Carson's generosity benefits Freeport athletics
Once a Freeport person, always a Freeport person.
A good example of that is former Yellowjackets athlete Leon "Bud" Carson. Recently, Carson's estate donated $20,000 to the Freeport Area School District football program. Thus far, the money has gone toward a combo football/track scoreboard on the high school campus with the notation at the bottom "Home of Coach Bud Carson."
Carson died on Dec. 8, 2005. His widow, Linda, made it known that Bud wanted the donation made after his death.
Before making his mark in coaching, Carson was a stellar athlete for the Yellowjackets. As a quarterback in 1947, Carson led Freeport to a 7-2 season as a Class B school. The only losses were to Class A rivals Tarentum and Leechburg. Freeport, however, didn't accumulate enough Gardner Points and couldn't play for the WPIAL championship.
Still, it was a thrilling season, particularly Oct. 4, 1947, the first game under the lights at what is currently known as James Swartz Stadium. Carson said in a 1995 Valley News Dispatch interview that it was a big deal for a small town such as Freeport to get a state-of-the-art lighting system.
With temporary bleachers brought in to accommodate the huge crowd, Carson scored two touchdowns and the Yellowjackets routed Washington Township, 30-0.
Two weeks later, 5,000 fans crammed into the stadium to watch Freeport blank Apollo, 9-0, in a battle of unbeaten teams.
After graduating from Freeport, Carson lettered three times for the University of North Carolina as a cornerback and served a two-year stint in the Marine Corps.
Upon returning to Freeport in 1954 for a temporary teaching job when the regular teacher was drafted, Carson told Yellowjackets coach Johnny Karrs that he wanted to get into coaching. In 1955, he took over the program at Scottdale High School and guided the Scotties to a 16-2-1 record for two seasons before going into college coaching at Georgia Tech. He was elevated from an assistant to head coach in 1967 when the legendary Bobby Dodd retired.
In 1972 he came to Pittsburgh, and was named the Steelers' defensive coordinator and became the architect of the Steel Curtain defense that held the Minnesota Vikings to 17 yards rushing in the 16-6 Super Bowl IX victory.
He finally got an NFL head coaching job at Cleveland in 1989, where he beat the Steelers in his debut, 51-0. He finished his career as the Eagles' defensive coordinator, but Carson never forgot his Freeport roots.
New WPIAL schools
Three Class AAAA schools have been accepted as WPIAL football members only on a contingency basis.
The Board of Control recently accepted Erie McDowell, Altoona and Hollidaysburg as football members, provided the PIAA doesn't expand to six football classifications.
The move by the statewide body to go from four to six football classifications recently passed its second reading by a 17-11-1 vote, with two board members absent. The third reading must be by a two-thirds majority, meaning the measure has to pick up four more votes in its final reading next month. The WPIAL is against six classes, but the PIAA wants it to happen.
Terlinski remembered
Our sports department was saddened to hear of the recent death of Plum's Bob Terlinski.
Terlinski, 72, not only was a chemistry teacher in the Plum Borough School District, he was the Mustangs' head basketball coach and the school's athletic director for several years.
He was perhaps best known as a longtime WPIAL Basketball Steering Committee member, serving for a long time after his retirement from the school system.
Terlinski always found time to help the media covering Plum sports and the WPIAL and PIAA basketball playoffs.
