Bill EDWARDS' BIOGRAPHY

Continually for over half a century, Bill Edwards has made significant and positive contributions to the sports community as an athlete, coach and trainer.

As the cool and confident quarterback and leader of the 1961 and 1962 Coaldale High School Tigers football teams, Bill led the Tigers to a total of 18 victories, culminating in 1962 with an undefeated (11-0) season.

Enlisting in the Army in 1968, Bill received the highest physical training award in the battalion, having been the only one to "max" the PT test, and upon graduation was awarded The American Honor Spirit Medal by the Joint Committee of the Armed Forces, for his "excellence in leadership and example to comrades in arms."

After returning in 1970 from a tour as a platoon sergeant and recon team leader in Vietnam, he quarterbacked the U.S. Army's Ft. Carson, Colorado, "Mountaineers" to an undefeated season and the Fifth Army Championship.

At Coaldale High, he excelled in the three varsity sports available; football, basketball and track and field. At Division III Philadelphia College of Bible (now Caryn University) he played both soccer and basketball.

As a head football coach and offensive coordinator, his overall coaching record is 49 wins and seven losses.

After earning his coaching certification at Penn State in 1977, he began his coaching career at Everett Area (PA) High School as Assistant Coach (Offense) for the football team and Pole Vault Coach for the track team.

While Head Football Coach, Head Boys Basketball Coach, Bible History teacher and Health/Phys Ed Teacher at Riverdale (MD) Baptist School in 1984, he devised and implemented the school’s first weight-training program. Within two years, he led the football team to just one game short of the conference championship game. In way of trivia, Bill coached in the second longest interscholastic basketball game ever played. The game went nine overtimes, and was featured in USA Today.

He founded and directed (for 13 years) the Bedford County (PA) Youth Achievement Association and Summit Quest Fitness and Human Performance Center, and developed athletes, some of whom went on to play Division I football and Arena Football.

Summit Quest Fitness and Human Performance center was founded in 1991, and continues to meet the training needs of athletes and others today.

He founded and directed the Summit Quest (PA) All-Star Basketball Classic which, over a 12-year period, showcased the basketball skills of over 550 male and female athletes.

During the 1980’s and ‘90’s, he became the “voice” of Bedford County sports broadcasting for high school football, basketball, and wrestling on radio station WAYC in Bedford, PA.

Over the past seven years, Bill has served both as trainer and strength coach at Penn State DuBois, and Director of Human Performance for P&G Physical Therapy. During that time Bill has worked with athletes of all ages from junior high football players to professional baseball players, and everyone in between.

Bill has been blessed to have been mentored by some of the best strength coaches in the National Football League (NFL): Dan Riley of the Washington Redskins, Kim Wood of the Cincinnati Bengals, Mark Asanovich of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Jeff Friday of the Baltimore Ravens.

Presently, Bill is a full-time Pastor and also serves as Strength-Conditioning Coach for Brockway High School football. In addition, he uses his recent certification as a Medical Exercise Specialist to help older folks obtain and maintain a better quality of life as well.

BILL "ANGEL" DONOVAN'S BIOGRAPHY

Bill "Angel" Donovan is a 1963 graduate of Marian Catholic High School where he played and excelled in four sports.....football, basketball, baseball and track.

He was coached by the legendary Wink Gallagher in all these sports. Wink was his mentor and role model.

In football, Bill played QB, HB, MLB, S, Kicker and Punter, Punt Returner and Kick Returner, and he usually played all those positions during some point in each game. He was the first "triple threat" (one who can run, pass and kick) at Marian.

In 1960, Bill, as a sophomore, quarterbacked the Marian team that beat Nativity which many agree was the game that started Marian's future good fortune in football. Also in 1960 Bill quarterbacked the team that beat McAdoo by passing 9 for 9; a record that can be tied but not ever beaten. As a senior Bill quarterbacked the team that beat Lansford, and Marian went on to post a 6-3 record which was Marian’s best since the beginning of the school in 1954 .

Bill was named to the All State team (Hon Mention) and honored as Back of the Year for the Anthracite Catholic League. He was named to the All Panther Valley team and the All Anthracite Catholic team and participated in the All Star Dream Game. All that paled for him in comparison to the fun and joy of playing with some of the heartiest and toughest guys in the Valley. Marian's line averaged 145 lbs but they played teams that exceeded 200 lbs'.and won through sheer courage and loyalty to each other.

As a four year basketball player Bill was center on the team and was selected to the post season All Star Game. Baseball saw Bill as a solid hitter and catcher and in Track he ran the dashes and also threw the shot put and high jumped.

His most relished achievement was being named Marian's Scholar Athlete.

Bill received a four year scholarship to play football at Boston College and graduated from there in 1967. Bill was a fullback at BC and a sometimes kicker. He played in some well regarded rivalries such as Miami, Syracuse, Army and Navy, and against some top future NFL players such as Larry Czonka, Floyd Little, Ted Hendricks and the like. As a senior at BC he was awarded the Supple Trophy for being the player who contributed the most to the team in proportion to his natural talent. Ironically his daughter, Aileen, won the same award her senior year from the Loyola University Basketball team.

After graduating from Boston College and before reporting for duty with the Marine Corps, he was asked to join the farm club of the Philadelphia Eagles and played a short time for the Wilmington Clippers.

Bill was a captain in the Marine Corps and served for four years from 1968 to 1972 during the Viet Nam conflict. He was a RIO flying in the F4 Phantom Fighter Jet. During a tour in Japan he was the Player/Coach of the Squadron Football team that went undefeated in the league.

Bill coached Little League Softball and Teener League Softball in New Jersey. With his daughters on the team, they too remained undefeated.

Bill worked for Fortune 500 Companies before starting his own company supplying the Middle East with machinery and spare parts for the oil fields. Presently he is affiliated with a Mergers and Acquisitions company in New York.

Bill was a Volunteer Fireman in NJ and is now active with the Tamaqua Rotary and Meals on Wheels. He is a published author of a novel and writes screenplays.

Bill is married to the former Maureen Yorke of Tamaqua and they have two married daughters: Lynn Donovan Milligan( Patrick Milligan) and Aileen Donovan Collender ( Jason Collender) and two grandchildren Lucas and Jamie Lynn Collender.

After excelling for many years in multiple sports Bill Donovan feels that truly his biggest contribution to Sport is his two daughters. Both played Division One College basketball and Lynn is a Division One Head Coach for Rider University Women's Basketball. Aileen has two children who are already excelling at the beginning stages of athletic careers under watchful eyes.

VINCE GILDEA'S BIOGRAPHY

Vince Gildea (1895-1970) and his brother James H. (Casey) Gildea (who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1998) were pioneer sports organizers and promoters in Coaldale and the Panther Valley. Of the two, Vince was the athlete and Casey was the manager, the brains behind the Coaldale Big Greens football team that played and flourished from the early-teens into the mid-twenties.

The Big Greens were unique among professional teams in the Anthracite League in that the Gildea brothers believed that homegrown talent was superior to players imported from outside the coal region. On Johnny Mitchell Day in 1924 when Coaldale scored a 9-3 win over Gilberton, a team featuring former Brown All-American Fritz Pollard, Vince played quarterback and with the win secured, Casey, according to the Shenandoah Herald, leaped in the air and shouted, "I told you home talent could do it."

Gilberton, Pottsville, and Shenandoah, Anthracite League foes of Coaldale, all used imported ex-college players. ="The sky was the limit as the league went out to sign up the country's best," Jim Gildea noted. 'They did." Regardless, from 1921 through 1923, the Big Greens reigned as the Anthracite League champions. A team photo and two trophies are displayed in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton.

The Coaldale team won the 1923 championship when Vince drop kicked a field goal in the last minute to give the Big Greens a 10-7 win over the Pottsville Maroons. In 1919, following Vince's service in the Navy during World War I, he was described in a Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger story written by Robert W. (Tiny) Maxwell, a former Swarthmore player after whom the Maxwell Award is named, as "a high-class player who uses excellent judgment in selecting his plays. He is also a good drop kicker and is very dangerous inside the 25-yard line."

Even while he was quarterbacking the Big Greens, Vince, who was a firm believer in Catholic school education, started and coached the Coaldale St. Mary's High School football team that lost just one game in the 1924 and 1925 seasons. Gordon MacKay, writing in the Philadelphia Record, noted that just thirty-five boys were enrolled in the school and twenty-seven came out for football. "In three seasons since football was established up in Coaldale, St. Mary's High has figured as a wonder team. Vince took these 27 gladiators and molded them into a team that Coaldale claims is the peer of any in the section."

In 1925, St. Mary's counted among its triumphs wins over Summit Hill, 12-0; St. Clair, 34-13; and Mauch Chunk by an eye-popping 88-0. By way of comparative scores, St. Mary's beat Lansford that season, 29-0. Allentown beat Lansford, 18-0. The Harps, as the team was known, outscored their 1925 opponents 328 to 73. Vince also coached the basketball team, and he started and coached the girls’ basketball team. In addition, he and his brother were organizing and promoting professional boxing matches in Tamaqua and Pottsville.

Following World War II, Vince became the founding father and first coach of the Panther Valley Catholic High School football team, a forerunner of Marian High and a team that drew players from St. Mary's High, St. Ann's in Lansford, and St. Jerome's in Tamaqua. Vince was also an organizer and long-time league secretary for the Anthracite Catholic League in basketball.
(Navy photos of Vince Gileas submitted by Bill Scutta.)