This site is about the sports doings -- mainly football -- of the high schools in Venango County, Pa. Contact:
Oil City...Clairton...Clairton...Oil City: there's a connection here
The 1940s were not kind to Oil City High School football fortunes, the decade ushering a 50-year plight into gridiron wilderness.
From 1940-93, the Oilers posted a 142-321-21 record with six winless seasons and losing streaks of 24, 18, 17 and 14 games.
This was after starting out OK; they were 147-112-29 from 1896-39.
I realize what’s done is done; what’s in the past is in the past. But there is one interesting little nugget about the ordeal that has come to light that you might not know.
Oil City is about to play Aliquippa, which owns a record 21 WPIAL championships. Next is Clairton with 15 crowns. And believe it or not there is a connection between Oil City and Clairton and then back from Clairton to Oil City.
The Oilers were coached from 1922-25 by George Woodman, former center at Colgate. Woodman wasn’t fantastic at Oil City. He had one great season, 8-0-3 in 1924, and three losers, but it added up to a 19-15-6 record. That’s when he left for Clairton where he was the architect of the Cobras’ dynasty. Their first WPIAL title came in 1929 under his tutelage, and others would follow before Woodman would leave coaching to become a school administrator.
One of those who followed him as coach at Clairton was one George Hartman. And wouldn’t you know? Hartman eventually was named Oil City’s football coach. He was at the Oiler helm in 1946 and 1947.
Hartman came to Oil City at age 50 with an overall record of 143-28-13 in 20 seasons. He coached in Ohio and West Virginia before arriving at Clairton in 1939. He coached the Bears (yes, there was a nickname change) for seven years, compiling at 49-15-4 record with at least one of their WPIAL titles.
But his last season was a dud, at least by Clairton standards – a pearl-clutching 4-4. “(The) pressure was getting entirely too tough,” he reportedly said.
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In the meantime, Joe Szafran, then sports editor of the now defunct Oil City Blizzard and an Oiler grid star in the early 1930s, questioned at the time of the Hartman hire why Woodman left Oil City to begin with.
Why...why...why?
“One of the mystifying questions ever to hound Oil City sports fans is just why George Woodman…was allowed to leave his post with the local schools,” Szafran began in his March 23, 1946, column “Scanning the Field.”
Woodman was only 3-4 in his first season at Clairton, but in the next five years lost only one game. The Bears were 27-0-1 from 1927 into the 1930 campaign when Duquesne beat them, 7-0. Before calling it a day coaching and getting into school administrating, also at Clairton, Woodman compiled a 46-1-2 record.
Szafran closed his column with this: “From those who claim to have the inside ‘dope,’ Woodman left here when he learned the local school board was planning to fire him from his post as Oil City coach.”
To that Szafran concluded his column with, “Hmmmmmm.”
Meanwhile Hartman was no ball of fire at Oil City. The Oilers were 2-5-2 in 1946 and 1-7-1 in 1947.
Hartman resigned his posts at Oil City in early 1948 apparently because of ill health. He also served as athletic director, was the school’s first wrestling coach and was supposed to start a swimming team when he got here.
And in comes the venerable John O. Kaufman
A month later, the school board hired former football/track star John O. Kaufman, then 30 years old, not only to serve as the Oilers’ ninth paid football coach, but supervisor of all athletics in the Oil City school district, director of physical education and track coach. He later would become the high school’s venerable principal. If ever there was a person you would call "Sir," it was him. And that's my interesting little nugget.
George Woodman, top row left, with the Clairton Bears, WPIAL champs in 1931.
The Oilers were 8-0-3 under George Woodman in 1924, and featured Ray Vaughn (second row right) who went on to star at Colgate, Woodman's alma mater.
George Hartman's 1946 Oilers. The big guy (No. 97) is Francis "Blotto" Womer, who played right tackle and handled kickoffs. The team averaged 157 pounds; Womer tipped the scales at 225.
George Woodman, top row left, with the Clairton Bears, WPIAL champs in 1931.