Greensburg Salem football game celebrates late coach Williams, historian Kaufman
Greensburg Salem's Golden Lions honored two legendary figures from the team's history at the first game of the season at Offutt Field on Friday.
The game was declared “Huddie Kaufman Recognition Night” in honor of former Tribune-Review sports editor and current team historian Howard B. “Huddie” Kaufman.
Officials and community leaders also celebrated a new victory sign that keeps track of the team's total wins. The sign is dedicated in memory of Robert Williams, the Golden Lions' longest-serving coach, who died in 2013 at 89.
Thundershowers that threatened to cancel the game cleared as the celebration started.
The festivities began with a parade of band members and cheerleaders who marched in front of Kaufman as he rode a golf cart onto the field to be honored before the game began. More than 60 friends and admirers were waiting there to greet him.
“Huddie Kaufman is a pillar in our community. He graduated from Greensburg Salem, he has raised his children in Greensburg, and he has been a life member of Greensburg,” said Greensburg Salem Athletic Director Lynn Jobe.
Kaufman said he had no idea what to expect when Jobe called him to tell him about the night in his honor. His children came in from other states for the occasion.
“It's wonderful,” he said.
Kaufman has been a Golden Lions fan since 1935.
“My first game, I was seven years old,” he said. It was Greensburg Salem's last undefeated season.
The victory sign keeps a running tally of all of the team's wins — 680 so far. It replaces the smaller sign that used to stand in the same spot.
Before the game, members of the team trotted past it, tapping it for good luck.
A plaque on the sign dedicates it to coach Williams.
“He was our coach. He came to Greensburg in 1955, when we were freshmen,” said Richard Jones, one of the men who led the fundraising efforts for the upgraded sign.
Williams coached from 1955-1975, with a record of 125-67-8. He also served in the U.S. Marine Corps in the Pacific Theater during World War II.
“Coach Williams was known to many of my teammates and my friends as ‘the chief,'” Jones said. “I could never call him ‘the chief,' I respected him too much. To me he was always coach Williams or Mr. Williams.”
Many in the crowd had fond memories of the coach.
“I played for Bob back in the '50s, and then I coached for him after that. Fantastic person. Great family, great guy,” said Greensburg resident Bill Jackson.
With 680 wins, Greensburg Salem is the 9th-winningest high school team in Pennsylvania, and has the 44th most wins in the country. The team was hoping to add another victory to the sign Friday, but it was not to be. The Golden Lions fell to Monroeville's Gateway Gators, 28-10.
Jacob Tierney is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 724-836-6646 or jtierney@tribweb.com.
