Greg Nichols - Striking Gridiron: A Towns Pride and a Teams Shot at Glory During the Biggest Strike in American History

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For Nina,

for every moment

CONTENTS

AUTHORS NOTE

M Y RESEARCH BEGAN with a simple question spoken into a computer microphone: Do you remember the 1959 game against North Braddock Scott? On the other end of the line, sitting in his apartment in an assisted-living facility in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Coach Chuck Klausing said he remembered. Did he ever. For the next hour I sat riveted as the former coach of the Braddock High Tigers brought that Friday night fifty years earlier back to life.

My challenge was to capture the gusto, vividness, and intimacy of Klausings telling on the page. Material from this book is based on interviews, newspaper clippings, books, magazine articles, and my own observations. Lines of dialogue are based on recollected snippets of conversation and on quotes mined from newspaper articles. Where all other avenues of research were exhausted, I used educated guesses and my own imagination to maintain the animating spark.

Klausings participation throughout the project was vital. Over a marathon three months in 2012, he obligingly subjected himself to near-daily interviews; he shared hundreds of personal documents spanning a lifetime in football, helped rally enthusiasm among former players, and was always available to answer urgent questions about piddling details from decades earlier. He is an extraordinary man, and it has been a joy traipsing through his past. Special thanks to Klausings children, and especially to daughter Patti and son Tommy for their kindness and support.

Early on, John Zuger declared himself my assistant coach for this project. He proved every bit as indispensable to me as he was to Klausing and the Tigers back in 59. Im grateful to the dozens of former Braddock High players I interviewed, and especially to John Jacobs, Larry Reaves, Ray Henderson, Vernon Stanfield, and Mark Rutkowski for their recollections and their trust. Im also grateful to the Braddock Elks, who offered their lodge for an unforgettable reunion that had Klausing whooping it up with his old players in the room where they once ate pregame meals.

Several experts helped me in my quest to resurrect Braddock of the 1950s. Tony Buba knows the town better than anyone, and he generously shared his insights and memories. Excellent research by local historian Joe DeMarco made it possible to re-create Braddock Avenue brick by brick. Marilyn Schiavoni at the Valley Mirror granted me access to the archives of the now-defunct Braddock Free Press, where I found exceptional material. John Smonski, the sports reporter who covered Braddock High games in the 1950s, passed away just before I started my investigation, but he left behind an outstanding body of work that includes power rankings, game analysis, and in-depth coverage of the old WPIAL teams. A good deal of the game-day action in this book derives from his original reporting.

I relied on several great books to tell this story. Jack Metzgars Striking Steel: Solidarity Remembered helped me understand the events leading up to the 1959 steel strike and gave me insight into the mentality of American steelworkers and their families. Legends and Lore of Western Pennsylvania by Thomas White provided an excellent accounting of regional superstitions. The book Never Lost a Game (Time Just Ran Out) by Bob Fulton and Chuck Klausing helped me grasp the connective threads running through Klausings rich store of anecdotes. Paul Brown: The Man Who Invented Modern Football by George Cantor is an outstanding testament to Browns influence and was a valuable resource for me. Out of This Furnace by Thomas Bell is one of the brilliant novels, and it deserves a place on your shelf. If any trace of Bells grace and grit seeped into my style, then this book is better for it.

Joel Rice, a good friend, was the first to tell me about Klausing and his Braddock High Tigers. Not convinced that I grasped the full power of the tale, he came back the next day and dropped a big pile of research in my lap. Im grateful for his insistence. John Fetterman, the mayor of Braddock, and his extraordinary wife, Gisele, gave me a free place to crash on countless trips to Western Pennsylvania, and Im indebted to them both for their hospitality and generosity. I got my first chance to tell this story in a feature for Pittsburgh Quarterly, and I thank Doug Heuck for that opportunity.

It would take far too long to list the many ways that my agent, Laurie Abkemeier, has helped to shape and shepherd this project. She is an exquisite collaborator and a testament to everything thats great about the art and business of writing books. For taking a chance and giving this book a home, Im grateful to my editor, Rob Kirkpatrick, and to all the hardworking folks at Thomas Dunne Books.

You need great teachers. I found two of the best in Megan Marshall and Douglas Whynott. My research on Braddock began under their guidance, and they helped nurture this book and my prose in wonderful ways. Im also grateful to dozens of my fellow students in the creative writing MFA at Emerson College, where talent flows from the taps. Two colleagues in particular, Jodie Noel Vinson and Sebastian Stockman, helped me shore up crucial sections of this book with their meticulous edits and insightful suggestions. Enormous thanks to them both. For the gift of his encouragement and humanity, the writer Teddy Macker is thanked now and forever.

Finally, and most important, thank you to my family. Mom, Dad, Torrey, Garrett, Marc, Nancy, Brian, and Scott, your love and support mean everything. And to Nina, my first reader, I wake up next to you every morning and thank the universe for another day of this sweet dream. Your patience is a miracle, and your laughter and love sustain me.

PROLOGUE

N OVEMBER 1958. THREE GYPSY FIDDLERS appeared on the sideline at Scott Field. Under the lights, the fiddlers improvised a slow, haunting rhapsody, a departure from the cymbal crashes and peppy oompahs of the high school marching bands. This new sound brought the crowd to an uneasy hush.

It was a cold night in Western Pennsylvania, but the temperature had not deterred the nine thousand football fans who stood shoulder to shoulder in the concrete bleachers. They had come from all over the region to witness the meeting of undefeated high school rivals. One group was from as far away as South Bend, Indiana. Notre Dame would be playing the University of Pittsburgh at Pitt Stadium the following day, and Coach Terry Brennan had brought his Fighting Irish to watch the Braddock High Tigers take on the Purple Raiders of North Braddock Scott High. All over Pittsburgh, helpful residents had assured Brennan it would be the only gridiron contest that week to feature two teams worth a damn.

On the field, the fiddlers followed one another through a melancholy arrangement, each taking his turn building on the bittersweet thread that held the piece together. Braddocks gypsy musicians, descendants of the Romani people who had emigrated from Eastern Europe in the late nineteenth century, didnt read music. They were guided by mood alone, and fans from the adjoining towns of Braddock and North Braddocktheir nerves frayed after more than three quarters of bruising footballread portents in their sad melody.