Looking back

Jul 03, 2010

By: The Times Herald

By DAVE KURTZ
Times Herald Sports Editor

The pages in the scrapbook are yellow and brittle. The photographs are cracked and faded. And the athletes that created those headlines and freeze-frame moments on playing fields and athletic arenas across the area have also been diminished.
Gone to seed, in many cases.
But what they’ve sewn in our subconsciousness – countless memories – remain bright and vivid and unbroken.
The eye-popping touchdown runs, slam dunks in traffic, walk-off home runs, overtime pins and game-winning goals aren’t easily forgotten. Neither are the league or district or state championships that fill all the trophy cases in the local high schools.
There is a rich athletic tradition in the Norristown area, and the athletes that helped build that legacy are etched in our minds forever.
In conjunction with the landmark Ben Franklin Project, readers were asked to submit their nominations for the greatest area high school athlete they’d ever seen.
The responses were diverse and in some cases, predictable.
An edited sampling from John Souder of Graterford:
“The greatest high school athlete that I got to watch in action was Henry Williams of A. D. Eisenhower High School (Norristown High School).
I was a teacher there when Henry was in school and got to see him play all his home and away games during his three-year career. Watching Henry was like watching a man playing among boys – he could just dominate a game when he wanted to. He was also playing at a time when he was not allowed to dunk and there was no three-point line – two factors that would have definitely increased his point totals.
His game was not only scoring, as he was a great rebounder and could easily have been a point guard for the way that he was able to handle the ball.
Some years later I got to see Kobe Bryant when Norristown played Lower Merion in a District playoff game at Wissahickon. Although Lower Merion won that game and Kobe played well at the end, the fact that he was not a dominating force throughout the whole game confirmed to me that Henry Williams was the greatest high school athlete that I got to watch in action.”
Here’s more from Tom Lees of Lafayette Hill:
“I’ve seen a lot of great local athletes since I started following sports in the Times Herald area in 1956. The best I ever saw and played against was John Pergine, Plymouth Whitemarsh class of 1964 … John went on to star as a quarterback on PW’s football team. He was also a starting guard on Plymouth-Whitemarsh’s 1963 undefeated state championship basketball team and their state runner-up team in 1964. John continued his football career as an All-American linebacker at Notre Dame and as a member of George Allen’s Los Angeles Rams and Washington Redskins. He even scored a touchdown on Monday Night football. Not too shabby.”
Pergine was a throwback, a multi-sport star before the recent trend that has high school athletes specializing, focusing on just one sport.
Other nominees from the readers included three-time North Penn state wrestling champion Chris Kwortnik (from Ralph Bozorth), record-setting Wissahickon running back Andrew Hyde (from Brian Miles), Norristown basketball player Moe Schiavo (from Tony Barone), Upper Merion wide receiver Bobby Thomas (from Tim Seiders), Bishop Kenrick multi-sport star Ricky Falcone (from Barbara Ann DeWan Thoms), Kennedy-Kenrick multi-sport athlete Keri Metzger (Krasley, from Amy C. Smith).
John Disante chimed in with four nominations, including Henry Williams, Mike Ethritch (Conshohocken High) and Eddie Swift (St. Matthew’s) and Sammy Cook (Plymouth Whitemarsh).
Phil Piazza Jr. nominated four members of the Piazza family (not related to Mike), Lucre, Phil, Leonard and Anthony for the impact they had on semi-professional baseball in the Norristown area post World War II. No, I wasn’t playing in the Perky League in those days.
Veteran Phillies pitcher Jamie Moyer, a Souderton graduate who pitched in the Perky League, got three nominations- from Stephanie Angel Schwenk, Stephanie Marinari and Philamena DiSanto.
Notable by their absence from the Email bag were these players that went on to greater fame at the professional levels.
In addition to Pergine, the professional football ranks were the greatest recipient of local talent. Among those that played in the NFL or AFL were local high school products Jack McBride (Conshohocken), Steve Bono (Norristown), Burt Grossman (Archbishop Carroll), Tom Mitchell (Plymouth Whitemarsh), Mike Ruth (Methacton), Larry Glueck (Lansdale Catholic), Bill Neill (Perkiomen Valley), Brad Scioli (Upper Merion), Emil Boures (Bishop Kenrick), Clarence Scott (Upper Merion), Lou Scott (Upper Merion) and Dennis Morgan (?).
Norristown’s Bobby Mitchell and John Smiley of Perkiomen Valley are the lone area high school products to ascend to baseball’s big leagues, although Kennedy-Kenrick product Chris Lubanski is currently knocking on the door at Triple A. Sure-fire Hall of Fame catcher Mike Piazza was born in Norristown, but graduated from Phoenixville. Like Moyer, Piazza also played in the Perky League along with Flourtown’s Scott Forster, the son of Plymouth Whitemarsh’s longtime athletic director Charlie Forster. Forster pitched briefly for the Montreal Expos. Hall-of-Fame manager Tommy Lasorda is a Norristown native.
John Salmons, who helped lead Plymouth Whitemarsh to a PIAA hoops title, is in the middle of a productive NBA career. Williams played in the old ABA, with the red, white and blue basketball and the wide-open offensive style.
Flourtown’s Mike Richter had a long and productive career minding the net in the NHL and North Penn’s Jay Caufield spent some quality time on the ice for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Both got the chance to raise Lord Stanley’s Cup.
Lisa Raymond of Wayne and East (West) Norriton’s David DeLucia have both spent time on the professional tennis circuit.
Who can forgot the big waves that were made by the Crippen family of Conshohocken. Sisters Maddy, Theresa and Claire and brother Fran all qualified for the U.S. Olympic swim team after stellar scholastic careers at Germantown Academy.
Norristown High produced world-class runners in Tony Darden and Josh Culbreath. Breaking the tape and crossing the finish line first were there specialities.
The names go on and on, finally disappearing in the dusk.
Gone but not forgotten, the authors of special memories that will last an eternity.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 3rd, 2010 at 10:27 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.