The History of Pen Argyl Football

1922 - Present

When you think of Pen Argyl football, what comes to mind? Maybe it's "The Hill", where the green and white fight for a win week after week, or maybe it's the picturesque view of the valley while watching a game on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Or maybe you even remember the days of Woody Petchel and Bob Parsons, or the winning seasons of Coach Jones and Coach Petchel. These thoughts are very meaningful to a lot of people, and the main reason for this is because Pen Argyl was, is and probably will continue to be a football town.

Football began in Pen Argyl in 1921. Before this there were teams, but the players weren't all high school students. In fact, many of the players were much older. In addition to playing, these teams also had to make up their own schedule and get their own coach; they even had to borrow uniforms from the men who played before them. These men were hard-nosed football players, especially considering that they wore hardly any pads and had no facemasks on their helmets. When the high school team actually began interscholastic competition, they played at the big field at Weona Park. That season, Henry Martin coached a team with few players, but this fact was countered with a lot of victories. In fact, the team went 5-0-1 and if they would have been part of a league, they probably would have won it or tied for the championship. This happened again in 1924, but this time the Green Wave went 8-0. The captain of this team was John (Shebo) Schultz who was a great running back who eventually went on to Temple University to become one of the best players on the team. In 1930, the Lehigh-Northampton League was formed. This league included the likes of Bangor, Wilson, Nazareth and Hellertown. In 1934, a great player by the name of Gil "The Galloping Ghost" Strunk haunted opposing defenses and led the Green Wave to another undefeated season and their first Class B Lehigh-Northampton League Championship.1936 also stood out as a year to remember. That year arch rival Bangor was undefeated, untied, and unscored upon until they played Pen Argyl. The score was 33-13.

This type of helmet was worn in the early years of Pen Argyl Football. Though not as old as the helmet, the shoulder pads pictured are also an early piece of equipment

In 1937, the Pen Argyl High School football team turned Bangor High School's dream of an undefeated, untied, and unscored upon season into a Thanksgiving Day nightmare. Refusing to be awed by Bangor's impressive season, Pen Argyl turned back the Slaters 6-0 for a dramatic upset. Emotions always ran high for weeks before and after the traditional Thanksgiving Day rivalry game as evidenced by the following local newspaper articles:

Jubilation!

Sour Grapes!

Things actually went so far as a man betting his house that Pen Argyl would beat Bangor. Unfortunately, he never mentioned his name.

Other evidence of lucky charms, superstition, and the tradition surrounding Pen Argyl football games can be found in this 1941 newspaper article.

The 40's and 50's teams weren't as good as the early teams, but they still had a few championships and some great winning seasons. The first of these championships came in 1942. Coach Bellis led the Green Wave to a 4-2-1 season a Lehigh-Northampton Championship shared with Nazareth. From 1943-1946 the team's record was 8-21-1, which included a 0-6-1 season in 1943. (Click here to see a picture of the 1946 team.) In 1947, the team acquired a new coach whose name was Benny Leonard. Leonard and the Green Wave scored themselves another championship that year, and in the process, doubled their opponent's yardage. As the new season began in 1948, there were two teams in the Pen Argyl stable. This was because of the launching of the J.V. program. During their first season, the J.V.'s went 4-2 with a win over Bangor, but fell just short of a junior varsity league title. The Pen Argyl-Bangor game meant a lot to both teams and in 1950 the varsity received its first permanent Ike Resh trophy which was presented to the winner of this traditional rivalry. From 1950 to 1960, the Green Wave had four different coaches and only two winning seasons. But, during this ten-year span there were some big improvements in the equipment. In fact, in 1956, the team finally had more pads and wore facemasks on their helmets. These facemasks were of the single bar variety, something like Morten Anderson and other NFL kickers and punters wear today. In 1957 the Green Wave acquired a new identity, which still lives today. They are now called the Pen Argyl Green Knights. In 1958, the team had a new style of facemask, which had two curved bars and two smaller bars that joined them in the center. A stripe was also added to the helmets, which was just a new fad for decoration.

Despite team records, football spirit always ran high. This was evident by the booster cards which were sold by the cheerleaders week after week in the '50's and '60's.

Number 21, David Jones, 1966, makes a leaping grab for the ball.

In 1961, Elwood Petchel took the Green Knight helm and proved to be capable of turning the program into a winning one as in the 20's and 30's. In fact, this 1961 team went 9-1 after losing to Muhlenburg Township by a 19 - 13 score. After this loss, The Green Knights went on a nine game winning streak and took home their first LNL championship in 14 years. During this season, Gary Heard rushed for over 1,000 yards. This was the first time that this feat was accomplished in Green Knight history. This nine game winning streak would extend much farther than anyone might have expected. In fact, Coach Petchel's well-oiled machines won 21 games in a row over the course of three seasons and became well respected and maybe even feared by opposing teams. Elwood Petchel coached the longest and had the best record of any Pen Argyl football coach. (See coaching records from 1922-1966.)

The 1963-64 season began with a new addition to Pen Argyl High School, that of a new football stadium. The Knights now began playing at the upper high school field, which would later be known, as "The Hill". This is still the field used for games today. Some notes of interest are that the Knights won their first game at the high school by easily beating Muhlenburg Township 26-6. Glenn Huffsmith scored the first touchdown at this stadium.

1963 brought another undefeated season and another LNL Championship. Petchel led the Knights, once again, for his second championship in 3 years and the Knights first undefeated season in 29 years. This team had many of good players. Among some of the standouts were Glenn Huffsmith, Terry Young, Jim Rodney and Leroy Amy. Another note of interest for this great season is that this was the first time that there was a knight emblem on the player's helmets.

1963 LNL Champions

ROW 1 (L-R): Robert Lakey, assistant coach; Keith Newhard, assistant coach; P. Frable, R. Tobias, R. Reduzzi, F. Buzzard, J. Rodney, G. Huffsmith, A. Stracko, R. Stewart, Rodney Miller, assistant coach; Elwood Petchel, head coach. ROW 2 (L-R): D. Edelman, T. Lugg, L. Amy, G. Woolley, K. Hinton, B. Samson, B. Hewett. ROW 3 (L-R): R. Stratton, D. Parsons, R. Young, S. Jones, J. Fenner, R. Szabo, B. Smith, T. Young. ROW 4 (L-R): B. Woolley, S. Horn, W. Edwards, R. Roberts, K. Edwards, R. Gold, B. Repsher. ROW 5 (L-R): G. Jones, manager, D. Capone, W. Alfred, D. Jones, K. Jones, R. Davis, J. Iaccio, B. Dungey, manager.

 

 

 

Senior Players on the 1963 Championship Team

ROW 1 (L-R): B. Hewett, L. Amy, J. Rodney, G. Huffsmith, R. Tobias, Lugg

ROW 2 (L-R): Reduzzi , A. Stracko, F. Buzzard, B. Sampson, P. Frable, B. Stewart

 

In 1966, one of the harder records for a single player to break was tied. Barry Woolley tied Gary Heard's record of scoring 5 touchdowns in a single game. 1964 brought the only* player in P.A.H.S. history, to ever play in the NFL, to the Pen Argyl football field. Bob Parsons was a big running quarterback with a great throwing arm and an even better kicking leg. In 1967, he scored 136 points to fall four short of Gil Strunk's record. Bob Parsons later attended Penn State University and played as a tight end. After that he went on to play 12 years with the Chicago Bears as a tight end and a punter.

*Walter "Pasty" Masters moved away from Pen Argyl at the age of 14. He was an accomplished athlete even at that early age. He went on to play football at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was an All-American in both football and basketball. He played halfback for the Philadelphia Eagles football team. In 1943, he played quarterback for the Chicago Cardinals and in 1944, he played for the Card-Pitt. He then served as a player-coach for the Wilmington Clippers of the former American Association Football League. He continued to play in the Canadian Football League for the Ottawa Rough Riders, where he later became the coach. He lead the Ottawa Trojans to a league championship in 1947 and coached the Rough Riders to a 10-2 season in 1948, which led to his induction into the Ottawa and District Sport Hall of Fame.

Gil Strunk's scoring record would be broken. In fact, in 1969, two years after Parsons gave it a run, Woody Petchel scored 186 points and broke the old record by 46 points. Woody Petchel was one of the greatest players to play for Pen Argyl. Along with all of his points, Woody also had 1132 yards in 1969 and broke that record with 1556 yards in 1970. This team was far from a one-man phenomenon. They almost brought home another LNL Championship if it weren't for the Saylor Point System (a controversial method for determining league champs by using points), which was never used again after the season of 1970. During this season, Woody was also chosen to Third-Team All State by the UPI and AP. 1971 didn't bring Woody as many yards as the previous two, but it did bring an 8-1 season and a well-deserved league championship. Woody Petchel also became one of only two players in PAHS history to have his jersey retired. The other was Gil Strunk #55.) Woody's number 13 green jersey can be seen in the showcase located in our gym lobby. Woody Petchel also set some all-time state records. These included career rushing (4609 yards on 831 carries), career touchdowns (88), career points (540). For his great achievements, Woody was rewarded with a spot in the Big 33 Game which was played in Hershey, Pennsylvania. During this game Woody carried the ball 8 times for 44 yards.

The 1971 Pen Argyl-Stroudsburg game was featured in the Pocono Record as their top sports story in their 100 year anniversary edition. You can see the original article published on April 2, 1994, if you click here.

From 1973- 1975 the Knights were only 7-23-0, but a brighter future was over "The Hill's" horizon. This fact could be attributed to a new coach by the name of Mike Jones. Coach Jones began his career as Pen Argyl' s head coach in 1976. He also brought in some new coaches. These assistants included Dick Jones and today's varsity coach, Roy Cortez. In his first season, Coach Jones led the Green Knights to a 6-3-1 record. From 1977-1978, the Knights went 12-9-1, but won some games in a very pleasing fashion.

In 1979, the Knights, a preseason underdog, went 9-0-2 and were the surprise champs of the Colonial League. Under Coach Jones, the Knights tied only 2 teams for their second championship in 9 years. This championship, along with the two district championships in 1984 and 1986, are the ones that Pen Argyl football fans remember as the latest ones in the sport in its 57-year stint at the High School.

1979 Colonial League Champions

Row 1 (L-R): Jim Snyder, Robbie Young, Terry Gilbert, Tyrone Klump, Keith Achenbach, Dave Overdorf, Tom Davey. ROW 2 (L-R): John Donate, Rick Miller, Jonh Kercsmar, Jim Gum, Rich Mutton, Charles Rumsey, Mark Fulmer, Dan Detweiler. ROW 3 (L-R): Peter Zanette, Troy Serfass, Eric Case, Jeff Snyder, Steve Gold, Mike Lawless, Dave Gross, Terry Moyer, Paul Frey. ROW 4 (L-R): Coach Doug Powell, Coach Carl Fischer, Scott Lameo, Steve Nasatka, Charles Hildenbrandt, Gary Houck, Todd Biel, Mike Reidinger, Coaches: Mike Jones, Dick Jones, and Roy Cortez.

The eighties began as an era with high expectations. This can be attributed to the first 4 seasons in which the Knights went 31-14. In 1980 the team was 7-4 and in 1981 they went 6-5 and fell just short of a share of the league championship. The next three seasons went well for the Knights as they posted records of 7-4 in '82, 9-2 in '83, and 8-3-1 in '84. In 1985 the Knights took a step back with a record of 5-5-1, but in 1986, the Knights prevailed again with a 9-3 season. In 1987, the Knights received a District XI playoff berth with a 6-6 record. Between 1988 and 1989 the Knights had a combined 7-15 record.

Pen Argyl has one of the oldest football programs in the Lehigh Valley. Maybe this is one of the reasons for the team's success, but whether it is or isn't, Pen Argyl has had some great teams and some great players. Whatever memories stand out about the history of Pen Argyl Football, just remember Pen Argyl was, is, and always will be a football town.

2004- 6 wins 3 losses

2005- 4 wins 6 losses

2006- 8 wins 4 losses Beat Bangor 51-0. 1st round District XI playoffs beat Northern Lehigh 14-13.

2007- 5 wins 6 losses

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