Volume 1 Issue 2

News Update

Chester County Sports Hall o f Fame

2009 Inductees Named

Dallas Green Luncheon

Valor Bowl Highlights

… and much more!

2009 Inductees 1

News Bites 2

Dallas Green Luncheon 2

Valor Bowl 5

Banquet ticket order form 5

Inside this issue:

The votes are in and thefollowing sports luminarieshave been named to theChester County Sports Hallof fame for 2009.

HOWIE BEDELL

A former Major LeagueBaseball player, Howiewas a part of Ed Good’sPottstown baseball teamthat won a nationally-recognized 48 straightgames in the early days ofthe Ches-Mont League. Anoutfielder, Bedell playedfor the Milwaukee Bravesin 1962 and the Philadel-phia Phillies in 1968. Hebatted left-handed andthrew right-handed. Whilein the American Associa-tion in 1961, Bedell re-corded a league record 43-game hitting streak. Afterhis playing career ended,Bedell managed severalminor league teams,headed the Phillies’ farmsystem, winning his first ofthree World Series rings in1980. He coached the Kan-sas City Royals in 1984and the Seattle Mariners in1988, and was farm direc-tor of the Cincinnati Redsin 1990 and 1991. He ispresently a professionalbaseball consultant.

ART DOUGLAS

In 1955, Arthur M. Marplecame to Chester County towork for WCOJ Radio inCoatesville. He became ArtDouglas, the “Voice ofChester County” for over 40years. Art was well knownfor broadcasting high schoolsports, Little League Base-ball, but most of all, he wasdeeply dedicated to theWest Chester Universityfootball program, where heenjoyed doing play by playon the radio. During histime with West ChesterUniversity Football, he hadmissed fewer than fivegames—an Olympian featof endurance, also coveringChester County’s highschool football and basket-ball games with the sameconsistency. Due to failinghealth, Art retired in 1996and died on July 31, 2005.

____________________

MONTE IRVIN

Irvin was a former leftfielder and right-handedbatter in the Negro Leaguesand Major League Baseballwho played with the New-ark Eagles (1938-42, 46-48), New York Giants(1949-55) and ChicagoCubs (1956). Monte Irvinattended Lincoln Univer-sity and was a star baseballand football player. In 1951,

2009 Inductees Named

Summer 2009

Irvin sparked the Giants’miraculous comeback toovertake the Dodgers in thepennant race, batting .312with 24 homers and aleague-best 121 runs battedin, en route to the WorldSeries (he went 11-24 for.458). That year Irvinteamed with Hank Thomp-son and Willie Mays to formthe first all-black outfield inthe majors. Later, he fin-ished third in the NL’s MVPvoting. In 1952 he wasnamed to the NL All-Starteam. In his major leaguecareer, Irvin batted .293,with 99 home runs, 443RBI, 366 runs scored, 731hits, 97 doubles, 31 triples,and 28 stolen bases, with351 walks for a .383 on basepercentage, and 1187 totalbases for a .475 sluggingaverage in 764 gamesplayed. He was elected tothe Baseball Hall of Fame in

1973.

____________________

BILLY JOE

During his stellar sportscareer he starred in footballand track and field. He wasall Ches-Mont in bothsports, excelling in footballas a hard running fullback.He earned his B.A.in Eco-nomics in 1963 from Vil-lanova University, where

Continued page 3

PAGE 2 NEWS UPDATE VOLUME 1 ISSUE 2

On Tuesday, July 7, the Chester CountySports Hall of Fame held a luncheon atthe West Chester Golf and Country Clubto honor former Phillies manager andCCSHOF inductee, Dallas Green. Greenhad been unable to attend last year’s in-duction banquet because of the Phillie’sdrive to the World Series Championship.West Chester Mayor Dick Yoder, BillKashatus, and Howie Bedell gave intro-ductory remarks.

Green presented a wonderful speech inwhich he thanked the CCSHOF for aninformal and intimate gathering.

Approximately 20 CCSHOF memberswere in attendance.

Dallas Green Luncheon

News bites

2009 Banquet

It’s official! The 2nd annual CCSHOF induction banquet to honor the new class of inductees will be held November 7th at the RedClay Room in Kennett Square. Tickets go on sale September 1st and are $45 per person. To purchase tickets, contact Pam McCardellat pamccardell@aol.com or mail the form included on page 5.

Memorabilia Needed at Winner’s Circle

As we mentioned in the previous news letter, Nick Cacchione, owner of the Winner’s Circle Sports Grille has partnered with theCCSHOF to display the Hall of Fame’s memorabilia in the front of the restaurant’s Exton location. The Winner’s Circle is a family-friendly, sports oriented restaurant and is a great partner for the CCSHOF. Memorabilia from local teams as well as out of areateams hang from the walls and you can always catch a sports game on one of their many plasma televisions. Nick Cacchione isworking on making the memorabilia display a hit for his patrons. However, there are certain items from the collection that cannot bedisplayed for insurance purposes, this leaves a lot of room for more memorabilia. Nick is asking members of the CCSHOF for theirhelp in filling out the display. Anyone who has memorabilia from the 2008 inductees and would like to put it on display at The Win-ner’s Circle should contact Jerry Schneider at 610-869-0887 or e-mail jerry@jerryschneider.com

Blue Rocks Outing

Thirty members and friends attended West Chester Community Night at the Wilmington Blue Rocks on May 7. District Judge MarkBruno threw out the first pitch for the Chester County Sports Hall of Fame contingent.

CCHOF Web Site

Our Web site is up and running! Please visit www.chestercountysportshalloffame.com for a sneak peek.

Chester County Sports Hall of Fame News Update is published by the Chester Country Sports Hall of FameContributors: Jerry Schneider, Jessica Travers, Tom Walsh. Editing, layout & design: Dianne Walsh, The Write Connection

Among the attendees at the luncheon were (front row): Jerry Schneider,Dick Yoder; (back row) Howie Bedell, guest of honor Dallas Green, and RoyJackson.

ever to be named twice as the SportsIllustrated Sportsman of Year. Curt isregarded as one of the best playoffpitchers in MLB with a career recordof 11-2 . Curt Schilling retired inMarch of 2009 with a won-loss recordof 216-146, a 3.46 ERA and 3116career strikeouts (14th most in majorleague baseball). He will appear onthe MLB Hall of Fame ballot in 2013.________________________

DON STROCK

Strock is a college football headcoach and former player who was thehead coach of the Florida Interna-tional University football team from2002-2006.Strock played for Owen J.Roberts H. S. and Virginia Tech. In1972, Strock led the nation in totalpassing and total offense, yet finishedonly ninth in voting for the HeismanTrophy. To date, Strock still holdsmany collegiate football passing re-cords at Virginia Tech and was in-ducted into the Virginia Tech Athlet-ics Hall of Fame in 1985. Strockplayed in the NFL as a quarterbackand spent the majority of his profes-sional career with the Miami Dol-phins (1973-1987). He also playedone season with the ClevelandBrowns (1988) and part of a seasonon the Indianapolis Colts roster(1989) before retiring as a player.Strock is well-remembered for com-ing off the bench on January 2, 1982,for the Miami Dolphins in an AFCDivisional Playoff Game against theSan Diego Chargers at the MiamiOrange Bowl. Strock led Miami froma 0-24 deficit to tie the score in the3rd quarter. Ultimately, Miami lostthe game to San Diego, 41-38, inovertime. The game is also remem-bered for the image of San Diegotight end Kellen Winslow beinghelped off the field by his teammateswhile suffering from exhaustion.Strock finished the game with 29 of43 completions for 403 yards and fourtouchdowns, with one interception.The game later became known as TheEpic in Miami and has entered NFLlore as one of the greatest games everin NFL history.

Continued next page

HUGH “BUTCH” McDEVITT

Butch McDevitt attended Downing-town High School until his familymoved to West Chester in 1921. Hegraduated from St. Agnes High Schoolwhere he began writing about schoolactivities for the Daily Local News.During his senior year in 1923, he be-gan working for the Local. In the late‘20s he became sports editor andserved in that capacity until namedmanaging editor in 1951. For more than25 years he covered all sports for St.Agnes and West Chester as well asother local high schools. He also re-ported on West Chester State TeachersCollege and was their sports publicitydirector for 10 years terminating in1959. While he was the sports editor hewas also a full-time reporter. Butch wasa sports and news correspondent for thePhiladelphia Bulletin (25 years), In-quirer (15 years), and other Philly pa-pers and national news services. Hewas a charter member of the Philadel-phia Sports Writers Association andwas their first treasurer, a position heheld for 15 years. Butch was active inthe West Chester community and was amember of numerous local organiza-tions. In 1960 he was given the Dr.Leslie Hill Human Relations Award.This award was given to the personwho helped to promote better under-standing among people through athlet-ics. He died at age 55 on May 11, 1961.In 1963 the Daily Local News insti-tuted the Hugh V. McDevitt Trophy forthe annual outstanding all-around ath-lete of the Ches-Mont League.___________________________

CURT SCHILLING

Schilling lived in Kennett Square whilepitching for the Philadelphia Philliesfrom 1992 until 2000. He also playedfor the Arizona Diamondbacks andmost recently the Boston Red Sox. Curtwas a key member of the Phillies 1993World Series team with 186 strikeoutsand a 16-7 record and was namedNLCS MVP. He won World Serieschampionships with Arizona in2001(was named co-MVP) and withBoston in 2004 and 2007. Curt wasalso a member of six All-Star teamsand was runner up in Cy Young Awardvoting in 2004. He was the only athlete

PAGE 3NEWS UPDATEVOLUME 1 ISSUE 2

2009 Inductees, con’t.

He continued his football career. He alsoearned a B.A. in History from Cheyney(PA) State College and a M.A. in SecondaryEducation from Antioch (Ohio) College. Hewas drafted by the Denver Broncos in theAmerican Football League (1962) andplayed professionally with Buffalo, (1965),Miami (1966-67) and the New York Jets(1968-69) He then moved on to coaching atCheyney State College, Central State (Ohio)and Florida A&M University. He was the1963 Rookie of the Year in American Foot-ball League. He made the AFL all-star teamfor the Buffalo Bills in 1965 when they wonthe Championship over the San DiegoChargers. Billy also coached the runningback under Head Coach Dick Vermeil from1979-80. He is the number two all time win-ningest coach for a career for BlackCoaches. He is second in career wins inDivision 1 AA from 1972-present with 237wins. (.685 winning percentage) He is 4thin total wins in Division 1 behind onlyBobby Bowden, Joe Paterno, and LouHoltz. Presently he is the head coach atMiles College in Fairfield, Alabama(Division 11).

_________________________

ADDY KELLY

Lifelong West Chester resident and co-owner of Kelly’s Sports, she donated freelyof her time, money and talents for the bet-terment of athletics in and around the WestChester area for most of her adult life. Sheand her husband, Alvy, started Kelly’sSports Ltd. in West Chester in the 1970sand showed strong devotion and commit-ment to the community and to West ChesterUniversity. They annually sponsored some50 youth and adult sports teams. Her dona-tions to WCU, area high schools, and nu-merous community projects are legendary.The Addy Kelly Award is presented to aWest Chester alumnus who “exhibits out-standing support which has directly contrib-uted to the enhancement of WCU women’sathletics, displayed loyalty, commitment,and dedication, and reflected the impeccableintegrity and strong and moral ethical char-acter that was always the essence of AddyKelly.” Kelly, who died in 2005, was thefirst recipient of the award.

2009 Inductees, Con’t…

MARIAN WASHINGTON

Marian Washington attended WestChester High School and then matricu-lated to West Chester State College.She immediately became an out-standing student and star athlete for theLady Rams where she lettered in bothbasketball and track. She was a starplayer on the WCU’s 1969 NationalChampionship Basketball team. In1973 she became the head coach ofwomen’s basketball at the University ofKansas, a position she held until 2004.Her won-lost record at Kansas was560-363 (.607). She led the Jayhawksto 11 NCAA postseason tournaments.She was named Conference Coach ofthe Year three times. She also served asKansas’s Director of Women’s Athlet-ics. Washington was an assistant coachof the 1996 U. S. Olympic gold medalwinning team. In 2004 Coach Wash-ington was inducted into the Women’sBasketball Hall of Fame. Coach Wash-ington was also inducted into the Kan-sas Hall of Fame.

__________________________

DICK YODER

Yoder attended West Chester StateTeachers College where he playedquarterback for the renowned footballCoach Dr. Glenn Killinger. Followinggraduation, in 1959, Dick taught andcoached at a Junior High School inWest Chester and returned to his almamater, as the QB coach and AssistantProfessor of Physical Education in1962. After teaching and coachingfootball for 17 years, he was namedDirector of Athletics in 1979 a positionhe held for nine years. While AD hewas elected to the NCAA Council andNCAA Football Championships Com-mittee. Between 1984 & 1992, he alsoserved as a member of the NCAA Foot-ball Rules, Legislative & Interpretationand Eligibility Committees. In 1987, hewas elected as President of the EasternCollegiate Athletic Conference. Addi-tionally, Dick was instrumental inbringing the Philadelphia Eagles pre-season training camp to WCU. After 38

years at the University, Dick retired asa Professor of Kinesiology and wassubsequently elected as Mayor of theBorough of West Chester, a position heholds until 2010. Other awards: Dickwas inducted into the WCU KillingerFootball Hall of Fame, the Sturze-becker Hall of Fame and recently therecipient of the University’s Distin-guished Alumni Award. Dick alsoserved a tour of duty with the UnitedStates Marine Corps. Dick also playedbaseball at West Chester High Schooland in the West Chester Adult BaseballLeague.

___________________________

SPECIAL AWARD:

MIGHTY MACS

The Immaculata Mighty Macs, fromthe tiny Catholic women’s school inMalvern, won their first championship(the first national collegiate tournamentfor women ever played) in 1972, whenthe game was still emerging from theage of “separate spheres.” AAU teamshad played full-court for years, but col-lege ball had just graduated from ar-chaic “women’s rules,” which re-stricted players to half of the court andthree dribbles. Most teams still playedin skirts. The national tournament wassuch a novel idea that few reporters

knew it was happening. One Philadel-phia sportswriter who heard Immacu-lata had won the first championshiptold his colleagues, “I didn’t even knowthey had gone full-court.” But in 1974,after two more national trophies, thewhole country could follow the MightyMacs, as reporters flocked to theirgames. The team had stars, such asRene Muth Portland, now head coachof the Penn State Lady Lions. TheMighty Macs also had 1974 Player ofthe Year, Theresa Shank and All-American Marianne Crawford, whomone sportswriter called the best pointguard in Philly, male or female. Theyhad a young, visionary coach, CathyRush, who imported men’s gamestrategies like picks and presses to beatbigger schools with scholarship playersand well-funded programs. The teamalso had a following. At Mighty Macgames, reporters couldn’t get enough ofthe Immaculate Heart nuns, the team’sbiggest fans. Dressed in identical bluehabits and veils, the sisters weren’tabove cheering or ref-baiting. One re-porter was amazed to watch as a sisterstood and ’in her shrillest falsettoyelled, “Watch the pick and roll!”. Ob-servers said the most compelling thingabout the Mighty Macs, though, wasthat they seemed to love to play.

PAGE 4 NEWS UPDATE VOLUME 1 ISSUE 2

CCSHoF Meetings

All members of the CCSHOF are welcome to attend the monthly meetings held atthe Daily Local News located at 250 N. Bradford Ave in West Chester. Meetingsare held on the first Thursday of every month at 7:00 pm in the conference room.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE NEXT MEETING WILL BE WEDNES-DAY, SEPTEMBER 23!

PAGE 5NEWS UPDATEVOLUME 1 ISSUE 2

11th AnnualValor BowlThe 11th annual Valor Bowl took place on May 28th at Coatesville High Schools Memorial Stadium. The Valor Bowl is an all-star football game that benefits the Special Olympics and showcases the best senior players from Coatesville, DowningtownEast, Downingtown West, W.C. Henderson, W.C. East, W.C Rustin, Avon Grove, Conestoga, Unionville, Phoenixville,Spring-Ford, Malvern Prep, Great Valley, Owen J. Roberts, Kennett and Bishop Shanahan high schools. The CCSHOF do-nated $1,250 to this year’s Valor Bowl and that money went to a banquet for all the players held on May 8th at the KimbertonHall.

A few members from the CCSHOF set up an information table to help attract new members and inform the community aboutour mission. Among those working that evening were Mark Bruno, Chick and Anne Chiccino, Charlie Di Marco, Greg Green-day (press box), Jim Jefferies, Alvy Kelly, Pam McCardell, Julian McCrackin, Matt McFillin, Tom Walsh, Ralph Watson, andDennis White. Since 2006, the Valor Bowl has recognized two student athletes for their community as well as athleticachievement. This year’s Kyle Renehan Memorial Award went to Jamie Taylor of Oxford and our very own Al Kelly pre-sented the Addy Kelly Memorial Award to Trevor Sasek of Spring Ford.

For the first time in Valor Bowl history, the game was determined in overtime. Bishop Shanahan Head coach, Paul Meyers,led the North team to a 20-14 victory. For the fourth consecutive year, the North team beat the South. The Valor Bowl hasraised more than $200,000 over the past nine years for Special Olympics and hopes an additional $40,000 will be raised thisyear.

Editor’s note: Did anyone receive the photo of the volunteers from the Daily Local News? We had not received it as of presstime and hope that no volunteers were missed.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2009 Awards BanquetSaturday, November 7, 2009

Cocktail hour 6:00 • Dinner 7:00

Red Clay Room423 Dalmation St.

Kennett Square, PA 19384Directions: http://www.redclayroom.com/location.aspx

I plan to attend the awards banquet on Saturday, November 7, 2009.

I request ____ tickets @ $45 each. Total $_________( Make check payable to C.C.S.H.O.F.)

Name____________________________________________________Street____________________________________________________City__________________________State_________Zip___________

SEND THIS COMPLETED FORM AND CHECK TO:CCSHOF

P. O. Box 30West Chester, PA 19381-0030

CHESTER COUNTY SPORTS HALL OF FAME thanksthe following sponsors for their generous support.

CCSHOFP. O. Box 30West Chester, PA 19381-0030

Postage nec-essary ifmailed inthe UnitedStates

CCSHall of Fame member Dick Vermeil at 2008Valor Bowl. Photo property of Valor Bowl.