Distinguished Greensburg Salem alumni to be honored at foundation banquet

The Greensburg Salem Education Foundation's three newest distinguished alumni honorees are being recognized for their strong ties to their community, school district and football team.

The foundation selected Howard “Huddie” Kaufman, Paul “Murph” Murphy and Dr. Jack “Doc” Smith as distinguished alumni to be honored at the organization's third annual banquet Friday. The trio is being honored for their careers and giving back to the community where they grew up.

“When you say ‘Murph, Huddie and Doc,' everyone in the community knows who ‘Murph, Huddie and Doc' are,” said Greensburg Salem High School Principal David Zilli, who helped select this year's honorees.

Their varied paths through life intersected many times, usually near the football field.

Smith and Murphy went to high school together. The former played basketball, baseball and football; the latter basketball and track. Kaufman wrote about their athletic exploits while covering sports for the Greensburg Tribune-Review.

Murphy would go on to coach the football team, while Smith served as its doctor.

“Their careers paralleled each other timewise, and their involvement in the community overlapped each other,” Zilli said.

Murphy, 69, started working with the Greensburg recreation department when he was a teenager, teaching baseball to younger children. As a college student, he majored in math while playing basketball and football at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He was hired to teach in the Greensburg Salem district, but his first stint as a teacher was cut short when he was drafted into the Army for a tour of duty in Vietnam.

When he returned from the war, he taught math and coached football, eventually becoming the head football coach. He went on to become an assistant principal at the high school, then the principal, then the district's director of secondary education until retirement.

He said he is proud to receive the award alongside his longtime friends and colleagues.

“I think very, very highly of both of those gentlemen, and it feels great to be honored because of that,” he said.

Kaufman, 88, has been a fan of the Greensburg Salem football team since 1935, when he attended his first game.

“That year, it was the last time Greensburg had an unbeaten team,” he said.

As a child, he won a battle against polio, although he always walked with a limp. He was treated for the disease at the D.T. Watson Home for Crippled Children in Leetsdale in 1943, more than a decade before Dr. Jonas Salk tested his polio vaccine there.

He graduated from Greensburg High School in 1946 and spent decades covering its teams as a sports editor for the Tribune-Review. He's now the district's football team historian and staffs the scoreboard during games.

“I've always loved Greensburg. I loved the football team,” he said.

The team named a game day in his honor and held a parade for him last year.

Smith, 68, is the chairman of the orthopedics department at Excela Health. He's been a practicing orthopedic surgeon since 1978.

He shares his loyalty with his two alma maters, Greensburg Salem High School and the University of Pittsburgh.

“One arm bleeds brown and white, the other arm bleeds blue and gold,” he said.

He started as doctor for the Greensburg Salem football team shortly into his medical career and remained in the position until about five years ago, when he stepped down because of the demands his role as president of the University of Pittsburgh Alumni Association placed on his time.

His love for his schools extended to their sports teams.

“I looked forward to Friday nights, whether it was football or basketball,” he said. “The football team has been a big part of my life, even though I didn't play football.”

“Huddie,” “Murph” and “Doc” will be recognized at a 5:30 p.m. banquet at Ferrante's Lakeview on Route 30 in Hempfield. University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg President Sharon Smith will be the keynote speaker.

Jacob Tierney is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-836-6646 or jtierney@tribweb.com.