Posts Tagged lincoln

     Prior to 2010, only FOUR coaches in Ellwood City football history have posted career winning records. The best percentage is held by Denny Schill 8-1-1 in the single season he coached during 1935. Howard Gills is next in winning percentage after coaching two seasons during the war (1944 and 1945). Not many people would argue that the two most successful coaches in Ellwood City football history were Peck Lee and Dutch Croft. Lee coached ten seasons from 1919 to 1930 (missing the 1922 and 1923 seasons) and had a winning percentage of .667. Coach Croft coached from 1938 to 1953 missing 1944 and 1945 years for World War II while posting a .640 winning percentage with the most wins (88) and most losses (48).

Coach Ganzy Benedict still holds the school record of most tie games with eight in just three years of coaching. Other notable head coaches that coached here at Ellwood City include NFL Head Coach Chuck Knox, Kansas University Head Coach Mark Mangino, and Butler Head Coach Jim Rankin.

    For the first half of the decade, the Ellwood City coach was not measured by wins or losses, but whether or not they beat New Castle. However bad we beat Evans City, usually worked out to how bad New Castle beat us; until 1925 when Ellwood City beat New Castle for the first time. New Castle cried foul that the Head Coach had water-downed the field to make a muddy mess to slow down the smaller, faster New Castle team. I do not know if there is any truth to this but as you can see in the pictures, it was a “little” muddy.

This would not be the last time that New Castle would use this excuse to try to justify a loss to the “Big Blue”. Sue Campbell recalls hearing back in the 1930′s folks from New Castle complaining that Ellwood City went to New Castle and watered the field until it was nothing but mud and Ellwood said that New Castle did it themselves. The day after this “sprinkling” the Wolverines pulled off the upset and won the game and the controversy began again. She recalled still hearing the charge of “watering” in 1961 when she graduated from Lincoln High School.

Due to the size of the schools, Ellwood City and New Castle did not play each other in regular season games for a number of years until New Castle dropped down to Triple A in the late 1990′s. The two schools would occasionally meet in pre-season scrimmage games and the rivalry was surprisingly still there. I recall in a pre-season game 1993 or 1994 the banter back and forth between the two teams along with the pushing and shoving and etc., caused the referees to walk off the field. The teams decided to continue the game with coaches officiating and coincidently New Castle and Ellwood did not play each other in pre-season games again for a number of years.

     We may never know if the “watering” was true or not or even if it affected the outcome much as both teams still had to play in the mud but someone always knows someone who knows. One rumor we heard was that the owner of the Ellwood City Ice Company who hired football players during the summers to keep them in shape and ready for the upcoming season, took one of his delivery trucks full of suspects to New Castle the night before the game in the 30′s and the dastardly deed WAS done. Of course we also hear rumors that someone’s grandfather told them that they were in New Castle the evening before the game and SAW with his own eyes a fire truck at the field and knows that it was New Castle that watered the field.

If you would like to leave a memory you might have about the coaches or the rivalry with New Castle, please leave a comment below or email me at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

Originally Posted July 23, 2010

I had a friend email me this picture that looks like a Bud Dimeo photograph for the Ellwood City Ledger but I am not sure where it came from nor who it belongs to. It is not my intention to “steal” anything so please let me know and I will take it down right away – but it is a great photograph.
  What looks like a picture of a parking lot to some is something so much more to me. Of course you see the brick P & LE Freight Station that is still standing today and to the left of it across the railroad tracks is the Baltimore & Ohio Freight Station along Sixth Street that was demolished in 1982. In 1966, the P & LE freight station was converted into a warehouse and offices by Fotia Brothers Sales & Service owners, Sam & Joseph Fotia. Today it is being remodeled again for unknown purposes.
Between the two buildings you can see the tops of two churches in the background. On the left is the former Saint Agatha Roman Catholic Church that served Ellwood City until September of 2007 when it consolidated with its own mission church the Blessed Virgin Mary Church and was renamed Holy Redeemer Church. The second church is the Presbyterian Church which is older than our town itself, having originally organized in the “old brick school house” back on July 14, 1891. The Presbyterian Church continues to serve Ellwood City today despite a fire in 1950.
Speaking of fire, on the far right you can barely make out the old livery on Fourth Street. Architect Byron McCandless who designed portions of Lincoln High School, the Ellwood City Municipal Building, and many others used this building and the brick buildings behind it as his offices. His son Joseph continued to use these buildings for storage until an arson fire destroyed the buildings a number of years ago. His father’s original drawings were lost as was Joseph’s picture taken of the Marines on D-day only a few yards from the beach at Normandy. Byron’s father was Joseph McCandless who built the very first brick house in Ellwood City that just recently burned down.
There are many interesting things you can make out in the background of a picture of “a parking lot”. If you would like to share your memories of any of these, please share below or email me at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

For those that complain that the football field and track are too far away from the school, there was a time the field was right beside the school. I have been asking for awhile for any pictures anybody might have that show the old field at the school and am grateful for the ones I have received. If you have a picture you would like to share please email me at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com. So far I have three pictures that I received permission to use and would appreciate any input you may have about them.
    In the first picture you can barely see the field at the bottom of the picture but it gives us a real good idea of the location. Some of the more interesting things about this picture are not so much the field but the layout of Lincoln High School at the time. At the time of this picture, there was a whole additional three story wing of the school where the current cafeteria, maintenance garages, and the “bridge” to the large gym are today. I have to ask those that remember, what was the layout of this wing? Was it all classrooms? I know the school did not have a cafeteria but did this wing have anything comparable to the size of the current cafeteria? Was the ground floor a locker-room for Lincoln Field for both home and away teams? Finally, was there a “band” room and a room dedicated for the choir before the addition?
    Okay, back to the picture, it’s nice to see the old Hartman Elementary School building and you may notice that Holy Redeemer is not there. Where the church parking lot is today, is the former BVM Church and previous to that it was the Methodist Church.
    Now back to Lincoln Field and the second picture. This is an action shot of the 1925 Ellwood City - New Castle game. In the background of the picture you can see the steel work for Lincoln High School that was under construction. You can also see how tight the stands were as an estimated 10,000 people watched the game from the bleachers, on top of parts of the school, and on top of neighboring houses. You can also clearly see how muddy the field was for the game and why New Castle cried for many years that the Ellwood City Fire Department flooded the field to slow down New Castle. The ball carrier in the picture is New Castle’s great Scooter Day, who despite a valiant effort, was not was not able to get into the end zone against the incredible Ellwood City defense.
    In the third picture here, you get a better layout of the field. As you can see, not only did the fans of Ellwood pack the bleachers but it looks to be two to three deep along the fence. Notice the people on top of the First Christian Church watching the game too.  This was not only a football field, but it was the school’s baseball field at the time. Home plate was beyond the field goal posts in the corner of what today would be Oak Avenue and Fourth Street. You can get a little bit of a better idea of the layout of the baseball field in the first picture. In addition to baseball and football Ellwood City also added four public tennis courts to Lincoln Field in 1930.
If you remember the field and would like to share your memories, please leave a comment below or email me at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

Originally Published Sept 25, 2009

It feels like only yesterday but the stretch of Lawrence Avenue between Fourth Street and Fifth Street has changed more than perhaps any other part of town, and I am not only referring to the loss of Pe Wee’s Lunch. This single picture seems to remind more people of the great memories they have of Ellwood City more than any other we have posted here.

    The Manos Theater (previously Liberty Theater), and the Jayhawk both seem to remind people of how fun it is to grow up in Ellwood City. The Manos was on the south side of Lawrence Avenue and was a popular date spot in town for years. The Jayhawk restaurant across the street was also a very popular teenager “hangout” and made famous by their roast beef sandwich.

The second door on the south side was Turners Barber Shop, the largest barber shop in town and during the 1940’s and early 50’s had six barbers working. Linda Turner remembers the shop got to the point that it was so busy that Turners Barber Shop was the first in town to use numbers to keep arguments down and the first to have a television for its waiting customers.

Others have shared their memories of the days before Lincoln High School offered bus service to its students, the pupils from Ellport had to walk from the High School to the bus terminal at the gas station beside the Jayhawk and catch the public bus to Ellport everyday. On the same side as the Jayhawk was also the Sunoco Station and Herge’s Radio & Electric.

When I previously posted this picture there was some question as to the name of the business on the Northeast corner of Lawrence Ave and Fourth Street. Mr. Stevenson recalled that at one time it was the popular Biordi Grille back when it was a bar. Season Swartz shared that when her grandfather Art Alben owned it, it was a restaurant named after his wife; Elvira’s Place . You may recall the teenage hangout on the second floor. If there is anyone that remembers this, please let us know. You can share your memories below or email me at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

Johnny & Eddie’s Oasis Bar & Restaurant was on the south side of Lawrence Avenue near Fourth Street. Jo Ann (Miller) Oxsen shared memories of her parents taking her to the Oasis occasionally on Friday nights for their delicious spaghetti & meatballs. She remembers that they used to give them bibs to wear while eating the spaghetti.

Originally Published January 29, 2009

    Originally the bridge that connected the Northside (Hazel Dell) to Ellwood City, was a covered bridge. The road that climbed the bank on the south side met 6th Street and Glenn Ave.

    When it became time to get a steel bridge there was a lot of debate as to where it should cross. Eventually the new bridge was installed 150 yards downstream from the covered bridge, connecting Sixth Street and College Street.

   After 30+ years, a new bridge was built in 1915, a little upstream at Fifth Street causing an odd little “round-a-bout” on the North end of the bridge around Dom’s (later 7-11), Red Hot’s, and the various stores that occupied the little strip over the years. The Veterans Bridge (Fifth Street) stood until 1994 when construction began on the current Fifth Street bridge that was dedicated in 1995 to the Veterans of Ellwood City and to the 100th graduating class of Lincoln High School.

Originally Published on Dec. 16, 2008 

    Richard “Dick” Anthony Allen from Wampum played fifteen years in Major League Baseball, mostly with the Philadelphia Phillies and the Chicago White Sox. Having played first and third base and outfield, he ranked among the sport’s top offensive producers of the 1960s and early 1970s.

Dick hit 351 career home runs and had a .292 career batting average. The Wampum native led the American League in home runs twice, and led both leagues in slugging average (the AL twice) and on base percentage. His .534 career slugging average ranks among the highest in an era marked by pitcher dominense and low averages. He won the 1964 National League Rookie of the Year and 1972 AL MVP. Richie, as he was known during his time in school, went straight from Wampum High School to the Philadelphia Phillies organization. His older brother Harold signed with the Phillies at the same time.

I never saw Mr. Allen play the game so I will leave the comments to those who did…

Steve said: When you mention the words Dick Allen, you must talk about Hank Aaron and Willie Mays because there wasn’t too many ballplayers could do what he did; his many, many 500+ foot, super-mega blasts. How about TWO inside the park homeruns in one game. It is a farce that he is not in the hall of fame. … How can you say he does not belong, he was the greatest and maybe the most gifted ballplayer ever. You have to realize that he played with incredible players like Aaron, Mays, Clemente, not these steroid players today all juiced up. … Dick Allen is and always will be the greatest…

Mark Roeder once wrote: Dick Allen was my favorite player. Babe Ruth and Willie Mays could have been the best but did not play for my favorite team. My favorite memory watching a White Sox game in the 70s. Dick Allen and Bill Melton both homered in the same game. Melton hit a towering shot that took forever to loop into the left field lower deck stands. When Allen swatted one that same day, the ball traveled to the furthest reaches of the park over the centerfield fence, reaching its destination in a fraction of the time that Melton’s ball took to reach a shorter distance. Dick Allen hit line drives, very hard and long. I also enjoyed watching Rod Carew ply his trade. But Dick Allen was the greatest hitter I have personally seen play.

John Branigan said: I saw Dick Allen play for the White Sox 72 thru 75. This guy was a natural. One of the best I ever saw if not the best. The Sox franchise was in big trouble before Dick Allen, playing some of their home games in Milwaukee…

Rodney Daniels shared: I want to thank everyone that remember and enjoyed the way my uncle played the game of baseball. I watch the way the guys play today and I wonder to myself why he is not in the hall of fame, but I think I know why, and that’s because he got negative press from the sports writers. He has never gambled on baseball or took drugs and he even gave kids autographs. I look at his overall numbers and they are just as good or even better than some of the guys that are in the hall of fame…

Perhaps Charlie Boylan said it best when he wrote: I first seen Dick Allen when I was 10 years old. I went to the Connie Mack and he hit two home runs against the Cards, One of which left the stadium. That day he became my favorite player. When I was in the Army in 1972 through 1974 I followed his exploits with the White Sox and he almost single handedly carried them to a pennant (finished second behind the A’s). They should have built a monument of him in center field at Comisky Park. I later met him at the Phillies triple A stadium in Scranton PA. I spent several hours with him and he was one of the finest gentleman I have ever met. He was driving “big blue” the Lincoln he was given in 1972 by the Sporting News as the AL MVP. Earlier in life he appeared in Scranton in March of 1960 as a member of the Wampum High School Basketball team. They defeated Montrose High that night for the Pa. State Class B Championship. Either he or Willie Somerset of Farrell High was the best basketball players in Pennsylvania in 1960. Not only was he a great athlete and a deserving hall of famer, he was also a great person.

Photograph compliments of Dick Allen Hall of Fame

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoP0OZ8mZX4

According to the Ellwood City Moose Lodge #93 website, the Ellwood City Loyal Order of Moose was organized in 1909 by John Risbeck. The club started with 51 members meeting in the auditorium in the second floor of the Ellwood City Opera House. The Loyal Order of Moose continued to meet there until purchasing the building themselves.

The Ellwood City Moose Club on Lawrence Avenue hosted many events for the community including Lincoln High School’s after-prom for many years and performances by popular musicians including Lawrence Welk, Guy Lombardo, & Vaugh Monroe. Outside of the Lodge, the Moose has sponsored a multitude of things in the community including a little league baseball team for many years.

In 1999, the Ellwood City Loyal Order of Moose No. 93 sold their clubhouse on the North side of the 600 block of Lawrence Avenue to ESB Savings Bank and erected a new building on Factory Avenue. The new lodge offers a large lounge area with the original pool table and shuffleboard table that were restored and refinished, both free to play anytime. The club opens daily at 1:00pm.

If you have a story you would like to share about the Moose or a performance you seen there, please email me at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com or leave a comment at the bottom of this post.

Post Originally published April 3, 2009 

How often do we get to sit back and enjoy the view? Mr. Young, who contributes to this site often, mentioned going to the steps of the Lincoln High School auditorium (soon to be renamed Leslie H. Sabo Jr. Auditorium) and look out over the town and soak in the view. For those that are no longer living in Ellwood but still call Ellwood City their hometown, I will have to take a picture for you when I get a chance to sit back and enjoy the view.

There are many views in our town that we have seen thousands of times but how many times have we actually stopped to sit back and enjoy the view. This was brought home to me two times in the last week. Being on a little bit of a health kick, I have been running in the evenings and last Monday I took my dog with me. Half way across the Ewing Park Bridge (soon to be renamed the Leslie H. Sabo Jr. Bridge) my dog just stopped and was looking down at the creek. After I tripped over him and got mad, I looked down at the creek below with the leaves beginning to change and remembered how beautiful that view can be.

The second reminder began with my bicycle getting a flat tire by McDonalds on the way home from work. As I was pushing the (censored) bicycle across the Veterans (Fifth Street) Bridge, fifteen feet in front of me a bald eagle came up over the deck and flew across the bridge ten feet above the road and back down to the creek on the other side. I watched as this majestic bird floated along following the creek without flapping his spread wings once. This eagle was not as big as the one people often see over Giant Eagle but it was still a stunning bird with the sun gleaming off the brilliant white head. Had I not gotten the flat tire, I would have missed the opportunity to see this (I would have saved $30 but would have missed the grandeur).

One of the most commented on posts on the web site is about sled riding memories. This picture would be looking over the town from the upper end of North Street which is a part of the sled riding memories of many. Ernie who gave me the picture just thought that those who rode down that great hill during those years so fondly remembered would enjoy sitting back and enjoying the view.

Dave Larson took the time to write up a very nice article on the Bell Telephone Company’s office in Ellwood City and I set it aside to make sure to use it. Unfortunetly, it got mixed in the shuffle and I never used it, until now.

  Located on 5th Street, The Bell Telephone Company’s office in Ellwood City was relatively new during school year 1958-59. I remember it then, as I passed by it on weekdays walking to and from 7th grade at Hartmann Elementary School. The previous telephone office, as I recall my dad pointing out to me, was the brick building located on the corner of 5th Street across from Lincoln High School and up the hill from the public library.

My father, L. Norman Larson, worked at the new 5th St. office since it was first opened. His job was to maintain the wired switching systems. Bill Lemon from Hazel Avenue lived next door to us and worked there, as did Keith Beecham. These men were telephone men, “inside men” who brought a black lunch pail and Thermos with coffee to work. They alternated shifts 8 to 4 and 4 to 12 with someone “on call” for nights and weekends.

The equipment housed in the concrete building was “state of the art.” The office was managed by Frank Potter who lived on Line Avenue, near Pinky James’ Gulf service station. My cousin Jimmy Aubel from Ellport worked as a telephone installer as did Alex Warren from the North Side. Installers worked out of the facility on Bridge Street where the handsets and service trucks were located. The 5th St. office was the “switching station” where parties were connected automatically without the use of a telephone Operator.   

My dad had joined the Western Electric equipment division of the Bell Telephone system in Pittsburgh in 1935, and married an Operator…my mother Elizabeth Larson…before transferring to “Ma Bell’s” Ellwood City office sometime before World War II. He retired out of the Pittsburgh service office in 1976 as a maintenance station supervisor.

Those were simpler times. I have an ice pick from the Ellwood City Ice Co as evidence. The phone numbers printed on the handle are 314 for their Ellwood City facility and 187 for Zelienople. These would have been numbers you gave to an Operator to connect you. Dial phones allowed you to connect direct, unless you were calling “long distance.” Then you needed to dial “O” for an Operator. She could also give you someone’s number…for free.

In the early 1950′s we had a party line. Pick up the phone and if you heard another voice other than a family member talking, it was the other “party” sharing the line. Protocol was to check back later for a dial tone, then make your call. If someone would pick up on the line while you were using it, you would say “working” to announce the line was in use and politely signal the other party to hang up. No one accused anyone of “listening in” as the use of the phone was still considered a luxury, a convenience, a privilege…not a right.

I remember being with my dad walking in town while shopping and frequently people would pass by and say “hello, Red.” My dad had had a full head of red hair when he was younger that got him that nickname. I asked why so many people recognized him, and he answered “because I installed their telephone.” My father went on to explain that during World War II he was exempt from the military as a telephone man, and if you could get new phone service, he would be the one to install the handset for you. We lived out by the country club in 1951. I remember then my dad drove an olive drab telephone service truck, a pick-up truck with parts and tool compartments in the back instead of a hauling bed.

The door to the 5th St. office on the street level was metal. Step inside, and if you went down a flight of stairs, you were in the room where the diesel powered generators were located. They kept power to the switching system in case of an emergency. Go up the flight of stairs and there was a foyer with a lunch table near the window facing 5th Street. During the warm months that window would be open, and the men took turns sitting on the window sill sunning themselves after lunch.  Suffice it to say there was plenty of security in that metal-door, concrete building. I knew my dad was inside. America was at work.

Times have changed. There is no “Bell System” anymore, no Telephone Pioneers organization for the old timers, no $25 dollar awards for good suggestions, and small chance you could find a job you could keep for 41 years. Instead of a black hand set or a beige one, those were the two choices, you now can carry your phone in your pocket. Ask “where’s the pay phone” and you won’t get an answer. Look for the phone booth, and it’s gone. Those were the days when calls were “private.” Conversations took longer, because there was another person involved instead of a machine talking back to you, letting you know “your call is important.” Nicer times. I miss them and Ellwood City.

Thank you to Mr. Ernie Young for submitting this picture of the Ellwood City’s 1961 Junior High football team receiving their Championship trophy. The team went undefeated in a season that included games against perennial powerhouses with a much larger enrollment pool to choose from such as New Castle, Butler, and Ambridge. The team finished that memorable season 5-0 and allowed just twenty one points all season.

      Team members accepting the trophy that is sitting in the Lincoln High School trophy case is from left to right: Albert Agostinelli (believe the small trophy Al is holding was for the “Best Linemen” award), Lenny Carinci, Gerald Catarcio, Tom Badger, Louis Esposito, Fred McAnallan, Harry Wirth, Terry Markus.

“Being undefeated at any level of sport is something that you can carry with you the rest of your life”

Longtime Ellwood City Memories supporter Bob Mallary asked Ernie Young what he knew about Chuck Landolfi as Mr. Mallary had moved from the area prior to Mr. Landolfi’s playing career blossomed. I have wanted to make a post about #48 for a while but only had small little tidbits of information. This morning, I got onto the website and seen a lengthy comment from Mr. Young and after seeing the topic, I want to thank him for keeping it relatively short as I am sure he could have written page after page. Who better to write the post than his good friend of sixty years…

    “I believe Charlie (Landolfi) was the first football player at Ellwood to have his number retired (at the end of the 1964 season). At Lincoln he gain around 2300 yards. He would’ve had more but didn’t play offense except for the last two games our sophomore year. He was a third team All-State pick our senior year. He was a first team pick by the WPIAL. He was also picked to play in the Big 33 Game when it was still played against a Big 33 Team from Texas. Believe me, there were other accolades that I can’t remember (including leading the WPIAL in points his senior year with 78 points).

    He then was recruited by several Division one colleges like Miami, Kentucky, West Point, and Penn State to name a few. He finally settled on Notre Dame where he was really doing well until he broke his leg, very badly during his sophomore year. He just never bounced back from that. He lost his ability to run in the open field, but he scored a lot of points from inside the twenty, because he never lost his power running ability. During his time at ND he became the Notre Dame Heavy Weight Boxing Champion. I believe he got that ability from his Mom’s side of the family.

He was not drafted, but signed a free agent contract with The Chicago Bears but didn’t last. In my opinion, his leg and the fact, at that level, football was no longer fun for him caused his departure. He went on to teach and coach in high school and even played on some semi-pro teams in the area. Later he got involved in the computer business.

     There’s a funny boxing story told when we’re altogether. All meaning, a lot of the guys we played ball with at Lincoln. There are about twelve of us who are still very close friends after all these years. Back to the story; Al Agostinelli wanted Charlie to get in the ring with some guy from Youngstown. That never happened for one reason or another, but later it was learned, when the guy became a contender for the heavy weight crown, he was Ernie Shavers. We laugh each time that story is told and Charlie always says the same thing, “Beno (Al’s nickname) wanted to get me killed”…!!!

    A personal note of Charlie, as I wrote earlier he was a load to bring down. He was strong and could turn on the after burners when he was loose in the open field in high school. He would tell me, the after burners would kick in when the fear of being caught from behind would take him over. I tell people all the time, when the subject comes up, I was glad that I was on his team and didn’t have to play against him. Even at practice I was never on the other side of the line and thankful for that also. Offensive practice I was blocking for him and when defensive practice was called we were on the same unit. Believe me, I was glad with the position I was in.

      Charlie has been my friend for sixty of my sixty-five years. He has been loyal and true. That is something my Mom saw in him early on in our friendship, and she was right. His friendship is one I treasure.

    The above photograph as it appeared in the Ellwood City Ledger was taken after Ellwood City’s first touchdown against Midland in 1935. The extra point was the first of three that Saturday afternoon as Ellwood City blanked Midland 21-0. As a result of the win at Lincoln Field, Ellwood City improved their record to 5-1 on their way to the Beaver County football championship compiling an overall record of 8-1-1.

I am guessing the large wooden structure at the corner of the end zone was where the band sat during the games(?). As this was the first of three touchdowns on the day, I have to ask, if this is where the band sat, where is the band? Seating was at a premium as you can tell from the folks standing outside the fence (two to three deep at spots) and those sitting on the roof of First Christian Church. Maybe it was close to halftime and they are warming up the instruments.

On a side note, it is odd to see so few trees along Summit Avenue at the top of the picture.