Redskin Gridiron History – Fun Facts 5

It’s all relative: We were going over the Hall of Fame list and we suddenly thought:

Hey – are some of these guys related? Sure enough, they are (as in, they’re brothers, fathers and sons and even cousins). Kicking it all off, here’s a list of brothers who played for Neshaminy’s “grid eleven” over the years and then made it into the football Hall of Fame (listed alphabetically by last name):

Name	Years Played	Postion
Chris Bahr	1968-70	Kicker
Matt Bahr	1972-73	Kicker
Bob Barr	1960-62	RB/DB
Jerry Barr	1963-65	RB/DB
Fred Conger	1963-65	OL
Charlie Conger	1969-71	OL
Pete Cordelli, Jr.	1969-71	QB
Bruce Cordelli	1978-79	QB
Mark Cordelli	1980-81	QB
Herb Cummings	1957-60	OL
Robert Cummings	1960-62	OL
James Dumont	1976-78	LB
Robert Dumont	1976-78	LB/E
Vance Forchetti	1968-70	DL/LB
Dale Forchetti	1969-72	E/DB
Ed Kaminski	1959-61	RB
Billy Kaminski	1962-64	RB
Joe Lukens	1942-44	LB
Richard Lukens	1944-46	RB
Rich McHale	1963-65	DL
Bruce McHale	1969-71	OL/E/LB
Doug Mason	1967-68	QB
Rick Mason	1981	C
Dan Meier	1969-71	DL
Jamie Meier	1973-75	RB
Tom Meier	1975-76	QB
Steve Pyle	1962-64	DL
Dave Pyle	1969-71	DL/LB
Tom Stricker	1955-57	RB
Jack Stricker	1958-60	RB
Steve Sroba	1967-69	RB
Joe Sroba	1970-72	RB

Pretty neat, huh?  Fourteen sets of brothers (and nice job by the Cordelli and Meier boys too as they each managed to put three each on the “Wall”).

Thinking about this section again, maybe we should have called this one ‘Brothers In Arms’.  What do you think?

It’s All Relative – Part II:  Well if you liked the “brothers” connection – how about fathers and sons!  Yup – we have a few of them too (not many – but here they are):

Name	Years Played	Relationship
Pete Cordelli, Sr.	1958-67	The Dad
Pete Cordelli, Jr.	1969-71	A Son
Bruce Cordelli	1978-79	Another Son
Mark Cordelli	1980-81	Another Son
Marlowe Covington	1932-34	The Dad
Stan Covington	1952-54	The Son
Bruce Sauerbry	1964-66	The Dad
Terry Sauerbry	1986-88	The Son
John Swartz, Sr.	1955-72	The Dad
John Swartz, Jr.	1968-70	The Son

Wow. Those Cordellis sure piled it on.  And speaking of piling it on – as far as we know not only can they claim a tie with the Meier clan for most “boys” in the football Hall of Fame (three each) but the Cordellis can take the ‘family” title with four in total when “Pops’ is thrown in the mix.  One other point we should make as to this father/son thing, both the Cordelli bunch and the Swartz connection feature a Dad who was a coach (both were assistant coaches under John Petercuskie before enjoying their time as a head coach after Petercuskie’s departure).  As to the Covington and Sauerbry clans, both the patriarchs and offspring were players (the Covingtons were offensive ends while Papa Bruce Sauerbry was an offensive lineman as was son, Terry).

Pretty cool.

Oh jeez!  We almost forgot.  There’s one more category – cousins.  That’s right – cousins.  There are two sets.  Anyway, the drum roll please – and here’s the last two guys:

Name	Year Played	Position
Tom Lauther	1951-53	(LB)
Rich Lauther	1960-62	(E)
Bob Rothenbach	1952-54	(C)
Ed Fiorelli	1959-61	(E)

But they’re cousins, identical cousins all the way – one pair of matching bookends, different as night and day!  (Anybody recall that song at the beginning of The Patty Duke Show?)

Okay, back to business (and finally), so we don’t appear callous and uncaring, we’d like to give a special tip o’ the hat to the Moms who provided the sons – and put up with the husbands – because without them, well, we wouldn’t have much to talk about.  Thank you ladies!  Oh – one other thing.  We heard that there might be and uncle/nephew link.  We’re looking into that possibility (we’ll get back to you if it pans out).

<– Page 4