Hall of famer Buchner produced for Apollo football

After making the WPIAL football title game as a freshman at Apollo High School, Dave Buchner and his fellow seniors were anxious for a return engagement. But in the pre-1971 WPIAL, any team with a loss or a tie in its classification was ineligible for the championship game.

Buchner made sure the Striped Tigers got back to the final: He blocked a kick to preserve a 19-18 victory over rival Washington Township on Oct. 15, 1965, to keep his team in the running for the WPIAL Class B title game.

'We had lost, 7-0, to Washington the year before, and they had some Apollo kids who had transferred,' said Buchner, one of 12 inductees at this year`s Armstrong County Sports Hall of Fame dinner. 'They always were well-coached with Don Earley and Ed Fitzgerald, who had taken over in `65.'

Apollo lost the title game to Oakmont, but Buchner had quite a season. The two-way tackle was all-AIC Conference, all-WPIAL, an Alle-Kiski Valley first team all-star and all-state honorable mention.

'We needed Avalon to lose in order for us to get back to the title game,' Buchner said. 'They did, and everything fell into place for us during that season.'

Buchner also lettered for four years in basketball and once in track, where he set the school shot put record. He was Apollo Athlete of the Year for 1965-66.

Laramie, Wyo., is a long way from Apollo, but Buchner accepted a scholarship to the University of Wyoming and started on the freshman team in 1966. Freshmen weren`t eligible to play varsity back then.

'They had a real strong program at the time, and they heavily recruited Pennsylvania and New York,' Buchner said. 'They had gone to the Sun Bowl and played LSU in the Sugar Bowl.'

Amid heavy competition for a starting job in spring practice before his sophomore year, Buchner suffered a torn ACL. With treatment and rehabilitation nowhere near what it is today, Buchner`s playing career was finished.

Following the injury, Buchner earned a degree in education at Indiana (Pa.) and a master`s at Pitt. He began his teaching and coaching career at Northgate — oddly enough a successor school to Avalon. He eventually moved on to the Westmoreland Intermediate Unit, where he taught special education for 32 years.

'It was very rewarding,' he said. 'You mostly worked with kids who needed some support.'

Buchner was injured in an accident in 1976 when he fell from a tree and has been in a wheelchair since. But that hasn`t stopped him from enjoying sports, traveling and hunting.

'I still follow sports, and I bagged an elk hunting in New Mexico last year,' he said.

Additional Information:

Armstrong County Sports Hall of Fame banquet

When: 4 p.m. April 29

Where: Laube Hall, Freeport

Tickets: $20

Contact: Dennis Wolfe at 724-882-3557