2022 Inductees
Meet the 2022 Mid Mon Valley All Sports Hall of Fame Inductees
Front row (left to right): Bob Rosborough, Ben McCauley, Jim Dumm
Back row: (left to right): Jon Green, Noryne Corely for deseased husband Major Corley, and Bill Connors
Bill Connors
Western Pennsylvania has been blessed with many outstanding football coaches through the years, and former Beth-Center, Ringgold, and Belle Vernon Area high school football coach Billy Connors ranks right up there with the best of them.
Connors was an outstanding athlete at Brownsville High School, where he was a three-year letter winner in football and baseball. Connors was named All Big Six wuarterback in 1953. "We were competitive, and my coach was Warner Fritsch," Connors recalled. "He had good teams at Scott Township with five Division 1 players. He came to Brownsville when they changed from the single wing." Connors played on teams that posted records of 6-4 in 1951, 5-5 in 1952, and in his senior year in 1953, they posted a 6-4 mark and handed Uniontown its only loss. "Charlie Slick was at Brownsville for many years as an assistant coach when I played," Connors recalled. "Slick was the head baseball coach and I played for him. We had a top-notch baseball team." Casper Voithofer (2012 MMVASHOF Inductee) remembered Connors as a fierce competitive catcher for Marianna in the Fayette County League. Because of commitments to Legion baseball, Connors was unable to play in the Jaycee All Star football game for which he had been chosen.
Connors graduated from Brownsville in 1953 and eventually wound up at Salem College in West Virginia. "I played with Buck Grover in high school," Connors explained. "He went to Clemson and he went from Clemson to Salem, so I was out of school for three years and I was driving a bread truck and he came and asked me if I would be interested in going to Salem College. Thery were looking for a quarterback, so I went and met with coach Ted Underwood. He was probably my best coach.
Connors was a four-year letter winner at Salem both as a baseball catcher and football quarterback. He accounted fro 2,970 yards passing and 25 touchdowns during his career at Salem. "I was a Little All-American quarterback in 1963," Connors offered. "I started four years at quarterback. And I only weighed probably 160 pounds in college." At Salem, Bill received the prestigious West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference award for 1963.
Connors was determined to become a coach when he was in college. "That's what my dream was to become a coach," Connors said. "I had the opportunity provided by Ted Nypaver who also went to Salem. He was head coach at Beth Center and I was able to get on with his coaching staff when I graduated from Salem."
Connors was an assistant at Beth Center for two years before taking over the head coaching job in 1965 embarking on a stellar coaching career. He spent 14 years at B-C as head coach and had a record of 98-26-9. Connors averaged almost 9 wins a year, and coached the Bulldogs to three unbeaten seasons. "I had some really good players," Connors stated. "I had grown up in the Maxwell patch and it was similar to the fathers I had known at Beth Center from Vestaburg and Denbo, Marianna, and RIcheyville. They were all coal miners the same as when I was growing up. They kind of went together with me, the hard-nosed kids who were going to give youa ll they had. They had the type of fathers who played as I did at Brownsville and that was a big help at Beth Center. I was fortunate to have on defense at Beth Center coach Don Bartolomucci (2017 MMVASHOF Inductee) who I went to high school with. We played together at Brownsville and he was selling insurance and I talked him into coming on as my assistant. He handled the Defense."
The big highlight at Beth Center for Connors was winning the WPIAL Championship in 1975 beating Kittanning in the title game 13-0. "I think we gave up 24 points the entire season," Connors Remembered
Perhaps Connors greatest player at Beth Center was Fred Pagac who went on to play at Ohio State and in the pros with the Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Bucccaneers. "He was the best player that I have ever coached", Connors stated. Pugac speaks highly of his old high school coach. "I had a great relationship with Bill," Pagac said. "In fact, we sent him some stuff from Denver when I coached in the Super Bowl. I sent him some shirts and jackets. He was a very disciplined coach and no-nonsense. He was a heck of a football coach.
Connors left Beth Center in 1979 and took over the coaching reigns at Ringgold High School. He recorded a record of 35 wins and 29 losses and captured a WPIAL Championship in 1982.
"My quarterback that played for me, Bob Key, was at Rinngoled when that job opened," Connors explained. "Keys came and asked me if I would be interested. I explored the moved and decided it would be a move from Double A to Quad A. I knew it was going to be a touch job, but I decided to take that on." Connors guided the Rmas to a 12-1 record in 1982 and downed New Castle 6-2 in the WPIAL Quad A title game. “It was a big turnaround before we won the championship because we were 10-29-1 in the previous four seasons,” Connors stated., “It was tough to turn it around, we would run first and pass next even though I was a quarterback in high school and college. 1982 was a dream season, in the title game we made a great defensive stand at the one yard-line and forced a fumble. We had a little linebacker, only 140 pounds, Harry McCullough and he blitzed on the one-yard line and caused that fumble.”
In January of 1985 the Belle Vernon Area School Board hired Dan Evans, who topped a field of 52 candidates. Evans had impressive credentials coaching 10 years in Ohio after one year as an assistant coach at Uniontown High School under Jim Render. Evans, however, changed his mind and never coached the Leopards. Enter the “Alley Cats” era of BVA football led under head coach Bill Connors. “When the job opened at Belle Vernon Area, Chuck Machesky was there and I talked with him, and I had done all I could probably do at Ringgold,” Connors said. “So, I took on the Belle Vernon Area job.”
At Belle Vernon Area the flamboyant Connors fashioned a record of 45 wins, 36 losses and three ties. The BVA squad came close to claiming a WPIAL title for Connors which would have been his third at three different schools. Connors and his players won the Big Nine co-championship in 1989 with a section record of 9 and 1, losing only to Brownsville by one point. In the WPIAL playoffs, the Leopards defeated Highlands 12-0 This victory represented the Leopard’s first playoff victory in nine years. Against Aliquippa in the Class AAA WPIAL semifinals, BVA lost 14 to 7 in a heartbreaking battle of dominant defenses. “That was a game we were winning 7-0 in the third quarter,” Connors recalled. “Our back Mike “Tooshie” Metikosh got hurt and they had a very speedy backfield and their running back broke a long touchdown run to tie it 7-7 and they beat us in the fourth quarter. That was the team for me at Belle Vernon, I should have won it all with that group of talented kids.”
Connors would like to say to his charges, remembered BVA quarterback Greg Steeber, “Bad to the bone,” in reference to his “wishbone offense.” He always reminded the team of his offensive philosophy that “three 4s are 12” referencing that if you are able to get 4 yards on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd down, you will always get the necessary yardage for a first down. Belle Vernon Area school director Dan Kovatch was another player for Connors on that 1989 team. “BVA was outplayed but our teams found ways to succeed as Coach Connors dubbed us the ‘Cardiac Kids.’ Assistant coach Tom Doman with his ‘Crazy Drill’ was a perfect complement for Coach Connors style of motivation.”
Connors set the standard for scouting, knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition and using this information to prepare his team. Many of Connors’ assistant coaches had distinguished coaching careers on their resumes including Chuck Arrigo, Chuck Abramski, Bob Freado, Terry Dzimiera, and fitness guru Tom Doman. A football program takes on the personality of the coach, and Connors exemplified this fact to the fullest extent with his intensity and passion. Connors was a great competitor who cajoled his players into performing.
Connors retired from coaching after the 1992 season. “I had thirty years in coaching and the Mellow Bill came out, if you retired you would get three more years onto your retirement, so along with football, I had accomplished a great deal, so I thought it was the best time for me to move on and retire.”
Connors retired with an overall record of 174-92-12. He won five conference championships and two WPIAL titles. He was inducted into the Washington Greene County Hall of Fame in 1996. He was inducted into the Salem College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1988.
Connors,83, resides in Greenville, NC with his wife of 63 years Pearl Clair Connors. They have one son Jeff who was strength and conditioning coach for the East Carolina State and University of North Carolina football programs. “I was blessed,” Connors stated. “Athletics was great to me.”
(Grateful acknowledgement to George Von Benko for this biography that appeared in edited form October 14, 2019 in the Herald Standard)
Major Corley
A 1965 Monessen High School graduate, Major “Tuffy” Corley had a storied women’s basketball coaching career that spanned over two decades, all while at the helm of the Monessen Lady Greyhounds. Throughout Corley’s career at Monessen, his teams compiled 19 winning seasons, 13 section championships, 3 WPIAL championship titles, 1 PIAA championship title, 457 wins, 13 1,000-point scores, and 4 Division I college basketball players, among many other accolades.
When asked why he began coaching, Corley explained “I took the job to coach my step-daughter, who was a sophomore at the time, and planned on using the money for a fishing boat, because I love to fish. I could go every day.” Twenty-five years and an astonishing 460 victories later, “Tuffy” finally finds himself able to take a break from the hardwood courts of Monessen High School. That’s not too bad for a guy who planned to “coach there two years until (his step-daughter) Peachy graduated and then I’d quit.”
Corley’s coaching career started one day when Monessen High School boys’ basketball coach Joe Salvino approached Corley about the available position. It is not as if Corley had no coaching experience. He coached in the Monessen Midget Basketball League program and the Monessen City School District was having difficulty filling the high school girls’ coaching position and felt that Corley was the right man for the job. As a result, the girls’ basketball program has flourished, and not just at the high school level.
During his first three seasons, Corley’s teams posted records of 7-10, 10-13, and 4-17. Needless to say, it was not the direction the team was looking for. But the 6’-8” Corley did not let those numbers faze him. He would go on to only lose 141 more games during the remainder of his twenty-five-year career that consisted of two stints spanning from 1986-2010 and 2016-2018.
During his tenure as the head coach, he not only led the Lady Greyhounds to an astounding 13 section titles and nine WPIAL championship games. Of the nine WPIAL championship games his team played, they were victorious in three and even went on to win the school’s only state title in 2004, easily Corley’s fondest memory of coaching. “You have to be pretty good to win the state title. There are a lot of good teams and players out there, and to be the last one standing is a pretty great accomplishment.”
The “mild-mannered” coach, who also worked as the Monessen High School’s Hall monitor after retiring from the Pennyslvania Department of Revenue, has seen the basketball program expand and contributes the expansion to his success. “Once we started the girls’ midget league program, you could just see how things changed around here. Once girls came up through the Future Lady Greyhounds, they knew so much more about basketball. They were prepared.”
So, what is Corley like to work with? “I’ve known him since we were kids for some 50 years. His record speaks for itself. They call him “Tuffy,” but I call him “Softie.” He’s a very sensible guy. The two words that describe him are class act,” said Dennis Naccarato, Corley’s assistant for ten years.
Corley has coached thirteen 1,000-point scorers as well as two 3,000-point scores, including Charel Allen (HOF 2019) and Gina Naccarato, the WPIAL’s all-time leading girl’s scorer. He posted nearly a perfect season in 2007-2008, losing only in the WPIAL championship game to Mt. Alvernia. Corley earned Coach of the Year awards from the Western Pennsylvania Girls Basketball Hall of Fame in 1990-1991 and 1994-1995, the Tribune Review in 2003-2004 and 2005-2006, the Associated Press in 2003-2004, The Valley Independent in 2002-2003 and 2003-2004, and the Tri-County Coaches Association in 2005-2006.
Corley retired following the 2009-2010 season, and didn’t stay off the sidelines for long. Beginning in 2013, Corley began serving as an assistant basketball coach for the Monessen boys basketball team under another coaching legend, Joe Salvino (MMVASHOF 2017). Not too long after, Corley was back at the helm of the Lady Greyhounds for two more seasons (2016-2018) before ultimately walking off the court in 2018 with a 460-189 career record that spanned twenty-five seasons. Corley retired for the final time following the 2017-2018 season to let “some younger blood come in, a younger basketball mind”.
Off the basketball court, Corley graduated from Pittsburgh Technical Institute and retired from a career with the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, where he earned a Professional Achievement Award from the Pittsburgh Division of the Bureau of Motor Fuel Taxes. Corley is also involved with the Mon Valley Branch of the NAACP where he earned a Recognition Award in 1996, an Appreciation Award in 2004, a Humanitarian Award in 2008 and a Certificate of Appreciation in 2017. Corley was inducted into the Pittsburgh Basketball Club Hall of Fame in 2017. Corley’s wife, Noryne, lost her husband during the COVID 19 pandemic on July 13, 2020 after 42 years of marriage. Their children are Moyland Turner and Nadine Peachie Tyree.
(Grateful acknowledgment to Robert Harhai for composing Mr. Corley’s biography)
Jim Dumm
Although Jim Dumm, a 1965 graduate of Norwin High School, didn’t come to the Mon Valley area until the early-Seventies, he made his mark on the Valley in many ways and in several venues.
His football roots go back to Norwin where he played semi pro ball for the Norwin Warriors from 1965-1969. He was a walk-on at Youngstown State University, but a broken leg prevented him from making an impact with the Penguins football squad.
However, he transferred to Waynesburg College where he was a three-year starter from 1970-1972. He was mobile and skilled enough to man three different positions: defensive end, and defensive tackle, and, in his senior year, as a middle linebacker. “I was about 260 pounds playing there,” stated the 6’ 3” Dumm. He was the team captain in his final season and deserved it— he led the Yellow Jackets in tackles during his junior year and he would repeat that feat in his senior season.
But the accolades went far beyond that. Dumm earned NAIA District 18 first team status in 1972 after being All-District in 1970-1972, he was the team’s 1972 MVP 1972, and he took home AP All-State third team honors in 1970 as a defensive end.
He even won a letter in baseball as a starting pitcher and won other letters in track and field. “My offensive line coach was also a track coach, and he told me if I was going to play football for him, I was going to throw the discus, shot, and javelin for him.” Dumm came within inches of qualifying to go to the nationals for the shot put.
“In my senior year I played with my brother Paul who was a defensive end, then later the team’s center. He got a free agent tryout with the Oakland Raiders, but he had numerous concussions so they found that unacceptable.”
After graduating in 1972, Jim signed as a free agent with the Baltimore Colts, then coached by Howard Schnellenberger. Having beefed up by 25 pounds over his days as a Yellow Jacket, Dumm was a defensive tackle for the Colts. He was with the team at the same time Monessen’s Sam Havrilak was. “He was unbelievable,” said Dumm. “When I first saw him I thought he was kind of small. You say that until he gets on the field and does his magic. He was so tough, I couldn’t believe it. He absolutely amazed me. He caught everything that was thrown to him.” Although Dumm didn’t make it to the team’s final cut, he did play in two preseason games.
In a rookie game versus the Redskins, Dumm sacked Sam Wyche twice and after the game, said Dumm, “Washington’s coach George Allen came in our locker and patted my back and said, ‘Way to go. That was a good game.’ I was so flabbergasted. Just to be in his presence was impressive.”
Local sports historian Tom Jenkins said that after Dumm’s release from the Colts, “He signed with the Chicago Fire of the now defunct World Football League but was released, but was contacted again by the Colts.” This time he turned down their offer.
It was time to move on. He was offered a teaching position at Elizabeth Forward School District where he became the line coach for head coach Bob King for three years, and later there with another coach, Pete Rostosky and Gary Cathell.
Dumm’s coaching resume continued with stints at Charleroi High School from 1980-1984 under head coach Bob Hodgson and at California High, coached by Tom Webb. Later still, he was an assistant to Brady Barbero.
He made his return to Waynesburg College in 1985 under coach Bill Tornabene to handle the offensive lineman. The opportunity to take the head coaching job at Charleroi brought him back to the heart of the Valley from 1998 through 2002. His brightest moment there came in 1998 when he was named the Century Coach of the Year. That was the season his Cougars made the playoffs, losing to Washington High in the quarter finals.
In addition, he coached at Ringgold under Jeff Petrucci in 2007 and 2008, and he coached the lines at Clairton High School from 2011 through 2014. Over that period, Clairton won three WPIAL and two state titles.
In all, Dumm coached just over 35 years. That durability and his tremendous success led to his induction into the Tri-County Football Coaches Hall of Fame (2014).
Now retired, Dumm lives in Charleroi with his wife of 45 years, Marian, formerly of Uniontown. They have a daughter Lauren who passed away in 2021 and sons Jared and Jeff. Jared stood out as a defensive back at California State University and later played pro ball in Germany. Jeff, said his father, “broke all those Waynesburg University quarterback records set by the guys I thought of as gods’ way back when. He demolished those records.”
(Grateful acknowledgement for this biography by Wayne Stewart who thanks Steve Russell and Tom Jenkins for their assistance.)
Jon Green
Bucky Phillips, a star athlete at Monongahela High School, said that when it comes to great athletes who came out of Mon Valley Catholic High School, “You’ll hear many people say it was Jon Green. He came along after Andre Smith and gained more yards than him.” That call, of course, is subjective considering other Spartan standouts such as Patsy “Dino” DeBerardinis, Dave Papak, and Smith, to name a few examples, but nobody can deny Green did things which were so far beyond the realm of the norm it defied belief. A 1982 Mon Valley Catholic grad, Green hailed from Elizabeth, Pennsylvania.
Start with the cold, hard, and very impressive statistics. At 5’11” 175 pounds during his senior campaign in 1981, Jon’s exceptional rushing churned out more yards than any Spartan ever accomplished. In fact, Green commented he was quite proud of, “Being the first runner to rush for 4,000 yards in the WPIAL. That was a great honor.” He actually amassed closer to 5,000 than 4,000 yards with his 4,709 yards on the ground. With his 156 yards against Clairton in the playoffs he gained 2,013 yards as a senior. He became the first runner in the WPIAL to go over 2,000 yards in a season.
Furthermore, just imagine how many more yards he would have compiled if he hadn’t sat out “a lot of second halves of a lot of games because we were winning.” However, even in some of those one-sided games he did stay on the field to play defense. “I enjoyed playing defensive back,” he observed.
Green was instrumental in the Spartans putting together their only undefeated season in school history at 10-0. Unfortunately, that season they fell to Clairton in the opening round of the WPIAL playoffs despite Green’s rambling for more than 150 yards.
Using his breakaway speed and great upper body strength, Green enjoyed a banner senior season in which he gained 1,852 yards, crossed the goal line an amazing 32 times, scoring 192 points. He was good for a whopping 11.3 per carry and 165 yards per game that season. Not enough? From his defensive back position, he also picked off seven passes in that senior year.
By season’s end he had earned praise and publicity galore—he was the only Mid-Mon Valley player to be named to the All-State team in 1981. He represented the maroon and gold when he played in the Big 33 game where he ran for nearly half of his team’s 156 yards (with his 70 yards).
Green noted, “I’ve always been proud of playing in the Mon Valley [area] because I know some of the history of the players that’s come out of there—Chuck Muncie [of Uniontown], Jo Jo Heath [of Monessen] and on down the line.”
During his junior year Green was named a scholastic All-American when he was selected on The Chicago Catholic newspaper’s 30th annual Catholic Prep team in January 1981.
Then there was Green’s proficiency in track and field. The “100, 200, high jump, and long jump were his specialties. As a junior he qualified for the state meet in the 100-meter dash. As a senior he qualified for the state meet in the 100-meter dash and placed fourth in the long jump. Be aware that Green came from a school that didn’t have a track or a track team.
Ohio State, Texas A&M and West Virginia were among the major colleges interested in Green who decided to go South to Miami with Coach Howard Schnellenberger.
With an earned scholarship to the University of Miami (Florida), he remembered, “My biggest thrill was the red-shirt year I spent in Miami—to be able to see that national championship 1983 team. That was very impressive even though I didn’t get a chance to play, but I was there to see Michael Irvin, Bernie Kosar, Vinny Testaverde, and Alonzo Highsmith” In Green’s freshman season senior Jim Kelly was the starting quarterback. Green says he got to know the fellow Western Pennsylvania star very well. In the Miami backfield Green played behind Keith Griffin, the brother of the great Ohio State star Archie Griffin (and Ray Griffin).
Green’s stay in Florida wasn’t long. Redshirted as a freshman the following spring Green was tried as a defensive back before being returned to offense in the fall where he was listed as a backup. Green departed Miami because new head coach Jimmy Johnson changed the Hurricane offense from a running offense to a passing offense. “I wasn’t comfortable with my situation in Miami,” he explained. “I wasn’t enjoying football the way I did in high school.”
Green transferred in 1983 to Slippery Rock University with Coach Don Ault but he was ruled ineligible in 1984. He moved on to Waynesburg University. It was there that the now six-foot 194 pounder said, “I made 2nd Team NAIA All American at running back, rushing for 1,041 yards in nine games my senior year in 1987. As a Waynesburg junior I rushed for 635 yards. My major was in Business Management.”
A big influence in his life came, “as a free agent with the Steelers and while working out one practice around the corner came the man himself, Mr. Art Rooney. I got to shake his hand and he told me, ‘Strive for whatever you want to achieve in life.’ That made a big impression.”
Green leaves behind an amazing body of gridiron feats. To this day only Darrell Harding (5,410 yards rushing for Charleroi), Keith Miller (5,121 yards at Beth Center), and Jason Murray (5,046 for Belle Vernon) rank ahead of Green as the most prolific Mid-Mon Valley running backs.
Green has even been associated with the golf game, and he says he has met many interesting people as a golf caddy including Mark Wahlberg and Hap Sutton.
Green now makes his home in South Euclid, Ohio, not far from Cleveland. He has a daughter and four stepchildren and is engaged to Tawnya Greene. “I’ve lived a happy life. I’ve done quite a few jobs—I made a living as a mortgage broker and loan officer. Right now, I’m a head line cook at the University of John Carroll University. I get to meet and talk with the students and see what the future of our country is going to be like.” If that future is nearly as good as Green’s many accomplishments, all will be well.
Ben McCauley
Basketball has taken Ben McCauley, a native of West Newton nearly around the world in 18 years. He began his tour at Yough High School, and his magical trip continues.
The 2005 Yough grad was on the golf, baseball and basketball teams, but playing spring AAU basketball forced him to drop baseball.
The talented 6’ 7” center was named to the Post-Gazette the All-Decade Team (2000-2010) and he also made their Fab Five.
“My senior year we went to the WPIAL championship game, but lost to Moon 69 to 42—it was the furthest Yough made it in the playoffs, and it was a lot of fun. We beat Thomas Jefferson, Knoch, and Hopewell, then lost. We made it to the playoffs every year I was at Yough, but got knocked out the first round. To finally get over that hump and make it to the championship game was pretty cool. And we made it to the second round in the States after beating Grove City 45 to 44 but we lost against Johnstown 70 to 50.” McCauley scored 21 points against Johnston in that western semifinal. In WPIAL action he averaged a whopping 33 ppg. trailing only one other player, Drew Schfino from Penn Hills who averaged 35 ppg. McCauley believes his senior Cougars season remains their finest one ever, with a 20-9 record.
As a sophomore and junior he averaged almost exactly 23 ppg. earning First Team All-Section honors. As a senior he averaged 16.5 rebounds a game while scorching the nets for 28.8 ppg. to finish with 2,284 points, then #8 all-time in WPIAL annals (and still #11). He was also on the First Team All-State squad for Class 3-A.
“My sophomore year I had a 50-point game against Southmoreland.” The burden often fell to him as he recalls only one other senior on the team. “The rest were sophomores. It’s a small school.” He sometimes had to bring the ball up court and do whatever it took to score.
Another thrill was playing on the same team with his older brother John when he was a freshman and with his brother Andrew in his last two seasons.
Ranked a high school four-star recruit and #3 prospect in the state along with 48th best player in the nation, schools such as Pitt, Xavier, Cincinnati, and Villanova came calling, but Herb Sendek of North Carolina State won out. “He had that good Pittsburgh connection and his assistant Archie Miller is from [Beaver Falls]—that helped.”
Other big-name coaches who recruited McCauley included Jay Wright from Villanova, Sean Miller then with Xavier, Bob Huggins from Cincinnati, Ben Howland of Pitt and later UCLA, and Ohio State’s Thad Matta.
In McCauley’s Wolfpack sophomore season, his best, he averaged around 14 ppg. and seven rebounds per contest. “I think I had 29 points one game and my rebound high came in the NIT with 11 rebounds.” That was one of a handful of double-doubles he turned in as a four-year letterman and three-year starter.
“We made it to the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game, but lost to UNC under Roy Williams. We were, I think, a 10-seed and we beat Duke, Virginia, and Virginia Tech.”
Always steady, as a senior McCauley contributed 12.4 points with 7.8 rebounds tossed in. He even made the All-ACC honor roll with his 3.00 grade point average.
McCauley reflected about opposing teams and coaches he encountered. McCauley recalled that Coach Seth Greenberg of Virginia Tech praised his play. “If he saw me prior to the game he would always say, ‘McCauley, you kill us every time. I’m going to try and make a trade for you.’ Sure enough, a lot of the games that I played my best were against Virginia Tech for whatever reason—I don’t know why.”
Coach Mike Krzyzewski was also a friendly opposing coach. “My junior year we had a tough game against Duke. I think we were up the whole game and then there was a foul called that went Duke’s way at the end. They got some free throws and they took the lead. After the game Coach K came up to me because I had a pretty good game that day and he shook my hand. He did the shake but also put his other hand on top, being really personable. He looked at me and said, ‘You guys deserved to win that game.’ I know he gets a bad rap because Duke wins a lot and people think they get special treatment on calls, stuff like that, but he is truly a good guy, a really good person.”
McCauley says not only does Coach K run a clean program, but “guys respect him. It’s tough whenever you get these young players who are playing big time high school and you get all those egos on one team, but he finds a way to make it work. He gets kids to respect him.”
McCauley calls himself “a small-town boy,” but after leaving North Carolina State, he has played professionally in France, Belgium, Poland, Ukraine, Spain, Turkey, Isreal and even in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in the NBA’s D-League.
“I’ve traveled all around Europe,” he observed. “I guess you can say it’s been a really cool way to travel and see the world. You’re playing a sport for money, but you’re also seeing the world. I never thought I’d be at the places where I’ve been.
“Probably my favorite place has been Istanbul just because of the history there and how old that city is and what it’s been through. And that’s probably where I had my best, or one of my best seasons. I made it to the playoffs which is tough to do in that league because there are a lot of big-time players—I played against Dario Saric [who made the NBA All-Rookie team, 2016-17] who’s with the Philadelphia Sixers now. We matched as power forwards.”
Among other highlights, in 2013 he scored a career best 34 points with some stellar sharpshooting stats, 11-of-17 from the field. That season he poured in 18.8 points per game and yanked down 7.7 rebounds each game while maintaining an outside game, clicking on 42.9% of his three-point attempts.
McCauley, whose father owned the McCauley Funeral Home in West Newton, says he still has family in that town, but he now resides near Raleigh, North Carolina, where he works out at the Wolfpack gym when he’s not on a golf course. He married Mollie Dawson now McCauley in Greensboro, North Carolina in August 2019. In 2019, McCauley returned to Poland for a second stint, joining King Wilki Morskie Szczecin and during COVID in 2020 played intermittently in Puerto Rico for Brujos de Guayama. In early 2021 McCauley played in Poland for Slask Wroclaw and came in third winning a bronze. In the summer back to Puerto Rico finishing with the best record ever in franchise history 22-10.
(Grateful acknowledgment to Mon Valley Memories writer Wayne Stewart for the column on Ben McCauley)
Bob Rosborough
Bob Rosborough was one star in a constellation of players which included men such as John Kosh and Rudy Andabaker who left Donora High (Class of 1953) and went on to shine as a Pitt Panther. His football days began as a boy who was inspired by watching great Dragon teams.
“Going to those night games at Legion Field in 1944 and 1945 really impressed me,” Rosborough recalled. “It was like a magnet drew me to those chain link fences. I followed the team as it marched down the field. They were like a juggernaut — they were incredible teams with Arnold Galiffa and Bimbo Cecconi, Deacon Dan Towler, and Roscoe Ross.
“At halftime we would play tackle football behind the press box. That’s when my love of football began.” Rosborough may have loved football, but his success wasn’t imminent. He didn’t even make the junior high football squad. “I was sort of a skinny kid, but in ninth grade I finally made the team and we went undefeated,” he said. “We were WPIAL Junior Champions.”
“When I was a senior, I won the discus championship in the WPIAL and I was a javelin thrower and shot putter. “Well rounded, he was also his junior class president.
“Donora was successful in football,” Rosborough said. “I was a co-captain and I made the Big Six All-Conference for two years.”He also was All-WPIAL first team and All-State Honorable Mention in 1952, and made second team on the All-Time Donora High football team.
“Then I was recruited by a number of schools. I picked Pitt because I wanted my dad to be able to watch me play football. Our Pitt freshman team was undefeated. Then, for two years we were Eastern champions and played in bowl games in my junior and senior years.”
In 1955 and 1956, while playing right end for Pitt, Rosborough caught only a handful of passes, but averaged almost exactly 11 yards per reception. In 1955, the John Michelosen-coached team soared to a fine regular season record of 7-3 as an independent, long before Pitt joined the Atlantic Coast Conference. That record was strong enough to place them 11th in the final poll conducted by the Associated Press. They went on to lose a heartbreaker, 7-0, to Georgia Tech in the Sugar Bowl.
The main reason Rosborough didn’t haul in a ton of passes is that the Pitt offensive game was rather one dimensional back then. In fact, on the entire season the Panthers put the ball in the air a mere 102 times, completing just 40 passes. That translates to an average of just 9.4 passes thrown and just 4.5 completions per game. Rosborough’s college quarterback, Jimmy Lenhart of Charleroi probably never had a sore arm from overuse.
Basically, the same story held true the next season when the ‘56 Panthers finished the regular season at 7-2-1 before again falling to the Ramblin’ Wreck of Georgia Tech by seven points, 21-14, in the Gator Bowl. Along the way Pitt even knocked off Notre Dame, 26-13. Once again, the Panthers relied heavily upon the run, averaging 53 rushes to only 11.8 passes per game. Fellow wide receiver Joe Walton, a Beaver Falls native who would go on to the NFL, led the team in receptions in both 1955 and 1956 with a paltry total of just 37 catches.
Nevertheless, Rosborough has great memories. “I played against a lot of good players,” he said. “The quarterback at Notre Dame that we beat was Paul Hornung, the Heisman Trophy winner that year. I played against Jimmy Brown at Syracuse for three years in a row, and he had trouble gaining 50 yards against our teams.
“After I graduated from Pitt, I got a letter from the Green Bay Packers saying if I would try out with them and make the team, they would pay me a salary of $3,800,” Rosborough laughed. “That’s a joke compared to what the salaries are today.”
One job Rosborough held after graduation was a coaching job at Pitt where he actually wound up working with his brother Mickey. Bob Rosborough still recalls a lesson taught to him and other Donora football players by their coach Jimmy Russell who said, “It doesn’t matter what boat your folks came over on. What counts is if you can play football.” Clearly, Rosborough could, and did, make his abilities count.
He had five children in his first marriage. He and his second wife Mary Lou have lived in Whitehall since 1983 and have one daughter. Reflecting back on his roots growing up in a tough steel mill town, Rosborough considers his experiences there to be one of the most fortunate and irreplaceable periods of his life due to Donora’s “wonderful people of all races and religions, its schools and teachers, and the fiercely competitive athletic Big 6 Mon Valley schools.” He says that to him, and to every Donoran, it will always be the Home of Champions.
(Grateful acknowledgement for this biography by Wayne Stewart which appeared in the Herald Standard column Mon Valley Memories January 5, 2017.)
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