Dr. John E. (Jack) Benhart - Inducted 2016

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INDUCTED 2016

John "Jack" Benhart joins the South Central chapter tonight as a guy whose sporting exploits really occurred elsewhere, but whose achievements helped set the course for a very meaningful life and career in the Midstate. Our story starts a few hours to the west. In 1959-60, Benhart became the all-time leading scorer at St. Wendelin High School in Pittsburgh and was named Most Valuable Player in the city's Catholic League. 

Surprising turn. Benhart shipped off to the University of Arizona on a basketball scholarship-a Pittsburgh coach was moving there, and he lured some hometown recruits – and Jack became co-captain of the freshman team. It was a good adventure. But Benhart and his roommate, future NFL talent evaluator Tom Modrak, found the desert Southwest a little too far from home, and sought a transfer to a place where their families would have a chance to see them play. They landed at the then-Indiana State College in 1961.

Benhart became a three-year basketball starter at what we now know as IUP, finishing his hoops career with 977 points, good for fourth place at the time on the all-time scoring list. In his junior year, 1963-64, Benhart averaged a double-double: 21.8 points per game and 10.2 rebounds. Those averages still rank among single season bests for the Crimson Hawks. He was also named the team's MVP, and earned a berth on the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference all-conference team.

But for Benhart, a lifetime of accomplishment was only beginning. Hired as a geography professor at Shippensburg in 1968, he became chair of the Geography/Earth Science Department in 1972 and earned, among other honors, an Exceptional Academic Service award before retiring in 2005. Always active in the community, Benhart is a former chair of the Franklin County Planning Commission and served as a member of former Governor Tom Ridge's Land Use Task Force. And he never lost his love for sports.

Though job responsibilities - including at least eight summers spent teaching courses at the University of Salzburg in Austria - never left him time to take on full-time coaching, Benhart spent years giving back at the youth sports level. Benhart coached youth basketball, was the first coach in the community's girls’ program, and he also participated in Little League and senior division youth baseball.

But his crowning achievement for Shippensburg's kids, he believes, was a leading role in a 1980s project to upgrade the community's main stadium and playing field at Veterans Memorial Park. The community raised more than $200,000 to fund improvements including stadium lights, bleachers, locker room renovations, improved public restrooms and field upgrades. Benhart's satisfaction was in giving the town a proper monument to service, and its youth a quality place to play. That was important to the kid from Pittsburgh who credits sports with making a "huge difference" in his life.

"Discipline, hard work, teamwork, setting goals, being able to take a loss .... It really opens a path for you to use these same basic principles in life," Benhart said.

Benhart and his wife, Patricia, still live in Shippensburg, except for when they are wintering in Florida. They have two children: John, who followed his dad’s footsteps as a college professor; and daughter Cristen.

INDUCTED 2014

Football had its Pete Rozelle; Basketball, its David Stern; Baseball, Bud Selig. And Pennsylvania has had Brad Cashman. For two decades, Cashman was something like the commissioner of high school sports in PA, serving as executive director of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association. It wasn't always easy. But by any objective measure, the high school sports experience that Cashman left - for students, coaches and fans - is more satisfying for more players, coaches and schools than the systems that he founded. In fact, it's quite possible the PIAA will never see a growth like the Cashman era again. 

In his tenure, from 1993 through 2012, Cashman and his directors were able to negotiate the integration of Philadelphia's public schools and the city's Catholic League into the PIAA fold. The net effect of that was to say that state championships in Pennsylvania are real, all-across-the state

championships. No ifs, ands or buts about it. Secondly, in an attempt to try to enhance competitive balance and tournament opportunities, Cashman oversaw a steady expansion of Pennsylvania's state championship tournaments. In addition to the popular football tournaments, there are now state team titles in wrestling, tennis and cheerleading squads, lacrosse has been added, and new size classes have been created for several sports. Some say that helps keep high school sports relevant in the face of an increasing emphasis on club sports, which in turn has a community-building effect in Pennsylvania's towns. 

Cashman can relate to all of that. His personal story starts with a career as a stand-out athlete at Hanover's Eichelberger High School, followed by a strong career as a player at George Washington University and William & Mary, where he transferred after GW dropped its varsity program. As a junior at GW, it should be noted, Cashman was voted the Southern Conference's best offensive lineman. As a senior at William & Mary, he started on a squad coached by future NFL Hall of Farner Marv Levy which

upset a powerful Navy team that was ranked #1 in the East. After college, Cashman taught and coached at Northern High School, where his football teams posted a good 60-44-1 record through the 1970s. 

The funny part is, he might have stayed a football coach had not his wife, Susan, spied an advertisement for a new administrative position at the PIAA offices some 34 years ago. Perhaps because of his mixed athletic background and his William & Mary accounting degree, Cashman got the job. By 1993, upon the death of his predecessor Russell T. Werner, Cashman became executive director.

Through all the tournament siting controversies, athlete eligibility battles and occasional legislative oversight, the games have remained the center of it all for Cashman. "For me the most enjoyable part was actually seeing the championships run successfully and giving everyone the opportunity to see the best athletes and the best teams in the commonwealth compete for a state championship," Cashman said. Participation in athletics, he continues to believe, is a gift that keeps giving to kids long after they've left school. He was glad to play a part in making that possible.

Having retired from the PIAA in 2012, Cashman and his wife are now enjoying life, grandchildren and sports from their home outside Carlisle.

INDUCTED 2015

Anthony Cleary won't tell you he was the best football player of his era at Chambersburg High School. But his resume will. Cleary excelled as a four-year starter for the Trojan football team to the point where he was a three-time All-Conference selection, a two-time All-State selection, and nominated to represent Pennsylvania in the "Big 33" game in 1995. A combination fullback and nose tackle, Cleary rode his size, strength and gridiron prowess to full scholarship offers from the likes of Joe Paterno's Penn State program, Notre Dame and the University of Michigan. He chose the Nittany Lions because of Paterno, the quality of the education program and the priority attached to it, and the proximity to home for his family. "I wanted my college experience to be something my entire family was part of," he recalls.

At Penn State, Cleary's two-way abilities would continue to prove useful. After a freshman season in which Cleary, playing as outside linebacker, was runner-up Big 10 Conference defensive freshman of the year, he switched back to offense for the next two, ending up the 1997 season as the starting fullback. A young father and newlywed by then, Cleary transferred to Division II Shippensburg for his last year of college ball, partially out of a commitment to be closer to his wife and son.

After college Cleary signed as a rookie free agent with the Cincinnati Bengals. Unable to make the 53-man roster out of training camp, Cleary "elongated" his dream by playing for three different Arena League franchises from 1999 through 2003. Cleary singles out two mentors for his journey to the South Central Hall of Fame tonight: his parents and older brother, Michael, and his former Chambersburg head coach and fellow HOF inductee Don Folmar. It was family, he says, that first taught Cleary how to play football the right way. And it was Folmar who later helped Cleary make sure that he was making the most of his natural size and ability.

To Folmar, it wasn't that hard. "He always had great size, but what made him good was that for such size he had such excellent speed," Folmar said of Cleary. "He was someone that really enjoyed the game, liked to compete and had a pleasing personality that made him easy to get along with."

Today, Cleary is back in his hometown, loving life as an on-site manager for the temporary staffing company that provides manpower for a major Target distribution center. And he is helping the program where it all started for him, serving as a coach for his youngest son's Chambersburg Steelers youth football program. "To me, that's very fulfilling because I'm giving back," Cleary said. "I always wanted to show that you can go off and be successful, and then you can also come back, and give back."

INDUCTED 2015

Unlike so many South Central Hall members, Ronald "Ben" DeShong has never been the face of a program. But as a master teacher and clinician, he has raised the game of so many softball players in the diamond-rich Chambersburg and Shippensburg areas over the years that, for maybe the first time ever, we induct a career assistant.

Talk to DeShong, and you'll see it's a title he wears proudly. The retired Letterkenny Army Depot maintenance supervisor has been teaching softball at the age-group, high school and collegiate levels since the early 1990s, when his daughter Jamie played with the Fastrax Club team in the Chambersburg area. He followed his daughter to Chambersburg High School in the late 1990s as a volunteer assistant, and then joined Bob Brooken's softball staff at Shippensburg in 2001. It is no coincidence that wherever DeShong has gone, team success has followed:

• In five years at Chambersburg, the Lady Trojans won four District Ill and one PIAA state softball crown.

• In 14 years as a Ship assistant, Deshong has helped oversee Raider teams that compiled a 433-223 record (a .660 winning percentage), along with three Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championships, two NCAA regional championships and eight consecutive NCAA tournament appearances.

• In 2003 and 2004, the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) named Shippensburg as the Coaching Staff of the Year in the region, following consecutive NCAA Mid-Atlantic Region Championships and Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championships.

• At Fastrax, 18 and under teams that DeShong helped coach twice reached the American Softball Association's national tournament.

All those achievements come honestly: DeShong noted this fall that he has been around baseball and softball all his life, including his own schoolboy years when he shared a dugout with Tom Brookens, Chambersburg's biggest baseball hero. DeShong said he never coveted head coaching jobs, in part because he was going to need his day job anyway, but also because he found that being an assistant allowed him to focus on the game, and not administrative duties. Still, the teaching assistant says the most rewarding aspect of all is simply the relationship building that has occurred along the way. "What I'm proudest of is the kids we had the opportunity to coach, and what they went on to accomplish in their lives after college. I've loved my experience at Shippensburg, ... and I wouldn't change a thing." 

Ben, now 61, is married and lives with his wife, Jenny, in the Newburg area. They have two grown children, Heath and Jamie.

INDUCTED 2014

Pat Dieter adds a major new limb to the Gene Evans coaching tree in the South Central Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame. It's not that Dieter claims to be a carbon copy of Carlisle's Evans when it comes to style or in-game strategy, it’s because Evans is the very inspiration for his decision to get in to coaching in the first place.

Dieter lived in Mount Holly Springs as a kid, seven miles away from Carlisle High. As a result, he had to wait at school for his junior varsity hoops practices, which usually followed the varsity workouts. Evans, the Carlisle coach at the time, let him in the gym to watch. "I sat there and watched them practice, and watched him ... and he was a master," Dieter recalled. "I felt that he epitomized what coaching should be."

Almost 40 years later, Dieter is still a student of the game. But he is now also a peer among the best coaches in the region's hoops history. After having played for Evans’s last hoops teams at Carlisle High, Dieter went to Lycoming College, earned a history degree, and true to his plan, looked for his own coaching job.

After three years coaching junior varsity basketball at Trinity High School, he was offered the chance to take over the varsity program at Boiling Springs. Things got off to a rough start. The Bubblers went winless in Dieter's second year. Friends tried to offer him a reset button. Jim Dooley, for one, asked Dieter to join him as an assistant coach at Cumberland Valley. But Dieter stayed. "I could not leave under that circumstance," he said, "because I would have felt like I failed." The very next year, the Bubblers went 15-13, peaked at the end and made it all the way to the District III Class A championship game. Dieter never seriously thought about leaving again. "All of a sudden, we got something going," he said recently, "and a family was created."

The Bubbler basketball family has been thriving under Dieter's tutelage ever since. In Dieter's career, they have posted winning seasons in 22 of 31 years and qualified for post-season play in 23 seasons. The program's overall mark for that time is 438-339. And the spirit of a Bubbler family is very much and well. To wit: When Dieter needed a liver transplant several years ago, a former player stepped up as a donor. "I'm just one of many players who would do this for him," Kevin Roher said at the time. The Bubbler community is currently rallying tremendously for the family of another former Dieter player who is recovering from major head injuries.

Now in his second stint as athletic director at Boiling Springs, Dieter is taking steps to build up new communities. He is a founding organizer of the Mid-Penn Conference Basketball Coaches Association, designed to give coaches a greater voice in the issues affecting their kids and their game. Coach Evans would be very proud.

INDUCTED 2015

Chambersburg is known for many things: the Civil War attack by Johnny Reb, Martin's Potato Rolls, and its contribution to the Detroit Tigers. It was not, however, known for consistently good high school football when Don Folmar came to town in 1987. In fact, Chambersburg had only posted four winning seasons in the previous 16. And then, the Folmar Era. 

Coach Folmar put the Trojans on the football map with a 15-year tenure that included a 94-63-4 overall record against competition that those who witnessed it would argue was as bruising week-in, week-out as you'd find anywhere. Folmar's tenure was marked by seven straight seasons with winning records from 1988 through 1994, and included the only unbeaten and untied regular season in Trojans' history in 1989. There was one Mid-Penn Commonwealth Division outright championship, a second shared title, and four trips to the District III football playoffs tournament in the pre-expansion era when just four teams were invited.

Folmar said there were three basic tenets to his coaching style that became the secrets to his success: "We always really stressed fundamentals and technique, conditioning, and just believing that you can do it." One of those who learned to believe was Anthony Cleary - a fellow inductee in the South Central Hall tonight. Cleary credits Folmar with being one of the big secrets to his success. "Coach Folmar had a way of getting the best out of people that didn't necessarily know how to get the best out of it themselves. That's the way I live my life today, and I'm always thankful for him to that," Cleary said.

After his resignation as head football coach, Folmar would stay on as Chambersburg's athletic director through 2014 - a period that saw the redevelopment of Trojan Stadium into one of the nicest complexes in the mid-state, as well as other major facilities improvements. But Folmar's stamp is being felt in more ways than infrastructure: there is also the matter of the Folmar coaching tree. All four Folmar's sons are currently in the midst of their own successful coaching careers, presumably imparting some of those same lessons that dad instilled in his players over so many years. Ryan is head baseball coach at Oral Roberts University; Drew, offensive coordinator at Lehigh University; Scott is the incoming head baseball coach at Chambersburg; and Eric is associate head baseball coach at Louisiana-Monroe. Suffice it to say that this old coach I athletic director still has a lot of games to keep track of.

INDUCTED 2014

Donna L. Griest's claim to fame tonight is her high school basketball career, but that only just begins to tell the story of this remarkable woman. Coming out of New Oxford High School, Griest was pretty much doing something all the time. She was a class officer. She was in the marching and concert bands. And she played FOUR sports throughout her high school career: volleyball, field hockey, basketball and track and field. In her senior year, while president of the student council, she was chosen to captain the volleyball, basketball and field hockey teams. Probably little surprise then, that she was voted female athlete of the year.

But it was in basketball where Griest's prowess was noticed far beyond the rolling hills of Adams County. The records are extremely hard to come by in this dawn-of-Title IX era. So, we can't tell you for sure that Griest is the all-time leading scorer at New Oxford, or that she topped 1,000 points. But we do know this much. Griest scored 396 points in her senior season, leading New Oxford to an 18-5 record that led the team into the District III championship game, where they lost to Lancaster Catholic. Griest, playing mostly as a guard, accounted for 34 percent of the team's scoring. For those efforts, she was named to what has to have been one of The Patriot-News' first Big 15 girls’ basketball teams.

Led by a desire to continue doing something in sports, Griest enrolled at Lock Haven State College, where she looked forward to playing for Women's Basketball Hall of Farner Carol Eckman. Eckman, stricken with cancer, had to give up coaching. But Griest finished in 1980 with an education degree that set her up for a long career as teacher, coach and administrator at West Perry High School. There, Griest coached girls’ basketball from 1982 through 1986, and she started and led West Perry's girls volleyball program from 1989 through 2000. 

Now back to teaching physical education at the elementary school level, Griest has continued to invest heavily in high school students by working since 1987 on the staff of the Rotary Youth Leadership Conference at Messiah College. She also remains active as a collegiate volleyball official, working matches throughout Central Pennsylvania and Maryland.

As you might expect, however, Griest continues to find new outlets for her competitive side, the latest being her participation in disc golf tournaments: if you don't know, that's golf, played with a Frisbee. Griest, as is her fashion, is attacking the game with verve and passion, so much so that she has already qualified once for the amateur world championships.

For Griest, who was inducted into New Oxford's Sports Hall of Fame in 2008, it's kind of the natural evolution of a life that has always been centered around sports. "I was always a competitor, and I am still today," the Boiling Springs resident said. "I think sports gave me the foundation for understanding how much hard work and commitment means. It's that once you say you're going to do something, you do it the best you can." From the record, we submit that's never really been an issue for Donna Griest.

INDUCTED 2014

In his last year at Quaker Valley High School in Allegheny County, Averell Harris's football team went 1-7-1. Harris was not widely recruited, but he really didn't want his career as a football player to end that way. So, he arrived at Shippensburg University in 1973 as a walk-on, and it turned out to be a win-win for everybody. Playing on the JV team that fall, Harris kick-started a post-high school career that just kept getting better and better. And Shippensburg discovered one of the best receivers to ever grace the field at Seth Grove Stadium.

As a sophomore year, Harris earned a shot to start for the Red Raiders varsity. As a junior, he caught 49 balls and set records for most receiving yards in a single game; receiving yards in a season; and most touchdown passes caught with nine. Ship went 8-2-1 in 1976, winning the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference West Division championship and ending its season with a tie against East Division champs East Stroudsburg. Harris finished his collegiate career with 99 catches for 1,677 yards and 11 touchdowns. He was also a first team All Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference selection.

Harris parlayed his growth at Shippensburg into free agent tryouts each of the next two years with the National Football League's Los Angeles Rams and Buffalo Bills. He didn't make the roster, but to Harris the experience and added coaching he received on matters like route running was invaluable. And it paid off big when Harris suited up for the semi-pro Chambersburg Cardinals. Catching balls from former Ohio State quarterback Greg Hair, Harris led this regional minor league juggernaut in receiving for four straight years and shared in its national championships in 1979 and 1980. In 1988, Harris was inducted into the American Football Association's Minor League Hall of Fame.

Harris is the second-leading AFA receiver of all time, with 567 catches. He still holds AFA records for most receiving yards gained in a career, most receiving yards in a season, and average yards per catch.

He has come a long way from that high school 1-7-1 season, and Harris thanks those in the Shippensburg University program for him and his football career that new lease on life. !'That was the jump start," said Harris, who entered the Shippensburg Athletic Hall of Fame in 1991. "I loved having the chance to keep playing. If it would have ended for me with high school, I would not have been fulfilled."

A longtime employee of Pittsburgh-based Equitable Gas Co., Harris has lived in the Pittsburgh area since the end of his playing days. One more fun fact: Harris's brother-in-law is former Super Bowl-winning coach Tony Dungy.

INDUCTED 2016

Don Nichter didn't plan a career in coaching. But you get the idea that, 31 years into his tenure as the maestro of Dickinson College's cross country and track & field programs, he's pretty pleased with the way things turned out. We know a generation of Red Devil runners are, too.

Our story begins in State College, PA. Nichter was a graduate student at Penn State in the fall of 1982, working on a master's degree in recreation management, and figuring on a career running a YMCA or something like that. Out for a run one day, he had a chance conversation with Dave Watkins,  Dickinson's athletic director at the time, who was on sabbatical. From that meeting, came a pitch. And by the time Watkins was done, Nichter had been recruited to join Dickinson's staff in the newly opened Kline Life Sports Learning Center as director of recreational sports arid physical education. 

While building that program, Nichter, a serious runner himself, volunteered with Dickinson's cross country program, and by 1985-86, with the retirement of that program's coach, he was asked to fill in as the men's coach. Nichter, and the Devils, were off and running, if you'll pardon the pun. In the three decades since, Nichter has become the most decorated coach in modern Dickinson history. His cross country, and now, track teams have combined for 16 conference championships in the highly competitive Centennial Conference, and his women's cross country program is currently working on a string of 16 straight team appearances at the NCAA Division Ill championships. The men, by the way, are hardly slouches. They saw an eight-year streak of NCAA team appearances end in 2015 and are working hard to start a new streak this fall.

Nichter - himself a seven-time Mid-East Coach of the Year as selected by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Association - has contributed to the development of 34 All-Americans, and, in track, has produced two national champions. All the while, the western New York native has continued to develop and refine his own skills and philosophies about coaching with an emphasis on physical training, to be sure, but also mental toughness and emotional investment. For example, after one less-than-they'd-hoped-for showing at nationals, Nichter put his teams in a race with mostly Division I and II schools the next year to let his runners - used to running from the lead in most of their regional small college races - experience a highly competitive race where they might have lost touch with the leaders.

Nichter's consistent success long ago made his program attractive to runners that are already highly committed to the sport. "Then, it's trying to get them to run fast, and get all of those dimensions (physical, mental and emotional) engaged." For Nichter, who ran at a small Catholic high school and, later, helped petition Ithaca College to start a cross country program (he ran on its first team in his senior year), this may be a matter of compensating. Nichter notes he never had any consistent, professional coaching as a student-athlete. "Maybe that's what's driven me to want to figure it out," he said in a recent conversation. "I wanted to develop these programs into a special experience for the student-athletes." To that, we say, mission accomplished. But as anyone familiar with Nichter's program knows, the journey continues. 

INDUCTED 2016

The 2016 induction is a family affair for new inductee William Owens. It's not in the usual order, but this year, Bill, a multi-sport star at Carlisle High School in the 1960s, joins his sons Billy (basketball) and Michael (football) as members of the South Central chapter's Hall of Fame. For Bill, who has spent so much of his life trying to position his kids - and those from many other Carlisle families - for new opportunities and success, it's an honor that kind of feels like paying it backwards. Admittedly, you've been around for a while if you remember, but long before there was Billy, or Michael, their dad was a standout athlete for some outstanding Thundering Herd teams. Consider:

• As a sophomore in the fall of 1960, Owens was an all-South Penn Conference running back for an undefeated Carlisle football team.

• That spring, he ran to District Ill titles in the 100-yard sprint, in an eyepopping 9.9 seconds, and the 220-yard dash.

• Bill's personal "Triple Crown" was capped in the winter of 1961-62, when he was a defensive stopper for coach Gene Evans' District 3, Class A (large school) basketball champions.

Because of a severe knee injury, Bill's personal progress was slowed in his senior year, and he didn't get an opportunity to play in college. But he did marry his high school sweetheart, Marsha, after graduation, and set about trying to make his community a better place through a career devoted to youth development, job skills training, and more recently, helping kids return from juvenile placements.

As his five kids started to get involved in sports, Bill gravitated to an after-hours career in coaching. For the past 40 years, starting with midget football, Owens has worked at Carlisle - and occasionally at other mid-state stops when friends have beckoned - giving kids the tools to get better, on the field, and off. Former competitors recall Owens' great defensive game plans in Mid-Penn Commonwealth battles. But colleagues who coached alongside him were just as impressed by his efforts to establish a mandatory study hall for players with 'C' average or lower, or his service as volunteer counselor for kids having just about any kinds of problem. As Earl Mosley, with whom Owens worked at both Harrisburg and Central Dauphin East high schools, put it: "The kids feel and sense his genuine concern and love for them."

Owens, at 72, is still showing that love these days, working as a school-day hall monitor at Carlisle, and assisting after school with the football program, and as 9th-grade basketball coach. Owens says he's still driven by a desire to see all kids get an opportunity, and he has a special affinity for those who may need some extra "life coaching" just to keep their own doors from closing prematurely because of bad grades or bad decisions. "You can't help them if you're not there. If you're not in the mix of things, and seeing how they do things," he explained recently.

Besides joining a hall that several old coaches, teammates and two of his sons already belong to, Owens said he's thrilled to be in the company, once again, of his original football mentor at Carlisle, the late Clyde Washington.

INDUCTED 2015

Allen R. Peffer's road to tonight's induction started with what was intended to be a pretty casual, first Monday out-of-school, trip to Dickinson College to "train" with a friend on one of the area's first rubberized outdoor tracks. The track was the attraction for the kids from Boiling Springs High School track team that day, " Peffer said. But when they got there, they were met by one Richard Ocker, the educator/sprinter (and fellow hall of famer) who took an interest in the young runners and wound up becoming their informal coach for the summer. "Well, he taught us a lot about running that day," said Peffer, who noted his participation on the Bubbler track team up to that point had been barely noticeable. "The workouts continued about twice a week over the summer, and my senior year turned out to be something special," Peffer recalled.

Ocker, in fact, refers to Peffer as the fastest middle-distance runner in Boiling Springs history. As a senior, Peffer won the Blue Mountain Conference title in the 440, setting a meet record in the process, and he also anchored a mile relay that came in first place that day. The Bubbler boys would go on to great success at the 1973 District and State meets, (Peffer captured two silver and one bronze medals at states between his 440 and two relays), and Peffer was pushed to start thinking about a college career. "That (his running) opened up a whole new life for me that day," Peffer said.

By now consumed with challenging himself to be the best he could be, Peffer eventually landed in the track-rich Southeastern Conference, running for Auburn University in 1976 and 1977 after two years of junior college. "SEC track was the best in the country back then, and I just wanted to throw myself into an environment like that and see what happened," Peffer recalls.

Still improving as a runner, it turns out that Peffer was "always noticeable" as an Auburn War Eagle. Individually or as part of a relay, he was a part of eight school-record performances between the indoor and outdoor track seasons, and Petter's top indoor time for the 800 meters still remains on the school's Top 10 list.

After college, Peffer would run competitively many years for the Florida Track Club, building to times that qualified for the U.S. Olympic trials in his best event, the 800, though boycotts and injuries kept him from ever actually competing there.

More recently, Peffer, a real estate appraiser and weekend farmer by day, has competed in three Masters' world championships, which he says has been cause for three great trips to Australia, Great Britain and Italy. Today, he credits his unexpected successes in track as making him a stronger, more confident person who has parlayed his readiness for challenges into a richer life than he ever thought possible.

INDUCTED 2018

Joel Quattrone has been a foundational piece of the Dickinson College athletics department since 1985. Quattrone, a native of Salamanca, NY, followed a former colleague to Carlisle in 1985 for the chance to take a combined administrative post on the athletic director's staff s and join then-head football coach Ed Sweeney's Red Devils staff. It was a really good fit, both ways. Dickinson got a loyal coach who was dedicated to helping student-athletes who are thrilled to have the chance to play at the college level, and Quattrone got introduced to a community where he could have a direct impact on the student athlete experience. That impact just got a little farther-reaching, as Quattrone this spring was named Dickinson's interim director of athletics, a position he will hold at least through the fall 2018 semester.

As coach, Quattrone tutored running backs, linebackers and the defensive backfield for eight years, before becoming defensive coordinator for Sweeney's successor, Darwin Breaux, in 1993. In the Breaux era, he helped guide the Red Devils to two Centennial Conference championships and NCAA playoff appearances, three additional Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference post-season berths, and he mentored numerous small college All-Americans, including a two-time Centennial Conference Defensive Player of the Year, Eric Dube, in 2006 and 2007. Quattrone's defenses had also produced the Centennial's Defensive Player of the Year in 1994, 1995 and 1998.

Within the athletics department, Quattrone has been actively involved in all aspects of administration and served as its primary financial officer. Quattrone says that combination of his varied responsibilities, the people he worked with, and the way athletics are run at Dickinson overrode any personal desires to jump on the coaching carousel and see where it spun him. "These kids (as Division III athletes) are playing because they love to play, “Quattrone said. "They wanted to practice. They wanted to get better. And from the good times through the bad times, they were always working hard for us, and I'm not sure you get that everywhere."

Quattrone has also been a lifelong proponent of teaching the value of teamwork outside the lines and molding it as a force for community action. That was seen through his work to involve the Dickinson football program in the "Get in the Game" program that seeks to increase the number of healthy, young adults available to help save lives by participating in a national bone marrow registry.

Quattrone brought the program to Dickinson in 2013, and it has by now led to the addition of more than 1,000 new registrants to "Be The Match" - the world's largest and most diverse registry of marrow donors. "It's a great example of what our program and what our kids are all about," Quattrone said, explaining the staff likes to stress how fortunate Dickinson's athletes are to follow their passion, and how a part of earning that is using your abilities to help others. Besides the bone marrow registry, the footballers have regularly offered their services at Carlisle's Project SHARE food bank, participated in reading programs at local schools and found other ways to contribute to town-gown relations. 

A 1982 graduate of Canisius College in Buffalo, Quattrone was a four-year letter-winner and captained the football team during his senior year. He worked two years at Canisius as a graduate assistant while earning a master's in physical education administration. He then spent one year at Dartmouth, before moving to Dickinson.

Quattrone resides in Carlisle and has four children. Brian works as an accountant, Matt played football and now works as a graduate assistant at his alma mater, McDaniel College. Daughter Megan is a member of the McDaniel field hockey and lacrosse teams, and Caitlin is a student at Carlisle. Hanover, with his wife, Kathy. They have three daughters and three grandchildren.

INDUCTED 2018

For inductee Jim Rich, the thing that jumps out of his resume is selflessness. Consider, Rich was an established starter who'd already earned all-conference notice as a receiver at Lycoming College when, in his senior year, for the betterment of his team, he was asked to switch to the defensive side of the ball. Suffice to say, it worked out. That 1975 defense ranked top in the nation in Division III football in total yardage, permitting opponents just 133 yards per game. The Warriors had two shutouts and held five of eight opponents to single digits. Rich, playing as a defensive back, was again selected to the all-conference team. (He is the only player in Middle Atlantic Conference history to be elected all-conference both as an offensive and defensive player.)

Rich's sports career actually started in Williamsport years earlier, when as a boy, he played in the original Little League. Years later, the family moved to the Mechanicsburg area as Rich's father took a job with Amp Inc. Jim wound up attending Cumberland Valley High School, where he played football under coaches John Stachura and, in his senior year, the great Harry Chapman. In a harbinger of things to come, in his senior year he played as a linebacker and halfback for an Eagles team that was just starting to get rolling, and drew notice from his peers on both sides of the ball: Rich was selected to the All-Harrisburg Area team as a halfback in 1971 , and then named to play linebacker in a Cumberland County All-Star Game that was held at the time.

Then, it was on to Lycoming. There, Rich broke Lycoming's school record for receiving yardage in 1973 and finished his three years on the offense having tied the school's career record for receiving touchdowns. Then, came the switch to the defense. Rich said he was willing to make the switch for Coach Frank Girardi for a couple of reasons. First, he was happy to do what was best for the team in one of the ultimate team games. And secondly, on a personal level, Rich noted that, while a receiver may or may not have much to do on a given play depending on the play call, as a safety "I loved that nobody could keep you from being involved every play."

Believe it or not, in his first start on defense, Rich notched two interceptions and scored a touchdown when, as the holder in the kicking game, he picked up a bad center snap and ran in for a touchdown. That 1975 year, incidentally, was the first of an incredible 29 straight winning seasons under Girardi.

It was team success, both at high school and college, that remains one of the most satisfying bookends to Rich's career. "What I really cherish," he said, "is that I was a part of being able to be a difference-maker in both programs." Rich completed his playing career with several seasons with the Chambersburg Cardinals, and his sports resume has since grown to include selection into CV’s inaugural football hall of fame class in 1997, and induction into Lycoming's sports hall of fame in 2011. He was also selected, in 2012, to the Middle Atlantic Conference's All-Century Team, for the 1970-82 era. 

He's never really stopped giving back. From coaching youth baseball and football to serving on the board of the Cumberland Valley Football Alumni Association, where he's a played a key role in establishing scholarships for graduating senior players and other supports to the Eagles' program, Rich is doing his part to ensure that other kids have the same kinds of  pportunities that meant so much to his growth and development.

A vice president for Swift Transportation of Harrisburg, Jim and his wife Sharon live in Middlesex Township, from where they enjoy spending time with their two adult children and five grandchildren.

INDUCTED 2015

When Tom Robertson struck a golf ball, you didn't necessarily have to see the shot to know it was good. The sound of a pure ball striker making contact is unique. And according to some who knew him best, Robertson played symphonies on the golf course. "The first time I played with him at the Carlisle Barracks course he shot 29 on the back nine," said longtime friend Brian Doyle, who met Robertson in 1972 when Doyle worked for Spalding Golf. " He was an extraordinary talent and a magnificent striker of the golf ball."

A teaching professional in the mid-state for parts of four decades, Robertson, 56, died suddenly in July 2008. Tonight, we remember him with a posthumous induction into the South Central Sports Hall of Fame. Scottish-born and American-raised, Robertson was a legendary high school player in Connecticut before getting drafted into the Army in the late 1960s. His last duty stop in the Army was in Carlisle. According to Doyle, Robertson fell in love with this part of Pennsylvania and never left.

His club pro career began with Blue Ridge and Chambersburg Country Clubs before Robertson settled in as head professional at Sunset Golf Course near Middletown. From 1988 through 2008, Robertson was a fixture as head pro Dick's Sporting Goods in Hampden Twp., and continued teaching.

But Robertson is best remembered in local golfing circles for winning more than 100 Central Counties and Philadelphia PGA professional events in the 1970s and '80s. He qualified for the PGA Championship at Riviera in 1983 and during one stretch made it out of local U.S. Open, qualifying at least 10 straight times. He was the PGA's Central Counties Chapter's Player of the Year for six out of seven years between 1980 and 1986. "I would say for maybe a period of 10 years or maybe more, he was the single best player in the whole area without a doubt," longtime friend Bob Spangler told The Patriot-News upon Robertson's death. "He was an exceptional talent but was never driven to make a career as a tournament player.”

At one point of his playing career, Robertson held in the neighborhood of a dozen course records. According to Doyle, the first time Robertson played Colonial Country Club he shot 65. "You don't set all those course records, that may or may not have since been broken, without having so much talent," Spangler said. "I played with him a lot... And I know first-hand how good he was."

INDUCTED 2014

Bard Rupp comes to the South Central Sports Hall of Fame on two tracks - coach and athletic director – that helped kids at one place: Carlisle High School. It's for the cumulative impact from wearing both hats that we honor Rupp tonight.

Rupp's journey started as track athlete as a Carlisle student under the early years of Morgan's tutelage, from 1952 through 1954. After earning a degree from Lycoming College in 1958, Rupp began teaching at Shippensburg High School, where he started the track program. He came back to Carlisle in 1961, serving 17 years as one of Morgan's assistants - with a focus on the field events.

In 1978, things changed. Morgan retired, leading to Rupp's elevation as head coach. That was also the year that Rupp was selected to succeed David Heckler as Athletic Director. You could say that Rupp packed 10 years of effort into the next five years. On the track front, he kept Carlisle operating among the elite programs in the area, including winning back-to-back District 3 AAA girls team championships in 1982 and '83. And as AD, he had the complex task of managing the eruption of fan and community interest in Carlisle's boys’ basketball program during the Butch Evans/Jeff Lebo/Billy Owens era. Carlisle hadn't won its state titles yet. But it had begun stringing together undefeated or one-loss regular seasons and begun playing some of the biggest names in East Coast high school hoops. A ticket to the Carlisle gym was the hottest ticket in town. 

"They were crawling in the bathroom windows and anyway they could get in to see Carlisle play," Rupp said. Rupp is credited with devising a way to deal with the demand, setting up separate systems for sales of season and single game tickets at hours separate from the game itself, so the throngs attending the game wouldn't be piled on top of the throngs simply trying to get in.

Before all of that, Rupp was also heavily involved in the dawning of the Mid-Penn Conference, which began operations in the 1982-83 school year as the biggest athletic ·conference in the state. Rupp was a major supporter of the original Mid-Penn, arguing it allowed like-size schools to compete in competitive divisions, preserved natural rivalries and, in many cases, cut down travel costs.

Among all his accomplishments, Rupp said he always got the most satisfaction from helping kids achieve their potential. What gave him the most pride, he added, was doing it with and for the people he loved. "The best thing was to come home, and teach and coach with people who I had admired and respected a great deal (as a student), and call them my friends," Rupp said. "It was an honor to come back to your hometown and maybe give back a little bit of what they gave me."

After retiring from public education in 1983, Rupp moved to Florida. He resides now in Cape Coral with his wife, Patra, where he is still administering as the manager of a condominium association.

INDUCTED 2015

When the Chambersburg Cardinals were in their heyday, Larry Rydbom was one of the on-and- off-field mainstays who kept the train on the track. Rydbom played quarterback for the Cardinals from 1977 through 1980, and again in 1984. At times during that period, Rydbom was the on-field general for the Cardinals, leading the team to more than his share of wins.

But he was also destined to be minor league football's version of Craig Morton, the successful Dallas Cowboys QB who shared time and eventually gave way to Roger Staubach. (In Chambersburg's case, Staubach's role was played by former Ohio State Buckeye Greg Hare.) Here's the rub: When Rydbom wasn't playing, his Cardinal teammates say he was just as much as contributor to their success, always doing everything he could to help his team in a tremendous display of selflessness.

A native of Flinton, Pa., Rydbom was a two-year starter for his Glendale High School team in 1968 and '69, a period in which that relatively new school registered its first two winning seasons and first league championship. Rydbom enrolled at Slippery Rock in 1970, but left school after two years, primarily for financial reasons.

That was not the end of his gridiron career. Rydbom eagerly signed on for the minor league ball that flourished in the Mid-Atlantic region at the time. Starting with the Latrobe Laurel Leopards in 1972, his falls were booked through 1989. The run to remember, however, had to be with Chambersburg, which was in the midst of winning nine straight Interstate Football League titles, and finished the 1979 and 1980 seasons ranked tops in Pro Football Weekly's rankings of all minor league teams. Rydbom and Hare split time about equally from 1977-80, helping the Cardinals to an overall 56-4 record with four straight Interstate Football League titles.

"He could have started for any other team," former Cardinals coach Don Heiges told The Public Opinion in 2005, when Rydbom was inducted into the Minor League Football Hall of Fame. "The reason he got a lot of playing time with me was because of his attitude and the way he handled himself. He was very professional."

Rydbom's playing career wrapped with the Harrisburg Patriots in 1989, ending on a high note with his selection to the American Football Association's all-star team. But Rydbom never really left the game, returning to coach the Cardinals in 1994-95, and working since then as a game official, first at the high school level, and currently for the NCAA.

Off the field, Rydbom is still quarterbacking Hagerstown, Maryland-based Ellsworth Electric Inc. as a vice president and general manager. He and his wife, Janice, live in Chambersburg 

INDUCTED 2016

Sometimes you just get the feel of quality when you come across a certain school's athletics program - whether as participant, parent or competitor. But that quality doesn't just happen. It takes vision, attention to detail in areas like facilities management, hiring and personnel development, budgeting, even rallying community and alumni support. To achieve those things, you need the guiding hand of an exemplary administrator.

Northern York County School District in Dillsburg has found such a leader in Gerald "Gerry" Schwille. Schwille, a Northern alum, has led the Polar Bears athletic department since 1992, developing it into the only Pennsylvania program thus far to be named an "exemplary program" by the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association. The designation, attained last year, applies exacting standards across numerous different goal areas: including finance and budgeting, coaching development and program innovation. To Schwille, it was the journey that was most worthwhile. "The course describing the award really opened my eyes as to what we should be doing according to national standards," he told PennLive last year. "We wanted to be the best athletic department we could be ... It's the result of a lot of hard work from a lot of people." Here are some markers of that kind of quality achievement that all can see:

• Polar Bears teams have won 103 Mid-Penn Conference championships across all sports during Schwille's tenure, an average of more than four per year. There were also nine PIAA District Ill team titles, and one state team title for good measure.

• Pretty much a total makeover of the athletic facilities, from the all-weather track and spitted-up stadium to a newly renovated weight training facility.

• Dedication to developing leadership qualities in coaches, but also student-athletes, through a weekly class called "Developing Team Leaders" that Schwille developed and introduced seven years ago.

There are lots of little extras, too. Northern, for example, has drawn notice for encouraging its one or more of athletes to perform the national anthem live before their home games. For Schwille, the path to instilling quality at his alma mater was a circuitous route that included a first, and also highly successful, career as an athletic trainer. 

After graduating from Messiah College in 1978, Schwille travelled the country to further his development as a trainer, eventually landing positions with the now-defunct USFL (Fun Fact: Schwille's boss with the New Jersey Generals was Donald Trump); and the head trainer position at Temple University from 1988 through 1992. It was while at Temple that the opportunity to come back home knocked, and he opened that door to Northern.

On the state level, Schwille has served two terms as president of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Directors Association, most recently in 2014-15. There, his most-prized accomplishment is having pushed through a platform plank requiring every PIM school coach to complete courses in coaching principles and sports first aid and safety. "The coach is the most important person in the athletic department. They work with the kids," Schwille says. "So, to me, that was the biggest thing because it

affected every kid in Pennsylvania."

A father of two, Schwille lives in Dillsburg with his wife, Kelley.

INDUCTED 2018

One of the greatest achievements in coaching sports at a public high school has to be sustaining a winning program in the face of demographic changes, increased opportunities for talent to move elsewhere, and the random bouts of bad karma that befall all of us. We think some of it has to do with the coach and his personality, too, right? Don Seidenstricker's career at South Western High School in southern York County offers a guide to sustaining success, if only it were that easy to replicate. 

Seidenstricker served as head football coach at South Western from 1986 through 2011. In that time, his teams won 13 York-Adams league titles, a pretty remarkable share in 26 years of competition because we know there were more than two teams in the league, and they qualified for the District III post-season tournament in nine of those years; most of that pre-playoff expansion. Seidenstricker's teams' overall record of 196-90-1 has already earned him membership in the Pennsylvania State Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame, and he represented Pennsylvania as an assistant in the "Big 33" game in 2001. How did it all happen?

The Hanover native reveals a couple of ingredients to his formula for success: A dedicated and loyal staff that kind of became an extended family. "At one time, we had four coaches with over 30 years of experience all at South Western," he noted. That's a rarity for high school ball, and Seidenstricker believes it fostered a level of commitment to each other and chemistry that couldn't help but rub off on the kids, 68 of whom went on to play college ball at some level. Then too, there was consistent and strong community support, which meant big, enthusiastic crowds at home games. "It was a community that really showed our kids that we felt that what they did on Friday nights was important, and that helped them buy in, too," Seidenstricker said.

Of course, leading the way in building that family feel was Seidenstricker. As successful as he was at South Western, the Hanover native said he never really felt the urge to see where else his coaching talents could lead him. Call it contentment. "My wife also taught here, and we liked the school, and we made a conscious decision that we wanted our kids to go to school here, and I just got to the point that I did not want to trade all that for a new start. I was just happy to watch our program continue to excel and improve." And, oh yeah ... there was, the football. Peers have described Seidenstricker as meticulous, well-prepared and inspiring. "His teams played hard, smart football. His teams were determined to out-hit you and win every play. If you were not up to the challenge, you were going to get embarrassed," said Central York coach Brett Livingston upon Seidenstricker's induction into the coaching Hall of Fame in 2015.

In addition to his coaching, Seidenstricker served as South Western's athletic director from 1991 through 2017, and he has been a member of the PIAA District III governing committee since 2002. Less publicized, but just as important to the athletes and their families, Seidenstricker also coached South Western's girls track team from 1980 through 1987, guiding the Lady Mustangs to a gaudy six league titles in eight years. 

A graduate of East Stroudsburg, Seidenstricker is now happily retired with his wife, Jody Conrad, and continuing to serve the high school sports community through various roles with District III.

INDUCTED 2016

This year the South Central chapter welcomes a world-class runner - and its first former US Olympian - in Shippensburg's Steve Spence.  Spence launched his career as a professional road racer after stellar runs in cross country and track at Lower Dauphin High School and Shippensburg University.  Spence's high school (state 1,600 meter champion, 1980) and college (NCAA Division II outdoor, '84, and indoor, '85, 5k national titles) resumes are hall-worthy in themselves. But for Spence, they were just the first legs of a race that's still being run. Some markers along the way:

• Spence won the U.S. Marathon Championship in 1990 in a personal best 2:12:17, which qualified him for the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo.

• In '91, his third-place finish at Worlds was the first medal for the United States in an international distance competition since Frank Shorter in 1976.

• In 1992, Spence won the U.S. Olympic Trials marathon, qualifying for that year's summer games in Barcelona. Spence, hampered by a case of the flu, finished 12th at the Olympics.

• For three straight years starting in 1989, Spence was the recipient of USA Track & Field's Robert DeCelle Award, annually given to the Outstanding Long Distance Runner in the United States. 

He received the USATF's Glenn Cunningham Award in 1991 as the Outstanding Runner in the US, 800 meters and up, and was the Road Racing Club of America's Road Runner of the Year from 1989-92.

It's a glittering resume, but Spence, who initially joined the cross country team at Lower Dauphin with some basketball buddies looking for a fall training regimen, is still turning heads with his accomplishments.

First of all, as cross country/ distance running coach at Shippensburg since 1997, he has developed the Red Raiders' program into a consistent power at the Division II level. And then, for those of you who think your glory days are past, there's this cool accomplishment. At age 54, Spence is working on a string of 41 consecutive years in which he's run a sub-five minute mile. (He clocked in at a cool 4:54 this May, cheered on by most of his Red Raider runners.) It is, according to "Runners World" magazine, believed to be the longest such streak on record. But it also speaks to the happy relationship Spence has always had with running. Spence attributes his success to natural talent, married with a good work ethic, and a hot competitive fire. In his "retirement," he still loves to run, though he focuses his personal training more on what he wants to do, as opposed to what he has to do. "I'm still enjoying it and trying to be a role model in terms of fitness," Spence said recently. "I hope that I inspire people to get out there and move, whatever that might be for them."

Spence's greatest joy now is coaching his cross country and distance runners at Shippensburg. Cross country and track, he noted, "are treated like a premier sport here and you don't have that at every place," Spence says. "We have a good thing going here."

Spence and his wife, Kirsten, have four children. Eldest daughter Neely has followed in her dad’s footsteps as a pro, and was the top American woman finisher in this year's Boston Marathon.

INDUCTED 2016

Barry Streeter may not be the father of Gettysburg College football. But he has indisputably become the face of the program after 38 seasons at the helm. To put his run in perspective, Streeter is now the longest-tenured Division III football coach in America, and he entered the 2016 season ranked sixth among active 0-3 coaches in career wins with a cumulative record of 190-179-5. Streeter is also 24th all-time in Division III wins and ranks second in Centennial Conference history with 120 wins. These are not numbers that get produced by a flash-in-the-pan. 

Streeter, a 1971 graduate of Lebanon Valley College, came to Gettysburg in 1975 as an assistant on Joseph Sabol's football staff and, for a time as head coach of the track & field program. "I came in as a defensive coordinator," Streeter said. "I'm thinking, 'We're going to win some games, and then I'm going to get a job at a higher level. Then another job and keep going."'

A funny thing happened on the way to the next level. Streeter indeed got that offer from iconic Delaware Coach Tubby Raymond, who wanted to bring his onetime graduate assistant back as an offensive line coach. But Streeter, who was sitting on one of his best teams yet, couldn't bring himself

to leave. "We were on the verge of getting into playoffs, and I just didn't want to miss out on seeing something that we built come to fruition."

In fact, Streeter's 1985 edition roared to a third straight Centennial Conference title and the school's inaugural appearance in the NCAA Division Ill playoffs, advancing all the way to the national semifinals and finishing with an 11-1-1 record. At other points in his career, his kids were at spots in their school lives where it wasn't a good time for the family to move. But the bottom line is, Streeter is really happy where he is. "Gettysburg - both the college and the entire community- has treated me very well, Streeter, now 67 said. "I've been blessed to be here."

Streeter’s more recent teams have stood out for their offensive prowess. Since installing a set known as the "Spread Wing" in 2005, Gettysburg has led the Centennial in total offense five times, rushing offense seven times, and passing offense twice. The Bullets have also figured among the top-25 nationally in Division III in rushing yardage five times during the same stretch, and in 2009 Gettysburg finished fourth in Division Ill in total offense, posting a school-record 493.1 yards per game.

Finally, Streeter has coached the Bullets to a bevy of individual awards, including five Academic All-Americans, three Centennial Conference Offensive Players of the Year, and 205 all-conference selections.

Streeter has two sons, Jason and Brandon, and two daughters, Kelly and Lindsey. Football, as you might guess, is a family affair. Jason played as a four-year wide receiver at Lehigh University, and Brandon - currently quarterbacks coach and recruiting coordinator at Clemson - was the Tigers' starting QB in 1998 and '99.

Streeter and his wife Patricia now reside in Spring Grove. In 2003, Barry was inducted into Lebanon Valley's Hall of Fame (football, lacrosse).