In the first half of the 20th century, nine different high schools fielded athletic teams in Greene County. Before West Greene became a unified district in 1954, Rogersville, Richhill, Aleppo and Nineveh each had its own high school; Mt. Morris did not merge with Waynesburg until 1962. Unfortunately, each of these schools had a proud sports history that has been subsumed by consolidations.
Mt. Morris became an official school in 1922 when they met the state requirement to graduate at least 12 students. In the 1920s, basketball was the only sport at the school. The games were played in Eugene Fitzgerald’s barn, which the school rented for $20 month. One of the players was future coach Dale Kennedy. The girls started playing basketball during the 1927-28 season. The members of the team were Martha, Dorothy and Irma Fox, Katherine Lewellen, Cecil Renner, Esther Pyle, and Clara Bell. The program faded when football became a sport.
The school first sent a track team to the county meet in 1926. The following two years, John Kennedy won the county pole vault with jumps of 10 feet. The Blackhawks continued to dominate the local vault events. In 1931, John Mossburg won the county meet with a height of 11 feet. The meet’s top point winner was Dale Kennedy, who won the mile race with a time of 5:16. Both boys were awarded scholarships to Waynesburg College after the meet. The school also won the county meet in ’32 and ’39.
Mt. Morris played their first football game in 1931 after obtaining old equipment and uniforms from Waynesburg College. They played their games at Downey Fox’s field and wore the orange and black of the Jackets. Although they did not win a game that year, they tied three. In 1932, the games were moved to the old fairgrounds, where they won their first game against Nineveh. In 1937, the team bought new equipment and changed their colors to black and white. Coach Dale Kennedy also arrived that year and by the final season of the decade had the Blackhawks finishing 7-2. Although the school emphasized track in the spring, pitcher Claude Haines and catcher Tony Farace had success on the diamond for the Blackhawks in the mid-1930s.
By 1940, Dale Kennedy had turned the school into a local football power. They won a share of the county championship after finishing 8-0-1. The tie was a 6-6 battle with perennial power Cumberland Township. This was also the team’s first year as an official member of the WPIAL. After another successful season in 1941 (4-2-2), Kennedy joined the war effort. He returned in 1946 and led the team to another undefeated season (5-0-1).
In 1940, John Lewellen set the county pole vault record by jumping 11’ 4”. The following year Lewellen and Joe Donley qualified for the WPIAL Indoor Track Meet at the Pitt Field House. At the meet, Lewellen set a WPIAL record in the pole vault at 11’ 9”; this bettered the old indoor record by 9 inches. He also finished third in the high jump. They continued to be one of the better programs in the county throughout the decade. The Blackhawks won the county meet in 1956. In 1957, Jack Diehl set county records for the discus (126’ 8’’) and shotput (46’ 5’’). Despite being the second smallest school in the WPIAL, the Hawks’ football team finished 2-6-2 in 1961. Interestingly, one of the victories ended Valley High School’s 18 game winning streak. Wayne Kiger continued the school’s track success when he lettered in track at WVU during the springs of 1963 and 1964.
Nineveh or Morris Township High School was a baseball powerhouse in the 1920s and was the first local scholastic team to wear real uniforms. Jim Johnson was their star pitcher, who would often win both games of a doubleheader. Jake Porter was the team’s best player. Since competition could be hard to find, the team would schedule independent and college teams. The sport faded as the school’s population dwindled by the dawn of the following decade.
Nineveh had its first basketball team in 1924. They developed rivalries with Beallsville and Mt. Morris because they were of a similar size and faced similar obstacles. The boys played in Throckmorton’s garage across the road from the general store. The girls would occasionally practice or play when a floor was available. In 1928, the community built a school with an indoor court. By 1929, they had successful boys’ and girls’ teams. That season, the girls in the line-up were Clutter, Hopkins, Lightner, McCullough, and Huffman. They beat Mt. Morris for the regular season county championship.
