 1925 that Ellwood would triumph over rival New Castle.

        The Boltbusters were a Semi-Professional football team in Ellwood City. The team was founded in 1947 by former High School players returning from serving in World War II. The first year the team was simply the Sportsman Club. It was not until 1948 that the team changed its name to the Boltbusters.
      The team played in the Lawrence County Football Semi-Pro league and continued playing games into the 1950′s. We have talked to a number of people that have fond memories of going to watch these games and remember how good these guys could play the game. The V.F.W Post 252 not only sponsored the team but also housed them. The players would meet at the V.F.W. and dress upstairs where their uniforms were kept and then travel to the field for practice or games.
      Carl Agostinelli, one of the few surviving members, was more than happy to help us and gave us the names of the players from this 1928 Championship team…

Front Row Left to Right: H. Young, Leo Presto, Phil Konyak, Al Geniviva, Denn Pelloni, Lou Chiro, Harry Hughes, Bob Chesko, Bill Young, A. Orlando (manager)

Second Row Left to Right: Carl Agostinelli, Nick Sudeno, Bill O’Brien, Will Wiltrout, Mike Raykovich, Joe Vargo, Dale Tillia, Henry Mancini, Bill McClintic, Jack Desport, Ziggy Glogowski

Third Row from the Left: Joe Turner (manager), Frank Ritorto, Danny O’Shurek, Bob Figurell, Jay Mikosh, Carl Ottobre, Chub Thomas, Nick Dudick, Joe Eonta, Marty Abbaticchio, Carl Bintrim, Jack Menied

      We would enjoy hearing your memories of the mighty Boltbusters. Please share your comments below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com