My Intro to Football

My intro to Football

by Jack Evans

Growing up in Coaldale, football was a religion and was the most topic of discussion with the residents of this small community. I was born in 1944 way past the great days of the Big Green, but it was the beginning of the glory days for the Coaldale high school football team.

I vaguely remember the late forties when my dad would take me to see the team play at night when my cousin Bill Evans played End on the team. I do not recall ever seeing the end of a game as I usually fell asleep.

I have more vivid memories of going up on Greenwood Street in Seek to see the young Bob “Skipper” Barry get ready for a big game on a Friday night. I was awe struck when he would put on that Coaldale jacket and give me a wink and tap me on the shoulder as he left the house. I remember watching him play and saying to my dad that when I grow up, I want to be like Skipper. When Skipper concluded his senior year, he was recognized as All State and later in life he was inducted into the Carbon County Pennsylvania Hall of Fame.

In 1951 my dad and his friend, Chuck Woods, took me on Thanksgiving Day to Pottsville to see the Reading team play the Crimson Tide. Some might say this was sacrilegious because it was not the Coaldale-Lansford game. The reason to see the Reading team was a chance to see the great Lenny Moore play for the Red Knights. Yes, the Lenny Moore who went on to play for Penn State and the Baltimore Colts.

Lenny took the opening kickoff and raced for ninety yards for a touchdown. He scored a couple of more in the game and then I changed my allegiance, I wanted to be like Lenny Moore. I was a traitor to Skipper.

At that time in my life, I was a poor eater at breakfast, I have no idea why. So, one day my dad comes home from work from the mines and tells me a story. He asks me If I want to be like Lenny Moore and being an impressionable kid, I say YES! He then proceeds to tell me that he works at the mine with Lenny’s dad and he said the secret to being a good football player was a good breakfast. He told me that Lenny has Wheaties, a scrambled egg and orange juice every morning so if you want to be good, you better start eating that.

For about three years I adopted that diet. It was only after the three years that I realized that there were no African Americans working in the mines, they looked that way when they came out! My dad played me!

Around 1953, my dad would take me on Sunday afternoon in the fall to Lansford to see Panther Valley Catholic play football. I was always focused on running backs because they had the ball and everyone chased them and to me that was real fun. At the time the PV had a great back name Snoah. His first name was Mike. I enjoyed watching him play.

The Seek section of Coaldale was affiliated with St. Jerome’s church so naturally my parents saw fit to enroll me in the Tamaqua school. My male classmates at the school were terrific and I did not feel like an outsider because there were many others attending from “over the road” meaning Newkirk, Revesdale, Tuscarora and Mary-D. Cottage Ave was our playground, and we played whatever sport was in season.

Jack Costello was a resident of Tamaqua and the parish and a big proponent of youth sports. When I was in the fifth grade, he decided to form a youth football team for the school, and I could not resist signing up to play. We practiced on the field up at the Bungalo and he devoted most of the attention to the seventh and eighth graders.

Finally, we have a game scheduled against an opponent. We were going over to Orwigsburg to play the kids who were residents of the St. Francis Orphanage. We were handed down uniforms from PV Catholic. The helmet I was given had no face protection and is spite of having a “Coaldale Head” it was too big for me as it swirled around my head. I might have been the first bobble head! The pants that I wore had knee pads go down to my ankles and the shoulder pads went past my elbows.

The nuns coached the orphanage kids, and we thought that they would have no chance against us Jerries. Were we wrong, they ran reverses and draw plays and scored on us at will. Where did these nuns learn football? I got in to play at the very end, and I cannot remember if I wore sneakers or my Flag Flyer shoes because I know that I did not have cleats. I have no idea what the final score was, but it was embarrassing. The Jerries had better stick to basketball.

In the mid-fifties, my buddies and I would get together after school and play tackle on a field on the very east end of Miner St. in Seek. It was about 30 yards long at best. My friends, Danny and Tucker Moyer, Bill and Jack Zweisdak, Billy Evans, Tommy Sopko and Rich Duval. On occasion Jack Tonkin would want to play with us but we would usually reject him because Tonky was much bigger than us and he played dirty. On a few occasions Tommy Surotchak of Coaldale would invite us to come up and play against his friends on Lehigh Street. Around 1957 we would go up to the Coaldale practice field and play a pick-up game against Shag Davis and his friends and while up there our goal was to come home with a cleat or a chin strap as a souvenir.

Before formal practice in ’57, I went on the field as Joe DeMatto was practicing kicking extra points. I asked him if I could try and he said go ahead. I split the uprights and Joe looked at me and asked, “What grade are you in?” I told him seventh and he told me to try again and once more I made it. He then asked me for my name and where I lived. I told him Seek and then he asked if I knew Skipper since that was his brother-in-law and I said yes. Even in Coaldale life is a small world.

I knew that I always wanted to go to Coaldale and try to play football. Danny Moyer was my biggest recruiter as he would always ask me to attend a football, basketball or track meet and we would walk up Kline’s Hill and take in the events.

After finishing eight grade at St Jerome, I had my dad sign the permission slip to take the physical for Coaldale football and then get outfitted with the equipment for practice. I was given a woolen orange sweater with the number 64 but the 4 was missing on the front. A woolen sweater in August? The black pants had no knee pads. I took this as a challenge for the weak.

After the first week of practice, we had a scrimmage in Lehighton, and I was the only player who did not get into the game. Maybe I should quit, I thought. The following Monday before practice, Tom Raymer pulled me aside and told me I was not registered at the school, so I could not attend classes or play. After practice, he drove me home, picked up my mother, and took both of us to the convent at St. Jerome to complete my transfer records. That was when I officially became a Tiger. I was not privy to the conversation my parents had afterward.

The next week we traveled to Orwigsburg to scrimmage Blue Mountain. I got to play! My happiness did not last long as I was hit extremely hard while carrying the ball and damaged my shoulder. I wanted to cry but held back. I could not lift my arm but somehow Doc Raymer was able to remove that woolen 64 without cutting. I saw Doc Laigon the next day and went for Xrays on Monday wearing a sling. I watched practice on Monday and then again on Tuesday and saw Blanche Herring coming to talk to Coach Roller and Raymer and I fled to the locker room to hide. I did not want to know what the verdict was. Blanche was the Xray tech in case you did not know. The result was, no football for three weeks and wear a sling.

As freshmen, we could not dress in the locker room. We had to dress around the toilets and urinals. It was a ritual or a form of hazing. You were lucky if you did not get a dose of analgesic balm in your jock strap.

Somehow, I earned my right to the locker room, and I will always be grateful to the three seniors who were my mentors and promoters: Greg Posta, Tom Surotchak and Ron Mateyak. Thus, my intro to football 101!