Redskin Gridiron History – Fun Facts 4
Three’s The Charm: One of our other favorite papers (the Bucks County Courier Times – of course) featured a most eloquent article in its August 29, 2000 edition. The topic? The selection of the area’s best high school football player, best high school football coach and best high school football team during the second half of the twentieth century (that’s 1951 through 2000 – come on folks). After due consideration, careful and thoughtful reflection, and deep and probing discussions continuing late into the night – the envelopes please:
- The area’s top coach: Neshaminy’s John Petercuskie who guided the ‘Skins from 1960 through 1965 compiling a 59-1-5 record while being voted Coach of the Year in 1961, ’62, ’63 and ’65. Voted into the PA Scholastic Football Coaches Hall of Fame in 2000;
- The area’s top player: Neshaminy’s Harry Schuh. Played in 1958, ’59 and ’60. Lead the area in scoring in 1958 and 1959 while being named All-Pennsylvania and All-America as a Senior. Played at Memphis State and was an All-American as a Junior. Played ten years in the NFL (was with Oakland in Super Bowl II). Voted onto the PFN All-Century Team as a First Team offensive player; and
- The area’s top team: Neshaminy’s 1971 squad. Finished 11-0 and under the old Dunkel ranking system received a Pennsylvania state rating of .537 to Pittsburgh’s Kiski Area’s .544. Ranked 7th nationally in Scholastic magazine and top ranked in most Northeastern publications.
Now you see what we mean when we say it’s as easy as one, two, three! Another clean sweep by your Redskins.
Big Four and Little Three: What the heck could that mean? Try this on for size.
Back in the thirties (before the Lower Bucks League was established) the loose affiliation between schools in Lower Bucks was broken into two leagues known as “gee, I wonder” – The Big Four and The Little Three.
Here’s the line-up:
- The Big Four – Langhorne-Middletown, Bensalem, Bristol and Morrisville.
- The Little Three – Fallsington, Newtown and Southampton.
Seventy years later, I think we all know that Langhorne-Middletown became Neshaminy, Fallsington became Pennsbury, Newtown became Council Rock North and South and Southampton just sort of went up in smoke (maybe that’s William Tennent when you think about it). How about that for trivia!
Mr. Redskin! A Top Honor If Ever There Was One! (Part I): Yet again we found ourselves sitting around on a Saturday night without enough to do (so we thought we’d research our archives and find out the “story” behind the Mr. Redskin Award). Believe it or not – we found it (of course you believe it, we’re good, we’re really, really good!).
Anyway, way back in 1952 (at the end of his first season as Head Coach) Harry Franks decided there was a need to recognize a player each year that embodied a set of all-around qualities of character that all Redskins could look up to (in fact, Coach Franks’ plan included having the players vote for Mr. Redskin themselves with that player then deemed the teams’ Honorary Captain for that year).
Well, before a vote could be held, there had to be some guidelines that the candidates would have to “live up to” (that makes sense). Wonder what they were? Don’t worry, like we said above, we found them and you might just read on a bit if you’re curious.
When voting for Mr. Redskin, there were four main “qualifications” that Harry’s boys were to consider as essential to the player elected and they were as follows:
- He should be the best all-around football player;
- He should be the best all-around citizen;
- He should be the most cooperative team mate with the other players and the coaches; and
- He should display sportsmanship, conditioning, and a general attitude which were, at all times, good for the team.
There they are! And you know something, although those four “ideals” might seem quaint in today’s world, we think they’re just as applicable now as they were back then.
Mr. Redskin (Part II): A blind squirrel could have seen this one coming (duh – hey fellas, who was the first Mr. Redskin?).
Step right up because we’ve got the answer to your question (drum roll and envelope please). The first Mr. Redskin, as voted by his teammates in 1952, was……..Steve Cloak.
Steve anchored the Neshaminy offensive line at the center position and was a large part of their 9-1 squad that year (Harry’s first as a Head Coach). Winner of numerous awards, Steve is also a member of Neshaminy’s Football Hall of Fame being inducted in its initial “class” of 1985.
One other point of note, Steve (a 1953 graduate of Neshaminy) also gave the Redskins Steve, Jr. who was a stalwart player for the ‘Skins in the mid-seventies under Head Coach Paris “Pal” Allison.
Harry Franks – Did He Invent Redskin Football? Well, we know he didn’t actually invent Neshaminy football but he sure had a lot to do with it. Oops – we got off-track, the point we wanted to make was that when we were researching the Mr. Redskin award (see above) we “discovered” that in 1951 (Harry’s first year as a coach at Neshaminy) he was the Head Coach of the JV team.
His record? Try 7-0-0.
Then in 1952 he became Head Coach of the Varsity squad.
His record? Try 9-1-0.
Then in 1953 his team finishes up 9-1-0 again before his 1954 boys post Neshaminy’s first “perfect” record when they bring home a 10-0-0 season!
Not bad, not bad at all. In fact, if you do some quick math you might just notice that Coach Franks’ combined record during his first four years as a Head Coach was a not-so-shabby 37-2-0. And in case you haven’t poked around this site till you’re “red and blue” in the face, we’ll point out that Harry’s overall record while the Head Honcho of the ‘Skins (from 1952 through 1959) was 69-10-2. That’s a winning percentage of over 87% which puts Coach Franks in second position behind only John Petercuskie and his monumental 59-1-5 effort during the 1960 to 1965 seasons.
Congratulations to Coach Franks.
1958 Sideline Photo
Mr. Redskin (parts III through IX): Lists, list and more lists – that’s what we’ve become!
So here’s another list for you “factoid” junkies – the first 10 Mr. Redskin honorees (that’s 1952 through 1961 for those of you not paying attention). But before we set them out below, we should make note that through the 2005 season, there have been 54 Mr. Redskin “winners” and you can find all of them in the Players Awards section of this most wonderful website (we do like to pat ourselves on the back now and then).
But we digress, so here’s the First Ten Mr. Redskin selections (with their positions listed):
1952 – Steve Cloak (center)
1953 – Tom Buckley (quarterback)
1954 – Don Cameron (back)
1955 – Bill Barret (quarterback)
1956 – Donald Boyer (center)
1957 – Frank Conroy (lineman/linebacker)
1958 – Al Gaskill (back)
1959 – Herb Cummings (Center)
1960 – Jack Stricker (back)
1961 – John Carber (lineman)
Now have about a round of applause!
And how about these tidbits: Every one of those players is in the Redskins Football Hall of Fame while 7 of the 10 were accorded “All County” honors (that was the all-star team to “make” in those days) with those fellows being Steve Cloak, Don Cameron, Frank Conroy, Al Gaskill, Herb Cummings, Jack Stricker and John Carber. Four of them (Cameron, Conroy, Stricker and Carber) were so honored in both their junior and senior years. Plus John Carber was 1st Team All-State in 1961 (the first Redskin to earn that recognition although Harry Schuh was named 2nd Team All-state in both his junior and senior years in 1958 and 1959).
And how about this footnote, Dashing Don Cameron was not only All-County in 1953 and 1954 he was named Mr. Back in both of those years too (yes – they had other awards back then) while being crowned Mr. Redskin in 1954 (the ‘Skins first perfect season we might add). Our records reveal that Don can thus lay claim to being the only player to have been selected as Mr. Redskin while “winning” in another category the same year. Nice job, Don!
Anyway, we think that they’re all winners – so congratulations again to these fine representatives of Neshaminy Redskin football.