Benjamin Banks - Inducted 2002

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INDUCTED 2002

Benjamin Banks starred for one of Chambersburg High's greatest basketball teams in 1952-53, but he didn't realize quite how brightly his star had shown until long after the South Penn Conference Championship season was over. Assistant coach Galen Warren, perhaps to help them keep their heads on straight, had advised his charges not to read their press clippings. So, it wasn't until after the season that Banks learned he had led the Trojans in scoring. Then, it wasn't until attending a class reunion years later that he found out he had actually been named All-Conference First Team and Fifth Team All-State. That would make for a good career for anyone. But for Banks, basketball was just half the story.

As an American Legion baseball player, Banks was selected by major league scouts to play in three all-star games, culminating with the 1952 Pennsylvania all-star game at Ephrata's War Memorial Field. His notices that year eventually led to three years of play in baseball's lower minor leagues in the Pittsburgh Pirates and Milwaukee Braves systems after high school. Banks never made it to the majors, but he got a great story out of the deal.

On the night of his release in 1956 from the Braves' camp at Waycross, Georgia, Banks wandered into a pool hall to kill some time on his last night in town and wound up passing the evening with another young Braves outfielder named Henry Aaron. Aaron, it turns out, would have been a tough guy for anybody to pass on the depth chart. Back in Chambersburg and playing for the old Harrisburg Giants, Banks was drafted into the Army, where he would spend the next 23 years in the Signal Corps, including a wartime stint in Vietnam.

Banks, married with one daughter and one granddaughter, retired to Columbia, South Carolina, in 1979, where he finished his career working for state government and selling real estate part-time. Tonight, he becomes the third member of his high school hoops team to enter the Hall, joining Jake Corwell and Bob Thomas.

INDUCTED 2000

Lefty Biser has been an inspiration to students, faculty, and coaches at Gettysburg College for two generations now. The southpaw from Jefferson, MD, served as a student trainer under Romeo Capozzi all four of his years on campus except during the spring when he showed up in a Bullet baseball uniform. In the final analysis, athletic training appealed the most, and upon graduation in 1957, he went to Syracuse University with a teaching assistantship and as an assistant trainer.

Biser returned to Gettysburg College in 1959 and developed into one of the school's most respected teachers of sports medicine and athletic training. Lefty was elevated to the head trainer position in 1971, remaining in that capacity until 1987. He kept a wide open door policy, treating not just the Gettysburg players, but also other college athletes, and for that matter, area high school aspirants as well. He did part-time summer work for the Redskins and Baltimore Colts, and he served as trainer for the Big 33 classic for twelve seasons.

One of the reasons Biser relinquished the head training position in 1987 was to become chairperson of the Department of Health and Physical Education. Besides serving as chair, he taught human anatomy, physiology, and the medical aspects of sports. In 1992, his peers honored him with the Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching, and in 1993, he was named recipient of the Pennsylvania Athletic Trainers Society Award for his outstanding work in sports healing.

Lefty reached out to his community in many other ways. In addition to serving as the Adams County Red Cross chairman, he instructed in first aid and training for that organization. He was a board member of Little League in Gettysburg. He coached the Gettysburg American Legion team for three

seasons. He busied himself with the Boy Scouts as a Cub Master and as a committee member for Troop #79. 

And there was the great effort he applied to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Biser has devoted a large part of his life to the FCA, beginning back in 1955 when Coach Bob Davies invited the young trainer to a meeting at the local high school. This loyalty to the Fellowship was reflected in his training room since he felt the spiritual side had a great influence on physical healing. Sensing a void in the lives of some of the athletes, Lefty began a chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes on the campus in 1967. As an active member, he has been on staff at numerous boys, girls, and coaches conferences all over the country.

He retired from the workforce this past January, but he'll never retire from the affection and high esteem held for him by his Alma Mater, by his community, and by thousands of students and athletes.

INDUCTED 2000

Jim Bowers ran track and played varsity football at Chambersburg High School during the war years. His sophomore season he was the South Penn Conference champion in the 880 and mile runs, and that fall as a junior, he was a member of the undefeated 1944 Trojan football squad that shared conference laurels with Hanover High School.

The following January he enlisted in the US Navy, and after his discharge in 1946 (and after making up some academic credits) he settled in at Dickinson College where he lettered in track and football. He graduated in 1951 and spent the next four years building roads, slapping roofs on high rise buildings, attending graduate school in American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, and eventually meandering back to Chambersburg where he took a job in radio broadcasting at WCHA. His flexible schedule at WCHA enabled him to earn his temporary teaching certificate at Shippensburg University in the spring of 1955. 

That August, Carlisle hired him to teach English and world history in the senior high and to coach junior varsity football and basketball. 32Bowers dropped anchor in Carlisle, toiling in the classroom for 32 years, and during twenty-four of those years, he tried his hand at coaching five different sports. He shared junior varsity duties with George Bowen under Ken Millen and John Whitehead. He worked as the basketball junior varsity coach under Gene Evans and Dave Heckler, holding the varsity reins for one year when Evans was on academic leave at the University of Michigan. He found time to serve as George Bowen's JV baseball coach, and a few years later, he was brought in as an emergency reliever for the girls varsity softball team.

Following a gap of 17 years, Carlisle decided to reinstate golf as a varsity sport in 1973. Blessed by a steady stream of talented golfers, during Bowers' eight-year tour, Carlisle won four league championships, was runner-up three times, and had the 1975 and 1977 squads finish with undefeated records.

Bowers has been active on several other fronts in the athletic realm. In 1969, he was the alumni representative on the charter committee that organized and wrote the ground rules for the Dickinson College Sports Hall of Fame. Likewise, a decade later he was on the first committee that met in Don Seibert's basement to lay the groundwork for our chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame. For several years, he was co-director of the Carlisle Kiwanis Club basketball tournament held annually at Dickinson. He also served on the board of the Stanley Q. Morgan, Jr. Memorial Fund, a local group that raised funds and lobbied for the all-weather track named in Stan's honor.

Jim hung everything up in 1987. He and Jeanne are starting thirty-five years on West Penn Street, watching carefully the grandchildren, the birds, and the politicians, in that order.

INDUCTED 2002

For Francis "Chub" Brady, playing high school football was as natural as sleeping and breathing. For young boys like himself who grew up in the Depression and were now coming of age in wartime Hanover, PA, "Athletics was the be-all and end-all. It was an opportunity to grow up and realize you had some value and some worth" Brady recalls now. Plus, it was just plain fun.

How could it not be, really, when you anchored both lines of scrimmage for two consecutive undefeated teams in 1941 and '42, teams that would bring the first ever South Penn Conference crowns to their hometown? For the boys in Hanover, bringing the title to town was a nice way to keep the rest of the world's troubles at bay. After football season, Brady lettered in basketball and track and field, as well. But the rest of the world would eventually catch up. 

After graduation, Brody entered the Navy's V-12 officer Candidate program, coming out an ensign in 1945. Upon his discharge in August 1946, Brady came back to Central Pennsylvania to enroll at Shippensburg University, and then embarked on a successful career as a high school teacher, coach, college professor, and administrator.

He returns for induction to the South Central Hall of Fame from Elmira, NY, where he joined the staff at Elmira College in 1965 as an assistant professor of education. Brady became dean of the college's Center for Personal and Professional Development, in 1977, and retired in 1989 as an emeritus professor of education.

Though he assures us that he never thought about it like this at the time, looking back he believes that early lessons he got under his old Coach AG "Age" Early left an indelible imprint. "I'm sure that being a good team member... and being part of a team was extremely important to me the rest of my life," especially as he moved into the committee-laden structure of small-college administrator.

Brady is a happily married father of three, with one grandchild whom he says lives too far away. Tonight he joins former Hanover teammate Bill Seibert as a member of the Hall of Fame.

INDUCTED 1999

At Hanover's Eichelberger High School in the mid-fifties, Sterling Brown was a four sport athlete as he represented the Nighthawks at the varsity level in track, wrestling, basketball, and football. Playing for Steve Padjen in football, Brown was an All South Penn Conference selection his senior season in 1956.

He continued his athletic and academic pursuits at East Stroudsburg University. Sterling again proved his versatility playing varsity football, tennis, track and gymnastics for the Warriors. He drew the most notice, however, for his achievements on the gridiron. Positioned as a guard/linebacker, Brown's work earned him All Conference and All State honors in 1959 and 1960. He was appointed team captain for the '60 season, capping the year with All American recognition and an invitation to play in the Senior Bowl.

Sterling received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1961 and promptly enrolled in the new master's program the university had just started. In fact, he became the first student to receive the Master of Education degree from East Stroudsburg in 1963. In the meantime, he became involved in coaching for the first time as a graduate assistant at his Alma Mater, beginning a long and distinguished career in coaching and athletic administration. 

Starting at Sleepy Hollow High School in New York State to assistant football coaching jobs at Virginia, Navy, Temple, Penn, Wyoming, and Villanova. Sterling eventually took over as head football coach at two Pennsylvania colleges, Drexel and Ursinus, where he coached from 1982 to 1988. While at Ursinus, Brown donned another hat as the assistant director of athletics, thus launching another phase in his long association with collegiate athletics. He left Collegeville to become an associate director of athletics at the University of South Carolina, moving from that post to become AD at the University of South Carolina at Spartanburg.

Other opportunities soon opened up at bigger schools, and Sterling accepted associate athletic director jobs at Marshall, VPI, the University of Wyoming and in 1997 was appointed to his current office as Senior Associate Director of Athletics at Georgia Tech. Eyeing retirement in the not too distant future, Sterling and his wife, Virginia, recently purchased a tract of land in the Hanover vicinity, where they plan a big return to where it all began.

INDUCTED 1999

With the start of fall sports in August, Dick Burkholder began his 40th season as an athletic trainer for the Carlisle School District. A 1955 graduate of Carlisle High School, Burkholder's involvement with sports began in earnest during his undergraduate days at what is now East Stroudsburg University. A member of the "Varsity S" club, he earned his monogram as a member of the varsity soccer, tennis, and gymnastics teams. Furthermore, he learned his first rudiments at East Stroud in sports medicine, knowledge that he has since expanded to great use.

With his Bachelor of Science degree in Health, Physical Education, and Recreation safely tucked in his portfolio, Burkie returned to his hometown in 1960 to teach in his field and to become the head trainer for varsity football. By 1962 he added coaching the ninth grade basketball team, a job he held until 1970 when he was appointed the first certified athletic trainer for all sports in the Carlisle Area School District.

Demanding as his school schedule was, Burkholder found time to work in his community. He spent twenty-five years teaching water safety and first aid for the American Red Cross. He was a CPR instructor for the American Heart Association, and he taught Sports Medicine at the Harrisburg Area Community College from 1980 to 1998. In the early sixties, Burkholder was the pool manager and swim coach for the community of Mechanicsburg, following that up as the swimming director at the Carlisle Swim Club. While serving in the two posts, Burkie became the chief organizer and prime force in developing the Tri-County Swim League.

He stayed busy on the state and national level as well. From the outset, he was in on the organization of the Pennsylvania Athletic Trainers Society, first, as a writer of the constitution and by-laws and in 1976 he became the first secretary-treasurer of the organization. From 1980 to 1986, Burkholder was certifying examiner for the National Athletic Trainers Oral Practical Certification.

Hard and expert work produces many awards, and among dozens that have come Burkholder's way several stand out. He received the National Athletic Trainers Association 25 Year Award; the Eastern Athletic Trainers of Micro-Biomedics named him Trainer of the Year in 1986, but the Carlisle Sports

Association chose to honor Burkie in a different manner. Recognizing the dedication and meticulous care he has given to his students, both in the training room and in the classroom, the Sports Association named an award in his honor presented annually to that female and male competitor who fits the description of "An Unsung Hero."

The bottom line is that Burkie has kept it all in the family, Wife Nancy, a registered nurse, is the office manager for Family Practice - Newville Clinic; daughter Beth is a paramedic for the Lebanon Emergency Services; and son Rick is the head trainer for the Philadelphia Eagles.

INDUCTED 2002

Connie Mack spent 50 years building and rebuilding the Philadelphia Athletics. Along the way, he found Hall of Famers in Home Run Baker, Lefty Grove, Jimmie Foxx, Mickey Cochrane and Al Simmons, as well as a young outfielder named Joe Jackson. But Mack missed badly on one prospect… Nellie Fox. Mack considered Fox too small (5’9”) and too light (150 pounds) to play second base in the majors, giving him brief auditions in 1947 and 1948 before letting him play in 88 games in '49. Then, Mack traded him to the Chicago White Sox for journeyman catcher Joe Tipton. "The best break he ever got", Fox's widow, Joanne, would say years later when her late husband was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Turns out the St. Thomas native was an infielder who could do it all. He had a strong arm, could hit and run, and could field with the best of them. He spent the next 13 seasons as the soul of an otherwise unremarkable White Sox team, which finally reached the World Series in 1959. He was named the American League's most valuable player that season, batting .306 with 191 hits and 70 RBIs. Fox, a .288 lifetime hitter, spent his last two seasons with Houston, playing every day in 1964 before spending '65 tutoring future Hall of Famer Joe Morgan. Fox's most photogenic moments always came with a plug of chewing tobacco, which contributed to his untimely death in 1975 less than four weeks shy of his 48th birthday.

His 2,663 career hits, - not to mention his defense (five times leading the AL in turning double plays) and his tenacity at the plate (no more than 18 strikeouts in a season) - finally lifted Fox into the Hall of Fame via the Veterans Committee in 1997. That corrected what many considered an oversight from 1985, when Fox missed election on the writers' ballot by two votes in the narrowest defeat since the Hall opened in 1936.  

Tonight, another oversight is corrected. Nellie, who old acquaintances know could hardly wait for the baseball season to be over to return to his hometown, takes his place as a member of the South Central Chapter.

INDUCTED 2001

Dick George probably has fewer press notices than any other inductee being honored tonight. He may have fewer press clippings than anyone enshrined in the South Central Pennsylvania Hall of Fame to date. But tonight, we honor him all the same. Because few ever worked as hard behind the scenes for as long as George to create quality athletic opportunities for Midstate teens. In fact, it's the people like Dick George in communities all across the Midstate that make the scholastic sports scene hum. Let's shine a little light on this backstage player.

In George's case, it all started in 1958 when the Harbaugh's Valley, Adams County native graduated from East Stroudsburg University with a degree in health and physical education. Over the next nine years he would hold a variety of teaching and coaching jobs at the junior high and high school level in Franklin County.

In 1967, he found a permanent home at Waynesboro High School, where for the next 29 years he coached, at various times, soccer, golf, baseball, track, boys and girls basketball and, to top it all off, closed with a 14-year run as the athletic director. It was really in that latter position where George made his mark on the region. Here's two examples:

ONE:  In 1993, the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association decided to drop its annual state championship for girls gymnastics, noting that just 29 out of 635 high school programs across the state were still sending teams. But more than one-third of those teams were from the Midstate. George quickly filled the breach, rallying those schools with programs and organizing the Pennsylvania Classic -a statewide, season-ending meet for scholastic gymnasts - to continue to give all high school gymnasts a chance to compete for state honors, independent of the PIAA. ''I'm kind of proud that I was able to do that for kids who were losing what they needed to have a substitute for," George said recently. The Pennsylvania Classic continues to this day.

TWO:  In the late 1980s and early 1990s, with the advent of power ratings and points for playoff seedings in basketball and football, larger schools like Waynesboro suffered in its old Blue Mountain Conference, where games against tiny schools like Biglerville and Fairfield really cost them in the playoff chase. George was a leader in the effort to get the eight remaining BMC teams into the larger Mid-Penn Conference, where the 34-team field provides for much more competitively balanced divisions for all.

That kind of significant administrative leadership is precisely why George is here tonight. Did we mention he officiated several sports too? Whew!

Our inductee retired from Waynesboro in 1997, one year after seeing all-star pitcher Matt White sign with the expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays for $10.25 million. All in all, a golden ending to a good run. 

George, now 66, can be found managing the South Mountain Golf Course outside of Waynesboro by day, and lavishing time on his family.

INDUCTED 2003

Rodger Goodling's basketball family is big, and it is far-flung. But its members share one thing in common - a deep-seated love for the patriarch. For 31 years, Goodling prowled the sidelines at Shippensburg University's Heiges Field House, coaching his teams and teaching his players with a winning mix of grace, wit and good humor. A quick case in point.

Goodling's Shippensburg teams had been a regular participant in a post-holiday tournament featuring local schools sponsored by the Carlisle Kiwanis Club. When the tournament entered its last year due to sponsorship problems, Shippensburg couldn't play because of schedule conflicts. The Kiwanians still asked Goodling, one of the members' all-time favorite speakers, to speak at the tip-off lunch. "He personified what we tried to be about," remembers former Shippensburg Athletic Director Jim Pribula.

Goodling's teams won their share of titles: including an undefeated regular season and District III title at William Penn in 1970, and a 1991 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference title at Shippensburg. In that latter season, Goodling was selected PSAC Coach of the Year.

But Goodling was always just as interested in developing sound young men. Listed prominently on his resume is the fact that four of his players at Shippensburg earned Academic All-America honors for achievements both in the classroom and on the court. "That arena is really just a big classroom," Goodling said. "I am happy that many of our former players have gone into coaching, and I get a lot of pride in seeing how well so many of the young guys have done."

Among those who followed Goodling into coaching are former Harrisburg Cougars coach Karl Rachelson; Larry Kostelac, who has developed a District III dynasty of his own at Trinity High School in Camp Hill; and Carlisle High's Joe Stasyszyn.

A York native, Goodling attended what was then York Junior College for two years, setting a career record for free throw accuracy with 92 percent. He went on to graduate from Lock Haven in 1959 and took the job in Harrisburg. Goodling says his own mentors included late Hall of Fame member Bob Hulton, his coach at York College, and Ed Palmer, his predecessor at William Penn.

INDUCTED 2002

Wayne Henry had a senior year to remember at Chambersburg High School. First, the 1953 football team he played on finished undefeated and claimed the South Penn Conference Championship. Then, the 1953-54 Trojans basketball team made it all the way to the Eastern Finals before bowing out in a game at Philadelphia's famed Palestra. Now young Henry was not the brightest star on either of those squads, but the winning environment created by respected coaches and solid teammate stayed with

him for life and hasn’t stopped paying dividends since. As a result, Henry is honored tonight for a lifetime of service to the region's high school athletes; as athletic director at James Buchanan High School; as a leader in the 1992 expansion of the Mid-Penn Conference; and finally, as a PIAA basketball, baseball and softball official.

Henry served as AD at James Buchanan from 1984 through 1994, a decade that saw the school add its first full-time trainers, launch a girls volleyball team, and innovate by giving varsity head coaches k-12 supervision of their sports. But perhaps Henry's greatest achievement was helping to pull off, along with 2001 Hall inductee Richard George, the merger of the school's dwindling Blue Mountain League with the Mid-Penn. That merger helped, he noted, give all the Blue Mountain schools a higher level of competition and greater accessibility to the playoffs.

As a member of the Mid-Penn's Board of Control, meanwhile, Henry helped develop a rating system for basketball officials that many credit with lifting the overall quality of the game-calling throughout the league. It's worth noting that all this came after a sterling classroom career that saw Henry named state "teacher of the year" by the J National Association of Geology Teachers in 1979, coupled with 21 years as a coach in the basketball program.

Henry credits much of his success to his early involvement in sports. "I always felt that athletics was a great teaching tool," he explained recently, "and I always looked at it as an extension of the classroom ... It steered me right into teaching," he says.

Henry, now retired from James Buchanan and living in the Franklin County village of Upton, is a proud father of two and grandfather of four. And he still steers others at Penn State's Mont Alto Campus, where he serves as a part-time geology professor.

INDUCTED 2002

Ken Katusin claims he was nothing more than an extra body when he and his wife, Shirley, were hired to teach at Scotland School for Veterans Children back in 1960. School administrators could stand Katusin, a rookie teacher who could help out with coaching the boys’ sports, but what they really needed was a woman to teach the girls' physical education classes. Well, 150-plus football wins, 17 straight .500 or better seasons, two District III Class A titles, and one state championship later, we're going to guess that Scotland's pretty happy with the throw-in, too. That feeling is definitely mutual, we're happy to report. 

When the Katusins came to Chambersburg in 1960, they didn't necessarily think it was a place where they would spend the rest of their careers. But somewhere, along the way, Ken Katusin says, they fell in love with their adopted hometown and their little school's mission of helping disadvantaged children whose families had some history of military service. "It's a great school, we have a good mission, and the kids are fun to work with," the coach said recently.

Katusin has served that mission well as head coach, at various times, of baseball, wrestling and track and field programs, but he has brought the most glory to the school through his work in football. He became head coach in 1978, inheriting a team that had just come off a 1-9 season, and promptly finished 1-9 in his first year. But after a gradual build-up, the Cadets have never looked back. The high-water mark of the Katusin Era was 1992, when Scotland, including current Tennessee Titan defensive tackle John Thornton, charged to the state Class A football title.

Katusin retired as a coach and guidance counselor after leading the Cadet's back to the state title game in 1995. He was lured back to the sideline in 1997 after his successor became a school administrator and has decided to stick around ever since. After all, man does not live by fishing alone. 

As much as Katusin is proud of his coaching accomplishments, one gets the sense that the thing that brings him back now is the chance to influence the next kid. "Our success at Scotland is in the regular guy out on the street that did not have a chance in life and is now making it," Katusin says.

INDUCTED 2002

Every team has its Iron Man, and tonight the South Central Chapter gets its own- Arnie Leisher. For 36 years, until a bad knee finally slowed him down three years ago at age 75, Leisher helped the region's kids play the games the right way as a PIAA football and basketball official.

A Chambersburg native, Leisher actually learned football pretty well himself as a high school sophomore, when he played center for a 1939 Trojans team that won the South Penn Conference and went undefeated. He would also letter in football in 1941 and play for the Chambersburg Cardinals semi-pro team between Army service in World War II and the Korean War. But it wasn't until 21 years later, after a bout with severe back troubles, that Leisher turned into a devoted physical fitness nut who still works out several times a week, that he got back onto the playing field for good as a referee.

Leisher worked games at all levels over the next three-and-a-half decades in Districts 3, 5 and 6, capping his career with 17 years of service in the Mid-Penn Conference, where he ran alongside future NFL players like Ricky Waters, Kyle Brady, and Jon Ritchie and watched them hone their talents. Among Leisher's personal highlights along the way were calling the 1990 Big 33 game, and various District III play-off tilts. 

Leisher says it never occurred to him to quit. "It kept me young, being around the kids all the time," he says now "The other thing that I took away was the good friends that I made. I got to work with a lot of good people, and I got to know a lot of good people."

Leisher's other claim to fame was as a player-manager for the Chambersburg VFW softball team that, at one point, reeled off a New York Yankee-like 15 straight city championships, and once was selected to play the four-man barnstorming squad "The King and His Court" prior to a Baltimore Orioles game at Memorial Stadium because they were seen as a team that could give Eddie Feigner's travelers some competition.

Outside the arena, Leisher spent a meritorious career at Letterkenny Army Depot, wrapping up his career as chief of the Army Logistics Support Agency there. Arnie has been married for 55 years to his wife, Virginia. The couple has two children, four grandchildren, and now, somebody else to keep Leisher young, two great-grandchildren.

INDUCTED 2001

If not for a severe childhood hunting accident that made it too risky, doctors felt, for him to play a heavy contact sport like football, Charlie Meminger might never have looked twice at a soccer ball. They didn't play much soccer at Chambersburg back in the 1950s, you see. But Meminger, a natural athlete and good baseball player who had earned long looks from Philadelphia Phillies scouts before opting for West Chester University to study health and physical education, showed a great affinity for the original "futbol" during classes at West Chester and was encouraged to join the team. Thus, was born a key and highly decorated general in the soccer crusades of Central Pennsylvania.

In 1970, Meminger became the first head soccer coach at Carlisle High School. "I used to start the season by holding up a soccer ball, and saying, 'Gentlemen, this is a soccer ball,'" Meminger told a reporter upon his retirement in 1996. "The kids would say, "Not so fast, coach." Not only did Meminger give birth to the program at Carlisle, but he also built it into a regional standard-bearer for the better part of 26 years, a run that saw Meminger' s teams post a lifetime mark of 316-159-66, advance to the state's "Final Four" three times, and capture two District III Championships. That doesn't begin to do justice to Meminger's story, however. This helps…

· In 1991, Meminger received the National Merit Sportsmanship Award from the National Intercollegiate Soccer Official's Association for bringing professionalism and sportsmanship to the position of coach. The award goes to one high school and one college coach each year. 

· Or his receipt of the 1998 "Honor Award" from the Pennsylvania Soccer Coaches Association's - of which Meminger had served as president. This peer award is presented for "exceptional contributions to the development and promotion of Pennsylvania soccer."

· Or the former player who credited his old coach's entreaties on preparing to do your best with helping him to survive a combat tour in Vietnam.

· Or how he reintroduced the golf program at Carlisle, coached girls' volleyball and assisted with track and cross-country during his 30-year stint with the district.

Meminger launched his scholastic coaching career with five years at James Buchanan High School in Mercersburg, where he coached soccer and track and served as athletic director. Slowed by a heart attack in 1991, Meminger retired from Carlisle in 1996, and now passes his time with his favorite pastime - watching his grandchildren growing up.

Looking back on his career, Meminger said the thing that makes him prouder than the 342 wins and the two district titles is the record of success in later life that so many of his players have built. "I had a lot of super young men at Carlisle," he said. "My first 10 years of coaching, I didn't have anyone on my teams with SAT board scores of less than 1,000. Our kids have been doctors, lawyers, and even worked for NASA. Just having the opportunity to work with the kids like that, that was the high point."

INDUCTED 2001

In a way, the greatest thing about Luther Palmer is not so much what he achieved as a football player -and take our word for it, his sporting resume needs take a backseat to no one – as how he dealt with the near misses. As a player at Carlisle High School from 1964 through 1967, Palmer was a standout but largely unheralded defensive lineman for Carlisle High School teams that wrapped up the end of the John Whitehead glory years. He really wanted to follow in the footsteps of Clyde Washington, perhaps the all-time Carlisle football hero, to Purdue University.

But Palmer, through a combination of bad timing, bad guidance and bad luck (in his senior year, Carlisle temporarily fell off its Midstate football pedestal and he and then-coach Don Trexler, Whitehead's successor, didn't have a good relationship) never really got to make the connections that might have landed him at a Division I school.

He wound up playing for Division II Virginia Union, a predominantly black college in Richmond, VA and promptly blossomed as an All-American tight end, eventually getting drafted by the Los Angeles Rams. Palmer was traded to the San Diego Chargers before the season started and stuck with the squad, but only saw action in three games before getting his release. Again, agonizingly close.

But Palmer didn't give up, playing for several teams in the upstart World Football League and semi-pro leagues and earning two more training camp invites from the NFL until (after failing to make the last cut for the then-world champion Pittsburgh Steelers in 1979) he returned to civilian life. Rather than dwell on his near misses at the professional level, Palmer went to work starting a successful custodial service until a full-time coaching opportunity at Norfolk State University drew him back to football in 1984.

Palmer has stuck with it ever since, serving on the staff at Norfolk (1984-93), Bethune-Cookman (1993-94), Virginia Union (1995-99) and Howard University (1999-2000) until returning to his beloved alma mater this year. Now, he still dreams of returning to the professional ranks - this time as a coach. Palmer has served summer internships with four different NFL teams over the past decade.

But in the meantime, he loves life in Richmond, giving back to the school that gave him his start and helping kids walking in the same shoes he filled some 30 years ago get their opportunities. "Football gave me an opportunity to go to college and obtain a first-rate education," Palmer, a one-time shop student who believes many within and outside the Carlisle schools believed he would never succeed academically. Palmer now holds a master's degree in secondary education from Norfolk State. "So my biggest joy is to see my players walk across that stage at the end of their tenure, because then I know that they're prepared for whatever life throws their way.”

Palmer's father, William Palmer Sr, was inducted to the South Central Hall last year.

INDUCTED 2003

Shippensburg and athletic juggernaut? We sometimes tend to lose track of our local colleges in the Penn State belt but consider this: In the eight years that the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference has awarded the F. Eugene Dixon Trophy, awarded to the best performance in all men's and women's sports, Shippensburg has won three times, and finished second three more. The first two of those crowns came under the tutelage of Jim Pribula, Ship's director of athletics from 1982 to 2001.

In his own playing days, Pribula was a stud on the football field at West Chester University, helping his Golden Rams to PSAC Championships in 1960 and 1961, ultimately earning a bid to the All-America Bowl in 1961 and tryouts with the Washington Redskins and Philadelphia Eagles. 

Pribula's West Chester connections would soon land him a teaching and coaching job at Shippensburg, where he joined fellow alum and future South Central Chapter Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame member Dave Dolbin's football staff.

Though he intended to become the next Knute Rockne, Pribula's own career gradually steered on to an administrative course that was capped in 1982, when Shippensburg President Tony Ceddia tapped him as Athletic Director. Pribula spent the next two decades helping all coaches and student-athletes at Shippensburg achieve on and off-the-field. The university logged no less than 37 PSAC crowns during Pribula's tenure; and he is widely credited with helping Ship build up its women's programs.

But Pribula may be proudest of a move that helped the school earn a top national ranking. In the mid-1990s, he spearheaded the creation of an Office of Academic Support Services for Student Athletes, established to provide tutorial support, academic counseling and career placement for student-athletes. That work helped Shippensburg win a ranking in USA Today several years ago as having the third highest graduation rate for its athletes among the nation's Division II schools.

"No one is more competitive than Jim Pribula," said Ceddia, acknowledging Shippensburg's success on the field. "But his competitiveness didn't override his concern for our student-athletes, gender balance, and the overall importance of the academic mission of the university versus athletics. He was the perfect fit for us."

INDUCTED 2001

It's true that Floyd "Whitey" Rightmire coached Bill Parcells when Parcells was a Big Man on Campus at River Dell Regional High School in Oradell, NJ. It's not true that that's why Whitey is here tonight. While Rightmire's brush with NFL celebrity makes for good stories, he's here because of the way he lit up high school football fields – and scoreboards - in his own right… first as a prep football star for Hanover High School in the late l940s, and later at Albright College.

In two years as a featured high school running back, Rightmire scored 36 touchdowns. Throw in 30 points after, and he finished his schoolboy career with a then South Penn Conference record 246 points. That was good enough to make the All-South Penn Conference Team twice (1947 and 1948) and All-State honors once (l 947). In the spring, Rightmire was also an all-league baseball player, batting over .300 in three years of varsity play and twirling one no-hitter. But football was his first love and Rightmire wasn't done.

Moving to Albright, he played well enough in four seasons (sandwiched around a stint in the US Air Force during the Korean War) to earn Little All-American status and win an invitation to try out for the pre-Lombardi Green Bay Packers. This time, Rightmire, who was ready to get married and had graduate school in his immediate future, didn't go. "I was too much in love ... and I was ready to get that master's degree (in education) and get into the teaching field as soon as I could," he said recently.

Rightmire landed in New Jersey, where he coached football and baseball for 10 years at River Dell, along the way gathering three state championships in football and four league championships in baseball. In 1968, after completing coursework for a doctorate in counseling at Seton, Hall, Rightmire moved to Northern Highlands Regional High School in Allendale, NJ, where he spent the last 27 years of his career as a guidance counselor helping students chart their futures and enjoyed one last stint with the coach's whistle - this time as an emergency girls volleyball coach in the 1980s.

Had Whitey lost his touch? No way. His girls sent him off the court smiling with one last league championship. Now retired in Ocean Pines, MD, Rightmire is enjoying being a grandfather and refining his golf game. Like many inductees before him, he credits the lessons he learned between the lines with helping him learn the value of teamwork and hard work and developing a sense of leadership skills. He credits his success at applying those to opening the door to college and a successful career in public education. And finally, he credits the friendships built over the years with giving a richer life.

INDUCTED 2001

Tonight, the Seibert family marks the first son-son-father triple play entry into the South Central Chapter Sports Hall of Fame. Following posthumously in the footsteps of his sons Don (inducted in 1984) and William (1995) is Merle "Dutch" Seibert, a star of York/Adams area industrial and sandlot leagues in the teens and '20s, and later one of the best amateur bowlers the region has ever seen.

Seibert the eider's greatest claim to fame, in fact, is that on April 24, 1936, he rolled the first perfect game - 12 straight strikes for the bowling novices among you - in York County history. Now, we hear about 300 games periodically, but back in the '30s, an age of heavy pins and two-finger balls, it was a real milestone. "This was done when it was tough, says son Robert. In fact, those keeping track say it was more than 20 years until the feat was accomplished again in the York County leagues.

Dutch Seibert' s lore was such that he was tabbed to roll against the late trick shot artist and professional barnstormer Andy Varipapa - recently named to Bowling Magazine's "20 Greatest Bowlers of the 20th Century" - in an exhibition match. Seibert won…  That is, until Varipapa extended the

competition to a third game and edged the local hero out 717-707.

Seibert, and those lucky enough to be on his teams, just racked up championship after championship from the '30s through the early '50s, when rheumatism began to slow Dutch down, according to his sons. But here's the best thing: Seibert was secure enough about his own talents that he didn't mind helping rivals straighten out their own motions. "He was a competitor all the way down the line," Robert Seibert recalled recently, but after a match he was only too happy to help a competitor break down his stroke and try to fix it. "He enjoyed the sport of bowling, and he'd help them all if he could," Robert recalls.

Born in Chambersburg, Dutch Seibert quit school after the 6th-grade and started working at a pool hall in Gettysburg. A few years later, when the family moved to Hanover, Seibert took a job as a silk weaver in Hanover Ribbon Mills and played baseball and basketball for the Hanover Red Men. 

But it was bowling that "was his life," Don Seibert recalls now, and that. took Dutch Seibert to the top-flight amateur competitions around the country.

Dutch Seibert, a married father of five, died in Hanover in September 1961, at the age of 62. He was posthumously inducted into the York County Bowling Hall of Fame in 1964 

INDUCTED 2000

At William Penn High School of York, John Toggas was a three sport athlete for the Bearcats. He played in the defensive secondary in football, settled in at the 123-lb. class in wrestling, and ran the hurdles and threw the discus for the track team. Fresh out of high school in 1951, he thought he would give the labor market a shot. Several years of said labor convinced him that matriculating at Gettysburg College was a more promising career route. 

He confined his competitive activity for the Bullets to the mats, wrestling from 123 to 140, or anywhere else that Coach Gene Haas needed him. 

Following graduation from Gettysburg in 1957, John accepted a teaching position at Biglerville that included the head wrestling coaches job. He spent six seasons with the Canners, compiling a winning record and developing the first elementary wrestling program for the Adams County school. 

In 1964, Toggas donned the head wrestling mantle at West York Area, spending a total of 25 years coaching the West York grapplers. His enviable record includes the following team and individual achievements: five YCIAA league Titles; six sectional Team Championships, 83 sectional champions, 12 Regional champions; and 18 PIAA state qualifiers, including two third-place finishers, two state runners-up, and three PIAA State Champions. All told, after thirty-one years in the arena, John watched his teams win over 300 matches against just 110 losses.

Twice named the York County Coach-of-the-Year, his exceptional career brought on an impressive series of awards. John has been enshrined into the District III Wrestling Coaches Wrestling Hall of Fame, and in 1984, he received the 25 Year Service Award by the National Wrestling Coaches Association. The Pennsylvania State Wrestling Coaches Hall of Fame inducted him in 1992. The West York Area School District presented him its Leadership Award for outstanding service and dedication. The York Area Sports Hall of Fame installed him as a member in 1993, and just a year ago, John was inducted, along with colleague Bob Craig, into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in ceremonies held at the Hershey Convention Center.

John retired from his profession in 1993 only to take on a host of other tasks. An expert furniture refinisher, he traipses the antiquing trail and shows up at every public sale reachable. He does, however, manage to squeeze in a weekly sortie or two on the golf course.