THE HISTORY OF COALDALE & FOOTBALL
Coaldale Big Green -- 1912-1933, 1946
The Coaldale Football team was formed in 1912 by the Coaldale Athletic Association and James H. “Casey” Gildea, who would manage the team for 21 seasons, with a roster of mostly local talent. While nearby towns, such as Pottsville and Gilberton favored importing players for their teams, Gildea preferred searching his own area for players. Arguably the team's two best players were James “Blue” Bonner and Jack “Honeyboy” Evans. Both men were Coaldale Natives. In 1912, Gildea combined two smaller and earlier Coaldale football teams, the Old Street Stars and the Coaldale Rosebuds. While the Big Green organization dates back to 1912, the name “Big Green” was not applied to the team until after adopting its famous green jerseys in 1917. From 1912 until 1917, the team was only known as Coaldale Football. The Big Green went on to win the Curran & Meade Cup, symbolic of coal region supremacy, in 1921, 1922, and 1923. The 1923 championship resulted in a 3-0 win over the famed Pottsville Maroons. The team continued play from 1924-1933 and was re-constituted for one year after World War II in 1946 as the "latter day" Big Green. The popularity of the brand of football played by the Big Green and their coal region competitors arguably helped spawn the eventual creation of today's National Football League (NFL) which began to appear in the early 1920s, first as the American Professional Football Association (AFPA) in 1920 and then officially as the NFL in 1922.
Coaldale Big Green -- 1912-1919
Coaldale Big Green -- 1920-1925
“BLUE” BONNER GOES OVER MATRIMONIAL LINE —Coaldale Observer, October 2, 1920—Famous football star stopped by Dan Cupid with a daring tackle in the open field—wedding to Miss Ida Herman took place Wednesday. Mr. James J. Bonner, of town, and Miss Ida Herman, of Tamaqua, were married in St. Jerome’s Church in Tamaqua...The bride, who is one of Tamaqua’s most charming young ladies, was prettily attired in a blue Duvetyne coat suit with white picture hat to match, and carried white bridal roses…”Blue” Bonner is probably the best known athlete in the coal region. Given a college education and the coaching college football men receive, his name would rank with that of Thorpe, Heston, Coy and a few others as the greatest backs of all time.
Coaldale Big Green - 1926-1933
Latter-Day Big Green (1946) & Beyond
