Like most local sport fans, I was intrigued by this year’s NFL draft, curious to see if the Steelers would draft Kenny Pickett as a replacement for Ben Roethlisberger or run the risk of missing out on “another Dan Marino”. Consequently I elected to invest a few minutes watching what turned out to be a TV extravaganza. This year’s draft was programmed from Los Vegas and eventually took up two evenings and one afternoon of prime-time television.
The attraction that professional football has on our entertainment dollar is unprecedented. Not only do the televised games dominate our interest over a long and often boring season, but also the interest in learning which millionaire owners will hire which highly publicized athletes and convert them into instant millionaires has created a cottage industry all its own.
I couldn’t help thinking about this same event years ago and marveling at the way times have changed. I decided to go back sixty-eight years to an NFL Draft that I remembered, primarily because it involved so many kids we knew, and refresh my memory on the way life has evolved for the sports fan in the interim. I chose the 1954 Draft because I knew that five participants in the 1949 Bridgeville/Clark High School football game had done well enough in college to be drafted as professional football players four years later.
In the 1940s Bridgeville High School had important rivalries with South Fayette, Carnegie, and Scott Township (Clark High School). The 1949 BHS team, Class B champions, had its toughest game that Fall against Class A Clark, eventually winning 21 to 14 in what my father said was the best football game he had ever seen. Clark’s stars were quarterback Bernie Faloney, center Jim Schrader, and end Joe Zombek. Fullback Lou Cimarolli and Wingback Roger Bradford were two of Bridgeville’s best players. All five were drafted by NFL teams in January, 1954.
Faloney had starred at the University of Maryland; he was drafted number eleventh overall, by the San Francisco Forty Niners. He was offered $9,000 by the Niners, but opted instead to go to Edmonton in the Canadian Football League for $13,750. He had a very successful career there, and is enshrined in the CFL Hall of Fame.
The $13,750 paycheck doesn’t sound like much compared to the massive bonuses high draft picks earn today. However, it would have seemed a fortune to me in those days. I had been earning $4,320 a year as a Junior Engineer prior to my career change, which was then netting me seventy-eight dollars a month, plus “three squares and a flop”, as a private in the U.S. Army.
Schrader followed a fine career at Notre Dame with an equally fine one with the Washington Redskins. He was drafted number twenty overall. He played in 116 games with the Redskins in a career spanning ten years, earning Pro Bowl honors on three different occasions. Zombek won three letters at Pitt before being drafted number 103, by the Steelers. He played two seasons for them as an end and punter before retiring.
Cimarolli was in the Navy when he was drafted, 127th, by the Steelers. He came back to play two more years for Pitt before using up his eligibility. He had a brief tryout with the Steelers in 1956, but was released without playing in any exhibition games (as was Johnny Unitas).
The Steelers drafted Bradford number 163, apparently because his coach at Waynesburg, Jack Wiley, had told his Steeler friends that Paul Brown was interested in Roger. His tryout with the Steelers was also short, although he did kick off in one exhibition game. Bradford went into the service in early 1955.
In addition to these five there were numerous other players from this area (Ralph Felton, Bobby Epps, Alex Sandusky, Tom Yewcic, etc.) who were drafted in 1954. What we today call the Rust Belt was perhaps the most productive recruiting area for high school players in the country in those days. This year I think there were three players from Western Pennsylvania drafted, in a class that numbers 224 draftees.
For perspective, in 1954 the population of our country was 168 million, about half of what we have today. The NFL consisted of twelve teams, each picking players for thirty rounds (compared to thirty-two teams and seven rounds today).
With pick number seven, the Steelers selected Notre Dame halfback and Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Lattner. Lattner had an outstanding rookie season, culminating with participating in the Pro Bowl. He then went into the Air Force where a knee injury in a football game ended his career. Current Steeler linebacker Robert Spillane is Lattner’s grandson.
In the second round the Steelers picked Syracuse quarterback Pat Stark. He participated in the exhibition season with mixed results before being released. The Steelers’ third pick was a place kicker, Tom Miner, from Tulsa. He made the squad and was successful kicking field goals in his only NFL season.
The Steelers had no picks in the fourth and fifth rounds, but gambled on Mississippi Southern halfback Hugh Pepper with pick number 67. Pepper was also an outstanding collegiate baseball pitcher; he passed up the Steelers for a four-year career with the Pirates in which he won a total of two games.
In the seventh round the Steelers picked Jeannette, Pa. product Jack O’Brien, an end from the University of Florida. He had two productive seasons with the Steelers. Their eighth-round pick was UCLA halfback Paul Cameron. He played well for his first season, then went into the service, after which he continued his career in the Canadian League.
Times change and society dictates the direction it goes. I am astonished at the passion the average fan has regarding professional football today; I suspect we would all be better off if it were directed elsewhere.