The Donora Historical Society's headquarters in the Smog Museum at Sixth Street and McKean Avenue is filled with thousands of reminders of the community's long and storied legacies.

And athletes and athletics are a major part of those collections.

“We have been fortunate to amass a countless number of artifacts — pictures, newspaper stories, yearbooks, uniforms, equipment and personal recollections — about Donora's sports history,” said Brian Charlton, the society's curator. “We are always grateful to those people that are willing to share those items with us. As it is throughout the Mon Valley, interest in sports runs very high in Donora.”

The accumulation of athletic history at the Donora site recently was enhanced with the addition of a large number of football and basketball game films from the 1960s and 1970s. The 8- and 16-millimeter reels spotlight teams and players from Donora and Ringgold high schools.

“Brian obtained the films from Donora High School,” said Mark Pawelec of the historical society. “They are a true treasure in that they capture and preserve nearly a decade of sports history.”

They also have created a mild dilemma for the Donora Historical Society.

“We would like to have them converted to DVDs, but we need to know how much interest there would be among the general public as well as the athletes who display their talents on the films,” Pawelec said.

The black-and-white celluloid collection fills five large boxes and includes 80 games involving Donora and Ringgold teams.

They begin with the 1963 football season and run through the 1972 basketball campaign.

“Some of the best athletes in Donora and Ringgold history are featured in the films,” Pawelec said. “There are far too many to mention individually, but I'm sure people will recognize such names as Crawford, Tartt, Urbanik, Muniz, Campbell, Lomax, Galiffa, Griffey, Payne and Stokes. And there are outstanding players from other teams, the opponents of Donora and Ringgold.”

Among the other teams featured in the films are Charleroi, Monongahela, Brownsville, Rostraver, Elizabeth-Forward, Clairton, Aliquippa, Thomas Jefferson, Belle Vernon Area, Canevin, Mt. Pleasant, South Allegheny, Valley, Sto-Rox, Beaver Falls, Steubenville Catholic and Monongahela Valley Catholic.

“There are some classic games on the films,” Pawelec said. “Fans that remember those teams will certainly enjoy the journey down Memory Lane in watching them.”

One of the more significant football films is the one from Friday, Nov. 13, 1964, when Donora bowed, 38-0, to Beaver Falls in the season finale for both teams at Reeves Stadium in Beaver Falls.

No one knew it at the time, but that was the final game in which legendary coach James K. “Jimmy” Russell would guide the Dragons. Russell, whose career at Donora began in 1931, left Donora in the summer of 1965 to become the first head football coach at the new Belle Vernon Area High School.

The game at Beaver Falls also marked the end of standout fullback Larry Crawford's gridiron career at Donora. Crawford, the Mon Valley Conference scoring champion in 1963, was only a junior in 1964 but was ineligible to play in 1965 because of his age.

The 1964 reels also include the traditional rivalry between Donora and Monongahela. Monongahela won that affair, 26-13, on its way to the Big Six Conference championship and a berth in the WPIAL Class AA title game against Aliquippa. The Wildcats, coached by Joe McCune, bowed 7-0 to the Quips on Nov. 21 at Pitt Stadium. Among the MHS standouts that season were Fred Angerman, Butch Penn, Jay McCune, Rich Meehleib, Rod Fedorchak, Denny Dutch and Dave Mathies.

Among the basketball films is the March 7, 1972, WPIAL semifinal game between Ringgold and Keystone Oaks. The Rams lost a heartbreaking 54-53 decision before a record crowd of 12,667 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. Coached by Fran LaMendola, Ringgold's fortunes that season were led by Ulice Payne, Tim Stokes, Art Coleman, Melvin Boyd, Scott Nedrow, Dave Suski and Joe Montana.

Another basketball feature is Donora's 71-55 loss at the hands of Sto-Rox on March 3, 1969, in the WPIAL Class A semfinals at the Civic Arena. That was Donora's final game under that banner, as the Dragons became part of the Ringgold High School team with Monongahela the following year. Coach Fran LaMendola's Dragons won their third straight Section 4 title in 1969 with a cast that included Ken Griffey, Fred Griffey, Russell Tyree, Dennis Lomax, John Vukich, Mike Sanko, Rick Booth, LeRoy Taylor, Dennis Wilkerson, Herman White, Dwight Law and Rick Minnie.

“It's all there on film, from the opening whistle to the final seconds,” Pawelec said. “There's so much history on all of these films.”

Pawelec said the Donora Historical Society would like to make the conversion of the films to DVD format a fundraiser for the organization.

“It's a rather complex process and we do not have the technology here to produce the DVDs ourselves,” he said. “We don't want to risk showing the films on those old 8- or 16-mm projectors, for fear of damaging them. So the DVD conversion is what we want to pursue.

“We certainly would welcome anyone that might be interested in (financially) supporting such a project — individuals, businesses, corporations. And again, we need to know how much interest there might be among the athletes on the films. We have had some inquiries, but we would welcome more.”

Additional information about the films is available by calling 724-823-0364 or by email at donorahistorical@gmail.com.

Ron Paglia is a contributing writer for Trib Total Media.

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