Comments on: Looking Back at Sixty-Five Seasons of Pennsylvania High School Football (Part 27 of 30) https://www.easternpafootball.com/looking-back-sixty-five-seasons-pennsylvania-high-school-football-part-27-30/ Your #1 Source for High School Football in Eastern PA Thu, 02 Jul 2020 14:12:05 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 By: Kmac https://www.easternpafootball.com/looking-back-sixty-five-seasons-pennsylvania-high-school-football-part-27-30/comment-page-1/#comment-1267579 Sun, 28 Aug 2016 15:51:55 +0000 http://www.easternpafootball.com/?p=33485#comment-1267579 David Brown

Thank you for your interest and posting. Again a big thanks for sharing your past connections. One of the reasons I wrote a “football autobiography” was in hopes of inspiring others to share past experience. Your “crisp fall evening” says a mouthful. Thank you again.

]]> By: David Brown https://www.easternpafootball.com/looking-back-sixty-five-seasons-pennsylvania-high-school-football-part-27-30/comment-page-1/#comment-1267451 Sun, 28 Aug 2016 08:45:31 +0000 http://www.easternpafootball.com/?p=33485#comment-1267451 Thanks for sharing your deeply personal history of PA football since 1951.
I am an Erie native who took root in California in 1982 after graduation from law school. This time of year I always feel the memories of PA HS football come flooding back.
I used a three-ring binder to document Erie football from 1960-1978 but felt obligated to dispose of my records in 1980 when I determined that California was my future. Not until the Internet and youtube appeared was I able to reconnect with Erie football in 1997.
Yet nothing quite matches the atmosphere of attending a game on crisp fall evening in PA.
I did not appreciate it as a teenager and young adult but I was blessed to experience the “golden years” of Western PA football. My alma mater was Strong Vincent(1991 “AA” PIAA champ) but we had the weakest program in the once proud City Series. Cathedral Prep, East, Tech and even Academy in its day had glorious histories.
From the Traditional Labor Day Lions’ Club City-County All Star game to the final game often played in swirling snowflakes Erie fans had a feast. Every Friday and Saturday night the Erie Veterans Memorial Stadium(then holding a SRO capacity of 20,000) presented the stage for City rivals to add another chapter in gridiron history. Often a powerhouse from the WPIAL or Ohio would venture into the Vet.
Actually each Erie team would usually invade the WPIAL for 2-3 games yearly and when asked by a sportswriter why we would endure the expected physical and emotional punishment the answer was 1. money, because the entire steel mill town would turn out for the beatdown and 2. it gave the Erie team and its coaches a good excuse to stay overnight and catch a Pitt game on Saturday.
And it was a thrill for a high school kid to soak up the experience of playing against what then was the best HS football in the USA – “Friday Nite Lights.”
Sadly, the well documented economic decline of the “rust belt” destroyed the City Series and the WPIAL. The memories will survive.
Keep up the good work.

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