Copyright
© 2017 John F. Oyler
August 24, 2017
Bridgeville High School History, part four
The August edition of the
Bridgeville Area Historical Society’s “Second Tuesday” workshops covered the
history of Bridgeville High School from 1927 through 1934. The facilitator
began the program by reviewing the popular culture of 1927 – the first talking picture, Al Jolson’s “The
Jazz Singer’; Lindbergh’s flight to Paris; and Gene Austin’s big record hit,
‘My Blue Heaven”.
He then showed an updated set
of sketches of the floor plan of the new, at that time, Lincoln High School. We
are still seeking input on that topic.
The first two classes covered
overlapped our previous workshop, as these students had been discussed as
underclassmen during our review of the Class of 1926.
The class of 1927 graduated
thirty three students, including siblings Tressa and Walter (Bumpy) Petrick and
Dewey David. An operetta, “Naughtical
Knots”, starring Mary McCloy and Robert Hughan, was the highlight of the school
year.
There were thirty seven
graduates in the 1928 class, including Nelson Rothermond, Pete Cherry, Helen
Cox, and George (Googie) Dresmich. Dresmich went on to have a long career as an
educator in Scott and South Fayette Townships. The football team won four games
and lost five, including an exciting 7 to 6 win over Carnegie. The class’
senior trip to Washington, D. C. was a fitting climax to an exciting year.
The twenty nine graduates in
the Class of 1929 included Mary Capozzoli and Esther Petrick. The only highlight
of a two wins, seven losses football season was a 12 to 0 win over South
Fayette in the inaugural meeting of that hard fought series.
The Class of 1930 was the
largest yet, with forty six seniors graduating. Familiar names included were
Lucy Capozzoli, Samuel Fryer, Tola Poellot, and Alma Weise. The football team
won three and lost six, but did manage to beat South Fayette 6 to 0. The
superintendent of schools at this time was Mr. Liggett; his son William, who
would be principal of BHS eighteen years later, was a student. A newspaper
clipping of a 20 to 12 basketball loss to Carnegie has Alpheaus (Bud) Beall at
forward. He was our neighbor on Lafayette Street in the late 1940s. A
photograph of the 1930 high school band includes several faces that would be
familiar to BHS students two decades later – Jane Patton and William Liggett.
Forty five seniors graduated
in 1931. The football team again won three and lost six, despite the presence
of Vic Vidoni. He went on to have an impressive career at Duquesne and then to
play two years with the Pittsburgh Pirates (before they were renamed the
Steelers). A newspaper clipping reported that Rooney had signed Vidoni to a
healthy contract in 1936 for his final season; Vidoni’s employer had granted
him a leave of absence to play football.
Also in this class were James
Hoston, Charles (Buzz) Mayer, George Rittenhouse, and William Vosel.
Graduating classes continued
to grow – in 1932 the class had grown to fifty five. It included William
George, Ralph Host, Charles McCool, Arthur Partee, and Thomas Toney.
The senior play that year was
“Honor Bright”, starring Dorothy McMillen and Frank Corey. The football team
went two and six that year, including a galling 3 to 0 loss to South Fayette.
An interesting clipping from
the Pittsburgh Courier in 1932 reported that Clarence (Grinny) Simpson had
signed a contract to play baseball for the Cleveland Giants in the Negro National
League. The Giants had been the Columbus Blue Birds before moving to Cleveland.
Forty three seniors made up
the graduating class in 1933. One of them was James McMahon, a name that also
showed up in the 1932 list. Was this a mistake? Or were they two different
persons? We are sure about one of the members of the class – Helen Colussy. Her
daughter, Patti Grossi Gratton, brought her mother’s 1933 class ring to the
workshop and proudly passed it around for inspection.
Another member was Elizabeth
Strain, whom we knew as Lib Beall when she and the aforementioned Bud Beall
were our neighbors. It is quite a treat to come across names of folks whom we
knew in later years in these classes. Makes us want to know more about them.
It is also interesting to
read about sports that we didn’t know Bridgeville participated in. In May 1933
a BHS volleyball team made it to the WPIAL playoffs at the University of
Pittsburgh. I wish I knew more about that team. The same year coach John Graham
took “crack high jumper Pete Bennett” to an interscholastic meet in Chicago.
Several other clippings report that Bennett was indeed the class of the local
track and field high school athletes.
The football team continued
its streak of losing seasons, this time winning two and losing five.
Fortunately Leetsdale and Findlay were victims, both by a score of 7 to 0.
We were surprised to turn up
a newspaper clipping reporting that BHS teacher Miss Speakman had just returned
from a trip to Europe. One wonders how a school teacher was able to afford a
trip abroad at the height of the Depression. She was met in Pittsburgh by her
father and “brought out in a machine”.
The roster of graduates in
1934 consists of an astounding eighty names, nearly double the total of the
previous year. Our source for these lists is information in the 1960 Yearbook;
it would be interesting to determine where they obtained the lists they
published.
The May Queen in 1934 was
Mary Elizabeth Vidoni. When she died, earlier this year, at the age of 100, her
daughter, Marie Smith, gave the Historical Society a copy of the program for
the coronation of the May Queen, the first ever at Bridgeville High School. She
and her brother came from Ohio for this specific workshop.
The program is quite
impressive and suggests that the coronation ceremony was much more formal than
it became in later years. It is written in “olde English”. For example, “Ye
Plaice of Coronacion is Ye Greate Hawle of Lincoln”. She was crowned by “Alma
Mater”, Jane Patton, supported by “Ye Spirituall Tutour”, Catharine Vidoni, who
was the Queen’s twin sister.
One puzzling thing is the
fact that Mary Elizabeth Vidoni is not included in the class roster published
in the 1960 Yearbook. Catherine Vidoni is listed, as is Giovanni Vidoni, who
Marie thinks was a cousin.
The football team beat Bethel
and East Pike that year, and was held scoreless in six other games. The soccer
team lost the inaugural WPIAL soccer championship game to South Fayette, 3 to
2. The BHS center forward in that game was Peter Pawlik; his son Ron was at the
workshop, hoping to learn more about his father. I was surprised to learn that
BHS fielded a wrestling team that year. They were shut out by Canonsburg. The
Bridgeville heavyweight, Wight, was pinned in two minutes and eight seconds.
Perhaps that is why we didn’t have a wrestling team in the mid 1940s when Jack
Wight was our primary coach.
“Once in a Palace” was the
class play that year. Among the cast were Audley McFarland, Alice Weise, and
Jack Skelly. The high school band provided music for the production.
We had promised Marie Smith
we would get as far as 1934 if she and her brother made the long trip here for
the workshop. We made it, just barely.
Our next workshop will be at 7:00
pm on Tuesday, September 12, 2017. We will pick up with 1934 and try to finish
off the 1930s. This will move us into the Neil Brown era, when BHS’ results on
the football field took a turn upward.
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