Great PA Teams
By Hal Wilson:                                                                                                         
 
 
NEW KENSINGTON 1947
 
In 1946 and 1947, in New Kensington, the old Aluminum City in the Allegheny River Valley, the local Red and Black Kensters fielded two outstanding elevens. “Ken Hi” won WPIAL AA titles in both years with perfect seasons and carried a 26 game unbeaten untied streak all the way to the last game of the 1948 season. These two Don Fletcher coached squads sent an amazing six key players to Michigan State’s 1951 National Champions and placed starting players in other major college programs.
 
In the AA title game at the close of the 1945 season, New Kensington was overwhelmed by Donora’s great team. When the 1946 campaign began, with many veteran players returning, the Kensters began to roll. A good Beaver Falls team was beaten 25-7, and after thrashing Pittsburgh Schenley 45-0, Ken Hi overcame tough cross-river rival Har-Brack and furthered their WPIAL hopes with decisive triumphs over Sharon and North Braddock Scott.
 
After seven straight wins, New Kensington faced the unbeaten Vandergrift Blue Lancers. These were two of only four teams remaining in contention for the AA title. It was the final contest of the season for both. To accommodate the fans wanting to see these two titans, the game was moved to Forbes Field in Pittsburgh and one of the largest crowds in Western Pennsylvania scholastic football history, 17,967, attended. The Kensters won decisively, 21-0. In succeeding weeks, both Ambridge and Duquesne were eliminated, clinching Ken Hi’s first WPIAL football championship.
 
Other Ken Hi home games had been played at neighboring Arnold’s Leslie Field.
 
The most heralded player on the 1946 team was end Tony Kotowski . Equipped with a special face guard to protect his thick glasses, Kotowski terrorized opponents with pass receptions and end-arounds. He scored 82 points, including 19 in the climactic game with Vandergrift.
 
Kotowski was one of the top players named to the All-State first team. Tackle Flint Green was honored on the third unit.
 
In 1947, the entire starting backfield from the 1946 champs returned including George France at quarterback, now a junior; Willie Thrower, the talented tailback, also a junior and starting for the third year; and seniors Vince Pisano at wingback and Harold Vestrand at fullback.
 
Junior Dick Tamburo was at center for the third year and tackle Bill Horrell started again at tackle.
 
New Kensington was now a “marked” team and, after an opening battle with Pittsburgh Central Catholic was won by 20-6, the Beaver Falls Tigers stretched New Kensington to the limit. Thrower was lost to injury in the game’s second play. Big Tiger end Jim Mutscheller, later a star at Notre Dame, returned an interception 45 yards for a TD and the visitors led, 6-0. The 10,000 at new Memorial Stadium witnessed a tense second half. Ken Hi finally scored on an 11 yard pass, France to Vestrand, and the conversion put the Kensters ahead. In the last three minutes of the game, Beaver Falls missed a field goal and reached the home two.
 
After a 14-6 battle with Johnstown, the Kensters won at German Township in Fayette County, 32-12. German scored late against the Ken Hi reserves.
 
At Vandergrift, New Kensington won a thriller, 13-7, before 7,500. Thrower had missed several weeks with a knee injury and could not play. In the first half, big end John Netoskie chased a bad Lancer pass from center back to the home eight, scooped it up and scored. Vandergrift then marched 73 yards in the third quarter to a TD. A successful kick put the Lancers ahead 7-6. Late in the game, after Netoskie forced Lancer QB Rudy Minarcin to fumble at the Ken Hi 44, George Smittle recovered, and the Kensters marched 50 yards against the clock - with Pisano scoring from the one.
 
A veteran Sharon team was routed 38-6, as Pisano and Vestrand each tallied three times.
 
The climax to the 1947 season came in the AA title game at Forbes Field. The opponent was Har-Brack who had completed the first perfect season in the Tigers’ 24 year history. The two rivals had not been scheduled in the regular season. Har-Brack was paced by the legendary Modzelewski brothers, fullback Ed and tackle Dick.
 
A special train carried New Kensington rooters to Pittsburgh’s Shadyside Station – and the fans hiked to Forbes Field from there.
 
Ken Hi dominated the game. Ed “ Big Mo” Modzelewski was stopped cold.
Har-Brack did not make a first down in the opening half. In the third quarter, the Tigers reached Ken Hi’s 27. Vestrand intercepted on the Kensters’ 20 to halt that threat and back Joe Giordano picked off another Har-Brack pass as the game was coming to an end.
 
In the meantime, the bull-like rushes of Vestrand and the whip-like passes of Thrower led the Red and Black to victory. The initial Kenster score resulted from a midfield interception, returned by Thrower to the H-B 16. Thrower ran it in from the seven on a sweep. The second Ken Hi TD came on a 25 yard lateral pass-run play – Thrower to Pisano. The third touchdown came on another Thrower to Pisano pass, this one covering 52 yards. The fourth resulted from a France punt return, the Kensters then driving 41 yards, mostly on carries by Vestrand who got the touchdown. The final score was a convincing 28-0.
 
Two Kensters, junior guard Reynaldo Kozikowski and fullback Vestrand were honored on the All-State first team. Center Dick Tamburo was selected on the second unit.
 
The Red and Black, led by France, Thrower, Tamburo and Kozikowski, continued their winning ways in 1948, only to fall to Vandergrift in the season’s final game. Injuries plagued Ken Hi and a third consecutive AA title was missed. This time, Willie Thrower received first team recognition on the All-State selections, while Kozikowski was named to the second team.
 
Coach Don Fletcher was an early product of the Massillon, Ohio, football hotbed. Following his Massillon graduation, he enrolled at King College in Tennessee, then transferred to Carnegie Tech. He was a starting guard and tackle during the Tartans’ days as a football power, finishing his career in the 1931 season. After coaching in Virginia and at Portage near Johnstown, Fletcher was head coach at Windber in 1938. He came to New Kensington in 1939.
 
Fletcher’s team used multiple formations, primarily working from the single wing. The line was often unbalanced.
 
Center Dick Tamburo, now retired as Athletic Director at Arizona State, said recently that Fletcher was a “super coach, a tough disciplinarian. We all knew our assignments and were well-conditioned."
 
QB George France comments today that “ we were like family – the 1947 team was particularly close.”
 
Ken Hi’s fine 1946 starting lineup:
 
E 15 Harry TAMBURO      6-1   165
T 37 Flint GREEN        6-0   171
G 43 Fred GEORGE        5-11  165
C 26 Dick TAMBURO       6-0   164
G 38 Tom CIANCUTTI      5-11  174
T 49 Bill HORRELL       6-0   180
E 51 Tony KOTOWSKI      6-0   180
Q 14 George FRANCE      5-10  155
H 25 Willie THROWER     5-11  170
H 24 Vince PISANO       5-8   161
F 39 Harold VESTRAND    5-10  185
 
Sophomore 42 Reynaldo KOZIKOWSKI at 6-0 170 was another key lineman, while 22 Ron SIMON, 6-2 and 160, was a messenger end on offense.
 
The Kenster super 1947 starters:
 
E 49 John NETOSKIE            6-1   185
T 38 Bill HORRELL             6-0   200
G 30 Charles PHILLIPS         5-8   150
C 26 Dick TAMBURO             6-0   165
 G 47 Reynaldo KOZIKOWSKI     6-0   170
 T 50 Joe KLINE               5-10  190
 E 29 George SMITTLE          5-11  155
 Q 21 George FRANCE           5-10  155
 H 27 Willie THROWER          5-11  170
 H 28 Vince PISANO            5-9   165
 F 46 Harold VESTRAND         5-10  190
 
Others who played key roles on this superb team included end 48 Don MCNUTT, 5-11 170, also an alternating play messenger, end 32 “Horse” STROUD, and backs 24 Dick BROWN and 20 Joe GIORDANO.
 
The 1946 WPIAL AA Championship season:
 
25 PITTSBURGH CENTRAL CATHOLIC   0
25 BEAVER FALLS                  7
45 PITTSBURGH SCHENLEY           0
19 HAR-BRACK                     6
40 BALDWIN                       6
25 SHARON                        0
33 NORTH BRADDOCK SCOTT          6
21 VANDERGRIFT                   0
 
1947’s perfect Ken Hi record:
 
20 PITTSBURGH CENTRAL CATHOLIC    6
7 BEAVER FALLS                    6
14 JOHNSTOWN                      6
45 PITTSBURGH ST. GEORGE          0
32 GERMAN TOWNSHIP                12
33 ERIE ACADEMY                   6
27 AMBRIDGE                       6
13 VANDERGRIFT                    7
38 SHARON                         6
 
WPIAL AA CHAMPIONSHIP
 
28 HAR-BRACK     0
 
With Michigan State’s 1951 Spartans, Dick Tamburo and Vince Pisano were offensive starters, while Willie Thrower was the No. 2 quarterback and Joe Kline and Bill Horrell were the back-up tackles. On defense, Horrell and Kline were the tackle starters, and Dick Tamburo was a first string linebacker. Harry Tamburo was a second unit D-back.
 
In 1952, Horrell and Harry Tamburo had graduated, and the other four Ken Hi kids carried on as the Spartans won another national crown. Dick Tamburo was named a first team All-American at linebacker.
 
Star guard Reynaldo Kozikowski also went on to Michigan State. Termed by classmate Dick Tamburo today as a “great player”, Kozikowski left the Spartans after lettering in 1950 to join the U.S. Navy and died after a tragic boat accident in the icy waters of the North Atlantic.
 
Two other Kensters enrolled at Michigan State, George France and Charles Phillips. France was a freshman player for the Spartans before transferring to Pitt to complete his education.
 
The legendary Duffy Daugherty, then line coach at Michigan State, was the key recruiter in attracting so many Ken Hi players to East Lansing.
 
John Netoskie became part of Bear Bryant’s Kentucky starting lineup and played stellar defensive end for the Wildcats in their famous 13-7 upset of the Oklahoma Sooners in the 1951 Sugar Bowl.
 
Tony Kotowski traveled south to become a regular defensive back at Mississippi State. He later played in the CFL and coached in Canada.
 
Flint Green was a key lineman at Pitt for three seasons.
 
Willie Thrower became the first African-American quarterback to play in the National Football League – for the Chicago Bears in 1953. Bill Horrell also reached the NFL.
 
New Kensington had a perfect record club in 1957, but the WPIAL’s Gardner point system denied the Kensters a berth in the AA title game. Stellar running back Nolan Jones, along with ace linemen Woody Haser , Tom Arbutiski and Sonny Davis led this team.
 

New Kensington 1947
 
First row, l. to r. L. Ciancutti, Skrypek, Connally, Arabia, Greenberg, Calahan, Bland, Wolf, Zentner, Kraft.
Second row, l. to r. Gretz, Shamey, Campbell, Johnson, Churchill, Michael, Hall, Cartisano, Ofiesh, Vestrand, Kozikowski, France, Brown, Moses.
Third row, l. to r. Tudor, Foley, Smith, Mannarino, Mangone, Feroce, Giordano, Haser, Sisley, Yanshak, Moyer, DeFelice, Schrecengost.
Fourth row, l. to r. J. Crouse, Kwiatowski, R. Crouse, Netoskie, McNutt, Horrell, Kline, Smittle, R. Ciancutti, Pisano, Tamburo, Thrower.


 
Coach Don Fletcher