Unearthing the Legends: Forgotten Football Heroes of NEPA

A Matter of Principal Podcast

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Hello, everybody. Stay tuned for another special Football Friday episode of A Matter of Principle.

Music.

Hello, everyone. My name is Vito Qualia, and this is A Matter of Principle. Today, our guest is Matt Bufano, someone who I've known for a long time in the sports world. When I was coaching back in the day, Matt was someone I talked to a lot. He was a sports reporter at that time and did a tremendous job covering local sports.

You know, this was a few years ago. So currently, he's working at Wyoming Seminary where his primary duties at this time are in athletics, communications, and photography. He also advises students in sports careers and yearbook clubs and is an assistant softball coach. Previously, he was a sports writer at the Citizen's Voice, and he hosted a local podcast of his own about NEPA sports stories. And he interviewed numerous local sports figures.

And we're going to talk about some of that currently in this podcast. So, you know, without further ado, let's welcome Matt Bufano to the podcast. Welcome, Matt.

Thank you very much, Vito. Appreciate the introduction.

Well, yeah, like I said, you know, you have a history in being someone who's covered local sports. And right now, something that you're doing currently, you're compiling this list of football players from Northeastern Pennsylvania and from the recent history and actually, you know, going way back to almost 100 years ago or more. And I thought it was really, really cool. Some of the names that you were bringing up are, you know, some names I recognize naturally and some I had no clue who these fellas were. So I wanted to get you on here so we could talk a little bit. You know, I'm a big local history buff, but also, you know, naturally a football fan myself. And I just wanted to hear some of the stories about, you know, some of these people that you've researched.

So are you up to it?

Oh my God, I'm glad that you care about it. Sometimes it can feel like you're shouting into the void when you get lost down these newspaper.com rabbit holes that people probably haven't read these news clippings in decades. Sometimes, like you said, over 100 years ago. But man, when I discover a person, a game, an event... That I find interesting. I just want to know everything about it. I know that we're going to talk football, but like one of the recent ones, a good recent, I haven't even shared this one on Twitter, and I think you'll appreciate this, is Christy Mathewson, right? Hall of Fame baseball pitcher. He learned his famous screwball pitch from a guy named Dave Williams when they were playing for, I think, a Honesdale semi-pro baseball team. Dave Williams had a cup of coffee in the majors, Christy Mathewson, obviously had a legendary career. And this Dave Williams guy, he's buried in Dunmore Cemetery up in Lackawanna County. And I think he's largely forgotten about by basically everybody except hardcore Christy Mathewson scholars. And, you know, so when I find a guy like that, or some of the ones that I'm sure we'll talk about today, man, I just want to remember them, give them their proper due, introduce them to new people. I mean, they're being introduced to me, so I feel like, you know, I wouldn't say it's an obligation, but it's a privilege to be able to share their stories with a new generation.

Absolutely. And, you know, currently, you know, with people who are playing, you know, sports, athletes today, you know, they have the advantage of, you know, social media and information being pumped out everywhere, you know, immediately when someone comes up or, you know, makes a pro team, makes a roster, or their bio and pictures from their past and their Instagram, their TikTok. All that stuff is out there right now. So fans get to really understand their stories, not just maybe their current college or high school careers, but they find out who their family is and everything else in a blink. Where, like you said, some of these people that have played previously didn't have that advantage, and their stories are buried. Just like they're buried in these local cemeteries. Some of the great things they accomplished. And even some of the cool things that you talk about are not just the athletic accomplishments, but then the accomplishments that they made outside of sports, you know, after they were done with their playing days and whatnot. So they're really cool things. And like I said, I completely share that, you know, it's a privilege to talk about some of these people and to share their stories with anybody who wants to listen. So, again, who knows if there's two people listening to us or, you know, 2,200 people listening to us, but, you know, they're going to get some of these cool stories.

So, you know, there's one thing we're going to, I'm going to find this and we're going to have another podcast about this, but there is a paper that I found. Decades ago when I was in college at Wilkes and it was actually, I was at King's college researching something and I found some 20 page paper that someone had written who was an LCC student and it had to do with local high school football. And, and I took it, it was, it was in the reference section somewhere. And I took it, I photocopied the whole thing and I have it somewhere in a manila folder somewhere in my house because you know, I'm a pack rat and I have, It's probably not labeled correctly, but whoever did this 30 or 40 years ago, you know, talked about all the, like the immense popularity of high school football and NEPA and, you know, how, you know, back in the day before all the jointures, you know, you had your Kingston High School and all the other regional high schools and they, you know, when they would play their Thanksgiving games, you know, 8,000 to 10,000 people would show up and, you know, the whole story of a lot of the local players that, you know, escaped the coal mines by, you know, getting involved in sports and things like that. So I will find that, Matthew. I will find that and we will discuss it. I'll give credit to whoever wrote it. But again, that was something that sparked an interest in me because I was a college kid when I picked that up. And I'm like, wow, there's so much more to these athletes from NEPA that I even know. So that's kind of where all this stuff is coming from.

So without me rambling on forever, let's jump to some of these fellas that you talked about. Now, the first one I'm going to mention is someone who I'd never heard of before, before I read it on your Twitter. And this is, I think it's McKay, George McKay, M-C-C-A-A. Am I saying that right? Or is it McCaw? How do you say that?

McCaw, yeah. I've been saying McCaw, M-C-C-A-A. I don't think anyone's going to correct us.

No, probably not. But whatever it is, McKay or McCaw, the important thing is we're remembering him, right?

Sure. So tell me a little bit about him and tell the listeners about him.

Well, what I think is interesting about him, so he went to Lafayette and he held the NCAA record. He might actually still hold the NCAA record for a 110-yard run from scrimmage in 1909, maybe. 110 yards run from scrimmage. Now the field is only 100 yards. That changed in 1912. So I think he still holds that record, whether it's recognized or not. But George McCaughy was a two-time All-American at Lafayette and very well thought of. He was, man, I think he was a Wilkes-Barre area graduate. I mean, he was a Wilkes-Barre native. I know that. And then he went on to live in Pittsburgh in his later years. But he was an All-American, halfback, and fullback at Lafayette. And he was basically considered the George Gipp of Lafayette. People know what George Gipp is to Notre Dame. That is what people thought of him at Lafayette. And he was an All-American, a two-time All-American. And he does not own the distinction of being the first All-American. We'll probably talk about some of those guys, the original. But certainly one of the premier players of his days. Again, Wilkes-Barre High School, Wilkes-Barre Public Schools, and graduated from Lafayette in 1910. And, yeah, just an outstanding football player of his time. And, again, we're talking about, say, 1910. You realize, wow, that's more than 100 years ago that we're talking about these guys. And some of the records and some of the stories, you know, that are going to be attributed to them are things that, you know, people aren't going to be able to replicate. Like, you know, the listeners will find out by, you know, the way you explain some of these things.

Now, how about, well, here's someone who's, you know, closer to where you work currently at Seminary, but Jim Royer. Tell us a little bit about Jim Royer.

I love this one. I love this one because as you said earlier, I advise a club at Wyoming Seminary called the Sports Careers Club. And sort of the aim of the club, we have a lot of different goals, but one of them is to educate students that sports is big business and you don't have to be a player. You don't necessarily have to be a coach to live your whole life in sports. And Jim Royer, so I'm kind of getting ahead of myself, but to kind of set it up, he graduated from Wyoming Seminary in the 1950s at a time when Wyoming Seminary had an arrangement with Navy, and Navy sent a lot of its promising high school football players to prep at Wyoming Seminary for a year or two, get their grades up, whatever it was. And that arrangement was actually terminated while Jim Royer was in school in the 1950s. But he played for a Navy team, Jim Royer did, with Lon Ron Beagle, who was a Maxwell Award winner at the position of end from Wyoming Seminary. OK, Ron Beagle, Wyoming Seminary grad. We got Jim Royer. He was a lineman. He was the biggest player on Navy at the time, also from Sem. The quarterback was George Welsh, another Wyoming Seminary graduate. George Welsh, listeners, especially if you like college football, might know him. He's a former Virginia coach. And Jim Royer, so that 1954 team, Navy also had Joe Gattuso. Off the top of my head, I'm forgetting exactly where he went to school. I think it was Wyoming Seminary as well. He was the Sugar Bowl MVP. And so this Navy team was like the team of the Wyoming Valley, or at least the Wyoming Seminary.

But what I said about how you could make a career in sports, when Jim Royer graduated from Navy. He knew that he wanted to remain involved in sports, but he didn't quite have the talent to play professionally. So he became a scout. He became a college scout. He eventually became, I want to say, a defensive line coach, worked with a couple NFL teams. And he worked for over 20 years as the director of player personnel for the New York Jets. And he's one of these guys, unfortunately, like so many of the other ones we'll talk about, he died a number of years ago. But man, I would love to sit down and to have had a conversation with him, like just let the recorder go. Because there was one story actually that I think this has a name that everyone recognizes. But when he was an assistant coach with the New Orleans Saints. Bill Belichick actually got stranded in New Orleans. This was reported in a Bill Belichick book at some point. Belichick was out partying with friends, ran out of money, and he called his dad. Belichick called his dad, you know, Dad, do you know anybody in New Orleans? What could I do here? And Belichick's dad called Jim Royer. Jim Royer took Bill Belichick and all his college buddies in the friends you know probably had a nightcap but as the story goes belichick and jim royer stayed up all night talking football and obviously bill belichick goes on to become one of the greatest coaches in the history of the game just hearing a story like that it just kind of gives me goosebumps it's like we gotta we gotta commemorate guys like this

Absolutely. Yeah, that's awesome. That 1950s Navy team, unreal. And, you know, there's so many – there's a bunch of the guys I'm going to bring up that have that seminary connection. So, you know, the first two that we talked about, well, you referenced there, and there's going to be a couple more. But now the next one I'm going to bring up isn't a seminary guy, but a Hazleton guy who I believe came back into the area and coached for a little bit, John Yacino. Am I saying that right? Is it Yacino?

Yeah. Yeah, 1950. 50, basically the same era as Jim Royer.

Now, he was, I believe he came back and coached. Was he coaching at Hazleton after they joined up with the jointure in the last 20 years? Did he come back? I'm not 100% sure.

I believe so. It was in the 1990s he came back to coach. He coached in Western Pennsylvania, and he coached in Texas, and he had a lot of success. You know, reading some of the news clippings by a couple of my friends now in the Hazelton sports media, you know, they covered him coming home. I mean, it was a big homecoming when he came home to coach. I couldn't tell you off the top of my head. Somebody out there is probably screaming at the radio. He was great. You know, I couldn't tell you too much about his coaching career at Hazelton. But, you know, we're talking about, you know, their college glory days, really. And Johnny Sino played at Pitt in the 1960s. And as an individual, I think he was pretty good. He was a defensive back. He was a running back. There was an occasion or two when he was the player of the game for Pitt. But, man, you look at that Pitt schedule. Pitt played a killer schedule. 1961. I'm looking at it right here. 1961, Pitt had three wins, okay? They only won three games at Miami, home against Navy, and home against USC. So they were good enough to beat three darn good programs. So just imagine the losses, you know, Notre Dame, Penn State, at Washington, and so on. But yeah, John Ucino really contributed to a legacy of just outstanding local players who went to Pitt. You know, I'm saying this as a Penn State man. We probably won't even talk too much about Penn State in this episode because a lot of, not all, but a lot of the great Penn State players from the Valley are modern-ish era. Jimmy Cefalo really kicked that thing off. Although, like I said, there are examples of others before then. But man, the great pit coach of the 1920s and 30s, Jock Sutherland, he recognized that the Wyoming Valley was fertile ground for great college football players. He got guys like Joe Scladani out of Larksville High School. He's in the College Football Hall of Fame. Joe Donchus from Wyoming Seminary, he's in the College Football Hall of Fame. Eddie Baker from Nanticoke High School. So you see, he wasn't just recruiting Jock Sutherland. He wasn't just recruiting Wyoming Seminary. He definitely had an in with Wyoming Seminary, but he was recruiting the whole Wyoming Valley. And now John Encino. Kind of came on the back end of all that. Jock Sutherland was not the coach when John Yacino was at Pitt. But, you know, just another extension of that great Pitt legacy in the Wyoming Valley.

Next guy I want to bring up is George, I believe from 44th, if I jotted it down correctly, George Young, who I believe was a 42 graduate of 44th. That's right. Is that right there?

Yep. P.I.A. Heavyweight state champion wrestler. Kessler, man, again, we talk about these newspapers.com rabbit holes. There was this in-depth article, I think it was in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, that was written in the late 1940s or early 1950s, and it had such outstanding detail. It had quotes from him, which was not really something you would see in a lot of articles around that time, but it had quotes from him about his parents dying young, that he and his sister often shared a can of beans for dinner, that he had a throat infection and a thigh injury that basically derailed his football career. And against all odds, the doctors thought that his career was over. He went on to play like seven or eight years in the NFL. And he's forever connected with this guy named Harold Catron, I think that's how you pronounce it. I think the last name is spelled K-A-T-R-O-N. And Harold Catron was the University of Georgia letterman from the early 20th century who worked for the Coca-Cola bottling company. He settled down in Wilkes-Barre and he was, you know, in today's terms, a booster for the University of Georgia. And he helped a lot of great Wyoming Valley guys go to the University of Georgia, including Charlie Trippi, Joe Taraschinski. Those are names that people might know. But George Young, man, what an inspirational story. And let me set the scene for you here. I thought maybe we'd talk about George Young. So I did a little bit of extra research last night. Now, let me set the scene for our listeners here. This is February 27th, 1946. More than 300 people, including the entire Forty Fort High School football team, attends a dinner at the Forty Fort Methodist Church. Like something out of a movie here. You got the school band that's playing miniature gold footballs are handed from adults to these high school players. And the principal speaker is Wallace Butts, who at that time had won Orange and Rose Bowls as head football coach at the University of Georgia. He was on the precipice of winning a national championship at the end of 1946. So this is like February 1946. By the end of the year, he was a national champion. And what brought Butts, Wally Butts, to