Girls Basketball Team 1920-1921	Mill Softball Team	Veterns Memorial Swimming Pool

We told you about how the people in our town satisfied the need to get together by forming clubs. That wasn't the only way, of course. There were always church gatherings, parties, picnics, and dances. Most of all there were sports. Athletics has always played a big role in our town and, when you think about it, that, too, seems natural. What we mean is the people here have never been afraid of hard work, so it's natural that they should like athletics. It gives us a chance to relax by playing or watching others play.

You might say that our two favorite sports have been football and baseball, but we've bad a long-time interest in basketball, boxing and more recently, track. And don't forget what we told you about our Sportsmen's Club and what a lot of interest we have in field and stream activities. Many of us have a pretty strong individual liking for golf, too, and, of course, bowling. We want to tell you more about our town and the golf course. But let's talk about football.

We have records of our town's high school football teams going back to 1921 and they're rather interesting records-so much so that we're going to have them made a part of this history. That's 35 years of football, 298 games. And the Midland High School Leopards have done all right. We haven't been shy of playing the bigger schools, and sometimes we've taken beatings, but over the years we've won 153 to 117 losses. Twenty-eight games have been tied. In 1931, and again in 1940, we were undefeated. In 1952, we were Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League champions in our class, and, in 1954, co-champions.

We've had good coaches and good boys. When we recall the coaches, the names Morrison, DeHuff, Lomand, Walters, McCluskey, Meyers, Kaye and Wilson come to mind. And of course we recognize the excellent job being done by John Petchel, our present coach, under whose tutelage we've won those two championships and a record of 35 wins and only 12 losses.

And when we think about the players, there are so many: Ivan Toncic, All WPIAL, All-State, All-America; Henry Suffoletta, All-WPIAL for three straight years, All-State; Nick Yanosich, All WPIAL, All-State; Gene Martell, All WPIAL, All-State honorable mention; Marshall Ungetheum, Mike Doyle, John Flara, all of whom made the all-league teams, and a lot of other fine ball players too numerous to mention here.

Midland boys have gone on to colleges all over America bringing our town's name to programs on the campuses of Notre Dame, Boston University, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Ohio, Geneva, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Grove City, Marquette, Mt. Union, West Virginia, North Carolina State, Indiana, and St. Vincent's, to name a few.

You can say we have produced some fine ball players in our town, all right, and fine boys, too. We wouldn't want you to lose sight of that. Those boys are a lot more important than the victories, the trophies, or the game itself, regardless of what it is. We feel pretty strongly about that.

And when we think of fine athletes-fine boys, we can't move on without stopping to mention Dave Alston, perhaps the greatest of all our athletes.

In high school Dave was a 12 letter man winning four letters in each of the three sports played - football, basketball, and baseball. He was a big boy, 200 pounds, over six feet tall and fast. He ran the hundred in 10 seconds flat. A triple threat All County back in football for three successive years, he played center, chiefly, in basketball on a team that won the Section Twelve title and played the outfield on the Midland team that went all the way to the WPIAL title game. Dave went on to play freshman ball at Penn State along with his brother, Harry. That year the Penn State frosh were undefeated and the experts took notice. Esquire magazine named him one of the "top ten sophomores" in the nation. Coach Bob Higgins at Penn State called him "the greatest player I ever coached,"  the first player I've seen who has all the qualities that made (Jim) Thorpe the great star he was."

Dave, son of Reverend Sandy J. Alston of the Mt. Olive Baptist Church here, was more than a wonderful athlete. Throughout his junior and senior high school course, for six years, he was on the honor roll. He was president and valedictorian of his senior class. He played piano and sang well.

Tragically, Dave died following a tonsillectomy performed in August of 1941. Picking his 1942 All-American team, expert Francis Wallace called Dave, in a Saturday Evening Post article, (September 19,

1942), his "sophomore of the year in memoriam." Our town understood best when Mr. Wallace commented, "It does seem that Dave Sturgeon Alston was too good for this world."

Baseball has been another major sport in our town. Organized sports, outside the scholastic circles, got its start in 1924, when a group of 50 men met in the Crucible Hospital building to organize and promote a departmental baseball league. At that time there were two diamonds in our town, one near the Coke Plant and another in the western end of town near the present slag plant. It was decided to build a new diamond, and W. W. Hall was elected chairman to form a working committee. The field was built at Twelfth Street and is still used by community teams. Under the leadership of P. C. Merz, president, 600 season tickets were sold at two dollars each. A minstrel show was held in the State Theater, now Crucible's Metallurgical Building, a street fair managed, and an automobile raffled to raise additional funds for the sixteam league. Interest was great with games drawing as many as 1,500 spectators.

Competition was high among the teams. R. M. Keeney, plant manager then, went before the Board of Managers to request that "steps be taken to adjust the unbalanced condition that existed between teams in order to continue to promote good ball games for the recreation they afford players and spectators in the community." As a result three players were released from the Coke-General Office team (Thompson, Sheehan, and Perrier) to bolster the Shipping-Inspection team.

As the departmental rivalry mounted, scouts were sent great distances to bring in ball players. Many of the players stayed here in our town, reared families, and became active in community life. As operations in the plant increased, it became more and more difficult to excuse the ball players from their work. In 1926 there were five teams, four in 1927 and 1928. Finally, in 1929, the league was discontinued and replaced by a departmental basketball league which was active for the next two years. In 1931, that, like so many other things, was stopped by the depression.

We've not finished telling about baseball in our town, but this seems like the right place to tell you about our town's fling at the game of golf. On February 5, 1932, the Midland Golf Club was organized with 0. .N. Carter as president. Later that year A. L. Sonnhalter, vice president of Pittsburgh Crucible, drove the first ball to officially open a new six-hole course, and, on June 22, a 12-team tournament began. By 1935 three more holes were added. The club was very active from the time it was organized, and the hundreds of people who belonged to the club cherish the friendships made there. Finally, after 10 years of popularity, the golf course had to give way to the Defense Plant Corporation born of World War

11. Golf continues to be a popular individual pastime with the folks here, and area courses, many nearby, are always active.

But, as we said, we're not through talking about baseball here. It's always been very popular, and through the years there have been many strong independent teams. Names of a number of men who helped foster the sport from 1930 to 1948 come to mind-Jim Reed; Lawrence Andres, whose 1939 and 1940 Midland teams won the TriState League; Alex Ondrick; Father Leger, who formed a 17-year-old age limit league.

In 1948, a group of interested men started a fine movement here when they organized a chapter of the National Hot Stove League - the first in Pennsylvania. The purpose of the chapter was and is to conduct organized baseball leagues for all boys of the community who want to play ball. No youngster is dropped because of inability to play. Instead he is taught to play. The chapter is known as the A. L. Sonnhalter Chapter, named for the man who did so much to help organize and direct the group until his death in late 1948. John Reider, Sr., was first president and a long list of prominent men in our town have been active in the chapter. Recently the directors formally approved a plan to incorporate midget football and basketball into its program. Finances to operate the chapter come from the contributions of individuals and other organizations in the community who see the value in this excellent youth program.

In 1949, the C.I.O. began sponsoring teams. Art Petrosky has managed the team since 1953. The year before last the team finished second in its league and won the Shaughnessy playoffs. Last year the team had its greatest success so far - Beaver County champs, Pennsylvania state champs, and then seventh place in National Semi-Pro tournament at Wichita, Kansas.

Baseball started here as an interscholastic sport in 1935 when the Leopards, under Coach Lomond, won their section championship. The 1940 team, under Coach Walters, went to the WPIAL finals before losing to Trinity, 3-0. That was the team that featured the pitching of "Lefty" Smith and the hitting of Dave Alston. The Leopards won Section championships, under Coach Wilson, in 1947, and in 1949.

Before we leave baseball, we want to mention the intramural program conducted by Coach Della Valle. That will bring back a lot of memories.

Basketball started at the High School right after the war, the first world war. The girls played the preliminary games, same schools scheduled for the boys in the second game. In the 1927-28 season, girls' basketball here was at its best. The next year the program became intramural.

The boys have had some excellent seasons. One of the early problems was the lack of a desirable place to play. When Municipal Hall was condemned during the 1925-26 season, the sport was abandoned for the year. The 1929-30 team was crowned champion of the Penn State Alumni tournament in Beaver County. The 1936-37 team won WPIAL Section 12 laurels and went to the second round of the finals. The same year the junior High School team won the Lower Beaver Valley Basketball league title-The 1938-39 team tied for the section title. The 1940-41 team again won sectional honors with an 18-2 record, as did the teams in 1945-46, 194849, 1951-52, 1953-54 and in 1954-55. The last team was one of the best with a season's total of 23 wins against two losses. In the WPIAL playoffs, they defeated Tarenturn and Washington before losing to Farrell, 58-54. Two players, Lake and Evans were named All-WPIAL, and Lake was elected All-State. Coaches through the years were Freeble, DeHuff, Lomond, Walters, McCluskey, Dershimer, and, at present, George Hamilton.

With the opening of the beautiful new stadium here, track and field events were revived in 1949 as a high school sport. Since 1952, excluding county and district meets, the Leopards have won 23 out of 28 contests. In county meets, we placed second in 1952 and 1956. In 1953, the first night meet in Beaver County was held at the stadium, the Midland Invitational Track Meet, now an annual event.

Boxing has naturally been popular in our town. Its first real start, though, was in 1916 when William O'Donnell, pipe department foreman at the steel company, began training some of the boys who worked for him. Quite a few developed into good boxers and became known in the district. We still hear about Jimmie Conway, Muckle Conner, Kidlock Smith, Jimmie Logan, and Jimmie Cunningham. They tell one story here about Muckle Conner's famous scrap with Willie Grabwell at Ebere's Pool Room. Muckle was given $50 and told he would be allowed to work overtime at the plant for the balance due him. The town gym, located for many years at Ebere's, was moved into the Borough Building. In 1918, Eddie Loftus came to town and began training boxers in the new quarters. Two of his best boys were Ross Pansey and Ernie Tonti. They later went to Buffalo and continued to build up a good record. Pansey also fought in Europe. The decade from 1919 until Bob Zielinski, a promising middleweight, arrived here in 1929 was quiet in local fight circles. About 1931 a gym was set up in the basement of Tonti's Hotel where Eli Corak, our present burgess, and Dave Jakes, one of our policemen, trained under Ross Pansey and Nick Ranella. Jakes, fighting as a middleweight, became New Jersey and Pennsylvania Golden Gloves Champion. In 1947 Jakes and Corak started a gym at 408 Midland Avenue, and one of the best boys developed there was junior Short. junior's in service now, but we often hear about his boxing activities. In 1953, jakes started a new gym in the C. 1. 0. Building which is still in operation. The Slappy twins, Joe and John, and Johnny Varvette are some of the good boys developed at the new gym.

Somewhere along in here we should tell you about one of our town's most famous, Joe Tonti. And this is probably as good a place as any. Joe graduated from high school back in about 1926 after winning 12 letters in sports. He went on to graduate from Temple University. Joe was world famous for his exceptional muscular coordination and control. At call, be could move any muscle of his body. A professional strong man, he toured all over the world and appeared on stage and in the movies. He has been written up in Ripley's "Believe It or Not." One of Joe's sensational performances was to place in his mouth a bar which was attached by chains to the bumper of a five-ton truck. Then walking on his hands, Joe would pull the truck! This stunt led to his being known as "the strongest upside down man in the world." He was also an expert at judo and at one time sparring partner for Max Baer, world's heavyweight champion. But more than all that, Joe was a good citizen appearing at innumerable bond rallies and benefits during the war. He became primarily interested in the rehabilitation of injured war veterans and body building for the under-developed. Today he is a chiropractor in Oklahoma City, author of several books on physical culture.

That's pretty much the story of athletics in our town, except we should tell you that we have three playgrounds and a beautiful Veteran's Memorial pool. And that our school system conducts a fine summer recreational program. We should tell you, too, about the interest in bowling which is in keeping with the national pattern. There's a lot to do and see here in the way of sports.