This site is about the sports doings -- mainly football -- of the high schools in Venango County, Pa. Contact:
Tales of Two Cities
Oil City
Franklin
Franklin's hired guns of 1903
Har-rumpf: We'll show Oil City...
Front row from left:
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B.D. Sutter (5-4,150) right end;
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Paul Steinberg (5-10,175) left half
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Lynn D. Sweet ( 5-7, 152) center
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Jack Hayden (5-8, 170) quarterback;
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H. A. "Bull" Davidson (5-10, 220, fullback
Second row:
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W. J. McConnell left guard
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Dave Printz manager
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John Lang (5-10, 208) left tackle
Back row:
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Clark A. Schrontz (6-0, 186) left end
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W.P. McNulty (5-11, 203), left tackle
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Arthur L. "Tige" Mc Farland right guard
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Herman Kirkoff (6-4, 242) left guard
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John A. "Teck" Matthews (5-11, 197), right half
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Charles Edgar "Blondy" Wallace (6-0, 240), right tackle
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Chal Brennan left half.
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Bill McConnell later became a mayor of Franklin and Brennan became a street commissioner.
Oil City Olympian and definition of all-around athlete
Screen shot from The Derrick
When Melinda Hale graduated from Oil City High School in 1973, she was just your common, everyday "all-around athlete."
But by the time she graduated from Slippery Rock, she expanded on that tag -- adding team handball to her extensive repertoire -- to the point where she made the United States Olympic team.
A lot has been written about Melinda -- some of it by me -- but I'm going to use a 1996 story by Kay Dannels of the Allied News out of Grove City after she was invited by the Olympic Committee to apply to carry the Olympic torch a portion of its 15,000-mile voyage throughout the United States on its way to Atlanta.
Melinda competed in all varsity sports at OCHS, and she was primarily a basketball player at the Rock, captaining the team her junior and senior years.
She took up team handball in 1974 and that allowed her to tour the world. She made the Olympic team in 1980 and competed in 1984.
She was so versatile in sports that she was head coach of the Kansas State volleyball and lacrosse teams during her very athletic life.
Surprise, surprise, surprise
It was 1976 -- an Olympics year -- so all the "big names" skipped the Boston Marathon to prepare for the Games.
That left the field open for such unheard runners as Franklin's Jack Fultz (who sat in front of me in math class.)
Fultz took advantage and won the thing.
He did try out for the Olympics in May, but came in "20-something" in a race in which "big names" Frank Shorter and Bill Rodgers were 1-2.
Fultz was in the top 10 after the 21st mile, but hit the wall and that was that.
The linked story -- written by your's truly -- appeared on Page 1 of the April 20, 1976, edition of The Derrick.
'Masters of disaster'
'Masters of Disaster' was coined by the late Craig Phillips when writing about the twins for The News-Herald and The Derrick.
Josh Moore (left) and his brother Scott wrestled for Franklin in the late 1990s. Together they racked up 222 wins (Scott missed a season). But they didn't stop there, starring in college at Penn State mostly and Virginia (Scott). And they're still active as coaches -- Josh at Cleveland State and Scott at Lock Haven, bringing their programs into prominence.
You can read more about Scott here, too.
How Scott Moore uses his Penn State wrestling experience in building a program at Lock Haven
Track was their game
Pictured here with coach John Kaufman at Mitchell Avenue Field, Charlie Winger was a three-tine state champion.
Put her anywhere in the lineup...she was primarily a middle distance runner for Oil City and earned four state medals.
Rocky Grove boasted two state champions in 1959 -- Bob Flickner in the 100 and DeWitt Green in the pole vault.
Bet you'd never guess this and other oddities
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Hall of Famer Bobby Wallace once played in Franklin
Ran across this little article the other day. It came from the Jan. 20, 1926, edition of The News Herald.
Turns out Bobby Wallace -- given name Roderick John Wallace -- once played for Franklin. Chances are you never heard of him, but he is in baseball's Hall of Fame. He was inducted in 1953 after playing 25 years in the majors, most notably in St. Louis, first with the Cardinals and then the Browns (now the Orioles) before returning to the Cards for two more years when he was in his mid-40s.
His career started in 1894 with the Cleveland Spiders, then members of the National League.
He debuted as a pitcher, but eventually moved to the infield. Actually, he could play all over the place.
Wallace played five seasons in Cleveland and the other 20 in St. Louis, 15 with the Browns. The 5-8, 170-pounder, known for his slick glove work, racked up 70.4 of WAR (wins above replacement) for his career.
His best season came in 1897 when he batted .335 with 21 triples and and 112 RBI for the Spiders.
Interesting thing about Cleveland: the team's owner was angry about poor attendance in 1898. Turns out he also owned the Cardinals, so he moved his best players, including Wallace, to St. Louis. With the cupboard bare the Spiders -- aka the Misfits -- responded with a 20-134 record in 1899 and were banished from the National League.
