Alumni Games Were Lots Of Fun
December 05, 1991|by RUDY BEDNAR, The Morning Call

EXCERPTS:

--The Coaldale alumni reunited former cheerleaders as well for their games and staged a dinner dance following the 1976 game.

--Often referred to as the "Over-The-Hill-Gang," these teams were made up of players of all ages and from every walk of life.

The Rev. Williams Edwards quarterbacked the Coaldale team in the 1976 game and was sacked seven times by the likes of Tamaqua's George Barron (6-4, 299) and Mike Hromyak (6-2, 270).

The Tigers' 1963 grad, who seemed to be running for his life on every call, did connect on a 60-yard scoring pass that won the game to Pete Radocha who, only a couple of weeks before, had completed one of the most illustrious careers at East Stroudsburg University.

After the game, the Rev. Edwards and Barron walked off the field with their arms around one another, extolling each other's performances. "Boy, you guys put a lot of pressure on me," I recall the UCC pastor saying. "Yeah, but we let one get away," Barron replied.

One of the oldest players to suit up for one of these games was Bill Dye, 41, a guard from Nesquehoning and a 21-year Air force veteran who played on the 1980 Coaldale team, and also Bill Bonner, a 1946 Tamaqua High graduate who was a defensive back for the 1975 alumni Raiders.

FULL ARTICLE:

Whether you like or dislike this year's NFL rule eliminating end zone hijinks, be assured that it is nothing new.

Back in 1975 when Alumni football attractions were popular throughout the Carbon County-Panther Valley area, a few changes were made in the basic PIAA rules for some of the games including waiver of the so-called "hot dog" or "spiking the ball" rule.

The mouthpiece requirement rule also was waived and blitzing was not allowed. Defenses were limited to a 5-3 or a 6-2 outside the 10-yard line; otherwise all other high school rules were in force.

The games were great. Long time rivalries were revived between Coaldale and Tamaqua, Palmerton and Slatington and Lehighton and Jim Thorpe, much to the delight of the area's avid grid fans. The above rule changes applied mainly to the Coaldale-Tamaqua series.

Actually, the Lehighton-Jim Thorpe alumni games pre-dated most of the others. The Lehighton and Mauch Chunk Bear Mountain Lions clubs combined to establish the series to raise funds for their charitable endeavors.

Charlie Gernerd's Lehighton forces won the first game in 1949 by a 9-6 score which paved the way for a home-and-away series the following year.

But, the games I remember best were played in the 1970s to 1980.

Lehighton staged its own alumni game in 1974 when members of the great LHS 1964 team were matched against the 1967-69 grads. Mike Ebbert and Gordon Ripkey directed the '64 squad while Jim Wentz and Rollie Alger coached the opposition.

Some 2,500 people were on hand for the game, the proceeds of which were used to help buy a new scoreboard for the field.

The 1964 team fell behind 13-6 at half but used some of the same stuff that produced the school's best record (9-1) a decade before to rally for a 20-13 win.

Jake Boyer ran for one touchdown and, after missing a 31-yard field goal, passed to Bruce Garrett for another TD. Quarterback Dave Werner sneaked in for the winning score and Boyer added the extra points.

Terry Woginrich passed to Terry Fisher for two touchdowns in a losing cause. On the third last play of the game, '64 linebacker Gary Schoenberger got to the scrambling Woginrich in a fierce tackle that sent both to the hospital.

Boyer ran for a 61-yard touchdown and returned the second half kickoff 85 yards for another tally the following year under the lights as the Maroons defeated the White team 20-16.

Described as the best player pound-for-pound ever produced at Lehighton High, the diminutive Boyer helped Lehighton defeat Jim Thorpe 26-2 in an 1976 alumni game between the two neighboring communities. It was the first meeting since their high school rivalry ended in 1964.

Dave Long passed 40 yards to Terry Fisher for one Lehighton TD and Joe Armbruster, showing the speed he had used that summer in scoring seven touchdowns in the Carbon Men's Flag Football League, raced 63 yards with an interception for another big-play score.

By then the Tamaqua-Coaldale Thanksgiving Day series had begun. A crowd of nearly 4,000 saw Tamaqua defeat Coaldale 22-14 in a sea of mud in 1975 in Lansford stadium as the 30-year schoolboy rivalry which ended in 1951 was revived.

Joe Bubon scored on a 75-yard interception to give Coaldale an early lead but Harry Wallaesa rallied the Blue Raiders with a pair of touchdown passes in the second half.

The Tigers evened things with a 7-0 win in Tamaqua the following year, but it was all Blue Raiders after that. They won 20-0 in 1977 even though Coaldale added players from the Panther Valley school district area.

There was no game in 1978 but the series restarted in 1979 at Lansford with another shutout (23-0) win for the Tams as Roy Fredericks ran and passed for a couple of scores. Then at Tamaqua in 1980, Duane Barron returned a second half kickoff 85 yards for a score to spark a 23-6 triumph.

Quarterback Kevin Weaver crashed into the end zone on a keeper for the Tigers' lone tally.

Palmerton and Slatington hooked up for four alumni games on Thanksgiving mornings from 1977 to 1980. The Bulldogs won them all, which was somewhat different from the traditional 41-year-old rivalry between the communities' two schools which Palmerton had dominated before the game was moved to the Saturday before the holiday.

At any rate, Steve Hluschak, mainstay of the Bulldogs' 1975 championship team, threw two touchdown passes and set up a third in a 24-12 win. Palmerton had scored first on a pass from Rory Koons to Mike Steigerwalt.

It was closer in 1978 at Palmerton, when John Overdorf tossed 19 yards to Larry Parry in the end zone two minutes into the game, then scored on a plunge and added the two-point PAT on a run for a 14-0 Slatington lead.

The Blue Bombers charged back as Roger Christman passed to Mike Steigerwalt and then Jeff Sanders for scores but a failed PAT try was the difference.

The game was played in Palmerton again in 1979 because construction had begun on the Bulldogs' new field. A defensive battle was waged as Slatington went on to win 8-0.

Rising cost began to take its toll, not only on this series but the others as well.

The last game in Palmerton (1980) was won by Slatington 15-6. The Bulldogs' Bob Andrews intercepted a Steve Wisocky pass on the first play of the game at the Palmerton 40 and made it to the 1.

Two plays later, Jeff Frantz bolted off tackle for the TD and Bob Ziegenfus tallied the PAT to give Slatington all the points it would need that morning.

But, on the ensuing kickoff, Phil McGarry zoomed 85 yards for Palmerton's only tally. Wisocky suffered a torn liganment for the only serious injury in the game.

This was always a concern among the alumni players. After all, many of these men had not played since their high school days. One year, the Coaldale players took out individual insurance policies which would pay any and all medical expenses plus a monthly benefit because the year before one of the Tigers was injured during practice and missed 12 weeks of work.

Often referred to as the "Over-The-Hill-Gang," these teams were made up of players of all ages and from every walk of life.

The Rev. Williams Edwards quarterbacked the Coaldale team in the 1976 game and was sacked seven times by the likes of Tamaqua's George Barron (6-4, 299) and Mike Hromyak (6-2, 270).

The Tigers' 1963 grad, who seemed to be running for his life on every call, did connect on a 60-yard scoring pass that won the game to Pete Radocha who, only a couple of weeks before, had completed one of the most illustrious careers at East Stroudsburg University.

After the game, the Rev. Edwards and Barron walked off the field with their arms around one another, extolling each other's performances. "Boy, you guys put a lot of pressure on me," I recall the UCC pastor saying. "Yeah, but we let one get away," Barron replied.

One of the oldest players to suit up for one of these games was Bill Dye, 41, a guard from Nesquehoning and a 21-year Air force veteran who played on the 1980 Coaldale team, and also Bill Bonner, a 1946 Tamaqua High graduate who was a defensive back for the 1975 alumni Raiders.

There were lots of huge players as well. The most gargantuan of all probably was Jim Thorpe's Duane Billig who tipped the scales at 360, which was 20 pounds less that when practice started for the 1976 game.

The games were taken seriously. I recall Larry Southam came from Tennessee to play in the 1977 game for Tamaqua. Doug Shiner who scored two touchdowns in less than a minute in the first quarter when Palmerton beat Slatington 25-0 back in 1948 when he was a freshman as he went on to one of the great athletic careers in football and track at PHS, came back but this time to coach the Slatington High alumni against his alma mater.

The Coaldale alumni reunited former cheerleaders as well for their games and staged a dinner dance following the 1976 game.

The rekindling rivalries of yesteryear and the presence of some of the area's truely legendary players are what made these alumni games such great fun.

Source: http://articles.mcall.com/1991-12-05/sports/2823634_1_alumni-game-terry-fisher-rule