There is a foolproof way to turn a casual conversation about high school football into a heated debate.

Ask someone to name the best team in WPIAL history.

While the popular pick nowadays is the 1987 North Hills Indians that won the USA Today mythical national championship, it's far from a consensus choice.

I'll take the 1981 Mt. Lebanon Blue Devils.

That Lebo team featured a Parade All-American in nose guard Bob Schilken, a star running back in Mark Hart and a quarterback, Chris Jelic, who would play Major League Baseball.

The Blue Devils might have been more talented a year earlier, when they won the inaugural WPIAL Class AAAA championship. But that '80 team lost a regular-season game at Aliquippa. The '81 team went undefeated and untied in defending its WPIAL Quad-A crown.

Not only did Mt. Lebanon serve as my introduction to high school football, but my cousin, Dan Gorman, also played running back for the 1979 and '80 Blue Devils.

So, there is an emotional attachment to those Lebo teams, which made an indelible impression.

That's what makes the best-ever debate so difficult: Everyone has a favorite, and it tends to be sentimental or territorial, if not both. We all bring bias to this discussion.

Some high school football fans can't agree on which was the best team in their school's history, let alone the best in WPIAL history.

At Aliquippa, such talk is taboo. Some Quips say that '87 was better than '88, but that 1952 might be the best.

The 2007 Jeannette team led by Terrelle Pryor set a state scoring record with 860 points, yet old-timers prefer Dick Hoak's '56 Jayhawks.

If one of Chuck Klausing's Braddock teams, which had a 46-game unbeaten streak and won six straight WPIAL titles from '54-59, is the best, then what about Clairton?

After all, the Bears broke Braddock's 51-year-old record winning streak and set a state record with 66 consecutive wins, including five WPIAL and four PIAA Class A championships.

Former North Hills coach Jack McCurry is convinced his '87 North Hills team is the best of all time, but Eric Kasperowicz and LaVar Arrington — who starred on his '93 WPIAL and PIAA champions — might disagree.

Joe Namath's 1960 Beaver Falls team might be the best, but in 2001 Tyler Palko led West Allegheny to its third straight WPIAL Class AAA title and Quad-A champion Woodland Hills was unbelievable with Steve Breaston.

That's the problem. You can't compare teams from different eras, let alone different classifications.

I'll take some satisfaction in knowing that at least one person agrees with me.

“Oh, we could play with them,” legendary Lebo coach Art Walker said of '87 North Hills. “My '81 team, in a lot of ways, was similar to that North Hills team. It would have been a great game.”

We can only imagine.

It's an impossible debate, for we know the best football team in WPIAL history is the one that has your heart.

Kevin Gorman is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at kgorman@tribweb.com or via Twitter @KGorman_Trib.

---

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---