Due to the hectic pace of my holiday activities, I am once again going to borrow one of my father’s old tricks. When the muse has failed to deliver a cogent, cohesive revelation of meaningful insight, resort to short unrelated anecdotes and yarns. In other words, here comes a series of random Greene County sports facts that are a mile wide and an inch deep.
In 1895, Jesse Hazlett scored the first touchdown in Waynesburg College history. His touchdown occurred when he stole the ball from the arms of a West Virginia Mountaineer runner named St. Clair. He reached the opponent’s goal line untouched for the historic first score. Hazlett went on to become a physician and served as the team doctor until his death.
In 1907, Albert Cozard of Khedive was one of Waynesburg College’s star baseball players. He was one of the best amateur pitchers in Western Pennsylvania and a pro prospect. Tragically, he was killed on his first day of work at the Washington & Waynesburg Railroad while coupling two cars. He was earning money between semesters to return for the winter session.
Willis Hutchins of Brave broke the World Record for the 100 Yard Dash while he was a member of a local track club. Hutchins had been a star athlete at Waynesburg College from 1909-1913. After graduation, he returned to Brave and opened a small mercantile business. On Labor Day of 1914, he made the trip to West View Park in Pittsburgh and broke the record with a time of 9.6 seconds. He returned home and continued running his business, where most of the locals were unaware of the celebrity in town.
There was a Nineveh or Morris Township High School until 1932. The high point of their football program came in 1925. Despite having only 28 students in the school, they fielded a team with 14 boys. The team traveled to Carmichaels for the final game of the season. In what the Waynesburg Democrat described as “the biggest upset in County history”, Nineveh trounced Cumberland Township 42-12. The win gave them their only official County Championship. Their 1927 team was also loaded with talent, including players such as Bird Clutter, Earl Mankey and future Waynesburg College star Jake Porter. The big game of the season came when they hosted undefeated Jefferson for the de facto Class B County Championship. Four unusually large Jeff linemen had “taped their faces” for the game. When the tape came off during the game, they were recognized as Waynesburg College players. According to newspaper reports of the time, “the players were chased halfway back to Waynesburg” by the fans in attendance.
In May of 1927, Edward Tegue of Waynesburg broke the Quarter Mile World Record at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia. That same year, Waynesburg’s Lawrence Day set a world record for a golf marathon after he played 243 holes in 16 hours and 26 minutes. He averaged 48.7 stokes per nine holes. The member of Greene County Country Club walked 71 miles and lost six pounds during the feat.
Waynesburg High School and Waynesburg College star Wettie Mancuso played professional basketball in Buffalo during the 1935-36 season. He played for the Buffalo Bison of the Mid-West Conference. The following year, that group of teams was renamed the National Basketball League. Ten years later, that league merged with the Basketball Association of America to create the National Basketball Association.
The banner in the Waynesburg Central gym lists only one boys’ basketball section title. The 1935 team ended tied for the section lead when they split with Canonsburg during the regular season. At that time, teams would play each other in an elimination game to go to the WPIAL playoffs. The elimination game was scheduled to be played on a neutral floor at Wash High. After a 41-34 play-in victory, the team beat Duquesne in the next round at Pitt Stadium before losing to Rankin in the semi-finals. However, the 1945-46 team also won the section title after beating Wash High 33-30 in a section tie-breaking playoff game. They also had two future Pirate minor league baseball players in the line-up – Dick Drury and Ralph Lewis.
The undefeated Waynesburg High School football team of 1945 (9-0-1) gave up only 38 points all season and 19 of those were in one game against Canonsburg. Key members of that team were future professional athletes Bill George, Dick Drury and future Raider coach Dave Clelland.
Waynesburg College finished in seventh place at the 1950 NCAA Wrestling Championships. Tony Gizoni won the 121-pound championship by decision over Arnold Plaza of Purdue. The team finished behind only Iowa State, Purdue, Cornell, Syracuse, Oklahoma A&M (State) and Iowa. Penn State, Oklahoma and Navy rounded out the top ten.
Jack Wiley’s 1952 Waynesburg College football team finished 6-1, with the only defeat a 21-9 loss at West Virginia University. They soundly defeated West Liberty, Geneva, Bethany, St. Francis, Westminster and St. Vincent. An October game against Chincotague Naval Base was canceled due to the Korean War.
On the gridiron, Waynesburg College guard John Barish was named an NAIA First Team All-American in 1954. He was drafted in the 12th round by the Washington Redskins but decided to answer the call of the U.S. Army. He played semi-professional ball for the Wheeling Ironmen from 1962-64.
Captain Joseph E. “Joe” Riggs, U.S.M.C. of Waynesburg won the Leech Cup in 1955 for long distance shooting with a score of 100-15V. The Leech Cup is an award named after Arthur Blennerhassett Leech, and given to long range shooters. It is the oldest trophy awarded (1901) in competitive target shooting in the United States.
Ben Cree was a WPIAL Wrestling Champion from Mapletown. In 1955, he defeated Ron Haus of Latrobe in the finals by a score of 4-3. Mapletown also won the County Wrestling Championship that year. They were followed at the tournament by Jefferson, Waynesburg and Carmichaels.
Also, the Maple’s Sam Minor was voted the County’s Outstanding Wrestler after an undefeated regular season in 1954-55. However, he was upset by Jefferson’s Jim Dollar in the WPIAL semi-finals on a referee’s decision.
Jim Husk was a member of the Waynesburg High School conference champion football teams at the end of the 1950s, and he went on to receive a full scholarship to play running back at Xavier University. However, he was also a great wrestler on the four undefeated Raider wrestling teams of the period. It was on the mat he would create his most enduring legacy. In 2001, Husk was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. While coaching at several high schools in Florida, Husk compiled an incredible 595-67-4 career record. At Miami Southridge High School, he won seven state team titles and 17 district titles. His teams also finished as state runners-up four times. In addition, he coached 55 individual state champions and was named the Florida State Coach of the Year eight times. He was also named the National High School Coach of the Year twice.
The 1959 Yellow Jacket baseball team included locals Mike Stefanik at first base, Gene Yost in right field, and Tom Croftcheck behind the plate. Second baseman Ed Inhot had been offered a contract with the Baltimore Orioles but decided to return to school to complete his degree.
Inhot also coached the college’s first iteration of a women’s basketball team since the 1920s. They were called the Honeybees and played an informal schedule.