Mention the 1961-62 school year at Monessen High School and most people -- especially sports fans -- will recall that it produced the WPIAL Class AA championship football team. But there was much more to the Class of 1962 than athletics.
"Obviously, we are very proud of the football team and the championship," said Anthony C. "Bum" Borruso. "Our class was blessed with an outstanding group of athletes, but many others excelled in other areas."
Borruso and his classmates will be talking about those achievements -- and other subjects -- when they gather for an untraditional 46-year class reunion on Oct. 11 at Monongahela Valley Country Club.
Others on the planning committee in addition to Borruso are Mike Apostolakis, Bill and Irma (Borsevich) Kosh, Mary Ann (Havrilak) Hlodan, Karen (Ray) Lewitsky and Pat (Treater) Rozycki.
Why a 46-year reunion?
"Interest kind of fell off after our 30th (reunion)," said Borruso, who lives in Connellsville. "We tried to have an impromptu picnic-type get-together for our 45-year reunion, but it was put together rather quickly and wasn't received too well. So we decided to try for a 46th with more advanced planning."
The Oct. 11 festivities will begin at 5 p.m. and will include dinner and entertainment (music from the 1950s and 1960s) by disc jockey (and classmate) Michael Apostolakis. Costs are $35 per person or $70 a couple.
"The response has been picking up," Borruso said. "Sadly, about 20 percent of our class has passed away. But we're confident we'll have a good turnout."
Attendance notwithstanding, the 1962 graduates will have a lot of memories to rekindle.
For instance, the class was recognized as the "brainiest" group (to that point in time) in Monessen High's 62-year history. That designation evolved because:
• Scholarships worth $109,350 were awarded to members of the Class of 1962. This was double the amount in 1961.
• Five of the 178 graduates ranked in the upper 10 percent of students taking the National Merit Scholarship tests. Dorothy Hicks, guidance counselor in 1962, noted that "rarely does a school have more than one or two students that high in the rankings."
• About 45 percent of the class would continue its education. This was the highest in the school's history and 5 percent above the 1961 figure. Hicks described the Class of 1962 as "truly exceptional."
• Seven students won full academic scholarships and 13 received partial scholarships ranging in value from $800 to $1,000. In addition 10 students received scholarship aid from various Monessen organizations.
Six members of the football team received full athletic scholarships and two basketball players landed partial scholarships.
Students whose excellence in the classroom led to the "brainiest" designation in a feature story in The Valley Independent were Melinda DeRocco, Richard Steele, Carl Tegnelia, Anthony Vitale, David Hora, Ronald Bettis, John Plavetich, Kenneth Petrush, Thomas N. Strauss, Stella Ann Reday, Stephanie Stieska, Billie Lynn Dragan, Michael Kurey, Darlene Bazilwich, Allen Throop, Andrew Joseph, Edward Skurkay, Terry DelRosso, Charles Stevenson, Elaine Hughes, Patricia Peshok, Linda Hamrock, Unna Toni Parinella, Donna Frank, Lee Laszewski, Geraldine McFaddin, Rosetta Davis, Philomena Iannotta, James Petro and Gloria Epstein.
In addition to Vitale and Laszewski, both members of the WPIAL championship football team, other athletes garnering college scholarships were Eric Crabtree, Bill Malinchak, Ben Jones, Paul Barton, John Tweardy and Alan Leshor.
Further emphasizing the academic prowess of the Class of 1962 was Honor Students recognition in the Greyhound yearbook. Bazilwich was lauded as valedictorian and Joseph and Tegnelia as co-salutatorians.
Others in the Top 20 spotlight were Steele, Iannotta, DeRocco, Laszewski, Pete Campbell, Donna Frank, Epstein, Donna Marino, Carol Sudor, Judy Canova, Stieska, Dragan, Kathy Barnes, Leshor, Skurkay, Strauss and Angela Daniele.
Many of the graduates perpetuated their academic and athletic skills in college. Bazilwich exemplified that trend at the University of Pittsburgh, where she received a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering on Aug. 9, 1966.
At Pitt she was the first woman to receive the Harrison Collin Bashinum Merit Award as the most outstanding chemical engineering student. She also was the first woman to be accepted as a member of Omega Chi Epsilon, the national chemical engineering honorary fraternity, and she received a National Science Foundation fellowship for graduate work in chemical engineering at Pitt.
Class officers were Ronald Klasmeyer, president; Michael Grammatikos, vice president; Angeline Mavias, secretary; Irma Borsevich, assistant secretary, and Stephanie Stieska, treasurer. Joining those leaders on the Senior Council were Etta Santoro, Jim Cocchiara, Susan Stewart, Vitale, Jill Zubrisky, Mike Nicksich, Canova, Skurkay and Sandra Kurytnak. Tegnelia served as president of Student Council.
In an effort to emphasize the importance of secondary education, the graduates sponsored the MHS Class of 1962 Scholarship from 1993 to 2002. During that time the scholarship provided some $12,000 in financial aid to MHS seniors.
"That's a significant amount of help," Borruso said. "We felt an obligation to give back to the school, to help those who followed us to Monessen High the same way many of our classmates benefited."
Mary Ellen Tirpak Dudick told Valley Independent columnist Emma Jene Lelik in June 1999 that the scholarships were conceived at the group's 30th-year reunion.
"The committee decided to give scholarships after one classmate donated a substantial amount of money for us to use," Dudick said.
Philip Reed, a class member living in Rochester, N.Y., at the time, made the $500 contribution to the reunion committee on behalf of the Afro-American Club in Rochester in 1992. Building on this generous gift, additional monetary gifts were solicited from 1962 graduates and a total of $1,500 was set aside for a scholarship to one or more seniors graduating from Monessen High School in 1993.
Such traditional activities as band, sports, chorus, plays and a variety of clubs kept members of the Class of 1962 busy throughout their high school days.
Senior majorettes were Mary Ann Havrilak, Donna Frank, Judy Coccari and Barbara Fisher.
Jill (Zubritsky) Chelko recalled that Jimmy Beaumont and the Skyliners entertained at the Class of 1962's junior and senior post-prom parties.
"That was something, having the Skyliners at our party," said Chelko, now executive secretary to the provost and vice president for academic affairs at Gannon University in Erie. "They were one of the top groups in the (recording) business at the time. My dad (Lou Falbo) helped plan the parties. He was a member of the Kiwanis Club, which sponsored the post-prom activities."
Chelko also was one of four seniors on the cheerleading squad in 1961-62. The others were captain Suzy Williams, Marietta "Etta" Santoro and Billie Lynn Dragan, the energetic Greyhound mascot.
"We had a lot to cheer about that year," Chelko said. "The football team won the WPIAL championship and the basketball team also had a great season. We were proud to be cheerleaders, proud of our school and our community. I remember trying out when I was a sophomore in 1959. Betty D'Antonio was head cheerleader then and she told us at our first meeting, 'You girls are the cream of the crop.' I've never forgotten those words."
