History lesson: Bellefonte to name wrestling room for coach Glenn Smith

Twenty-nine high schools combined for 95 Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association individual wrestling championships before Bellefonte High conducted its first-ever practice for the 1946-47 season.

Glenn Smith started that first wrestling program, which turned into a pretty solid one for the school, the region and around Pennsylvania.

Title bouts in 10 weight classes were contested at Penn State’s Rec Hall in each of the first four years starting in 1938. Eleven bouts followed in each of the ensuing five years before Bellefonte, representing District 6-9 in the state qualifier in those days, launched what proved to be a very successful varsity program.

The 1947 season proved to be a bit tougher task than expected as Smith’s team posted a 1-5 record, the one win coming against Muncy after five straight losses. The result: not one Bellefonte wrestler qualified for the annual two-day state tournament.

What followed, though, was a remarkable effort by a number of Red Raider wrestlers who provided Smith with an overall six-year dual meet record of 52-7-1, plus four PIAA champs — sophomore Tom Riglin at 95 pounds in 1948, junior Joe Masullo at 112 in 1949, junior Tom Musser at 127 in 1950 and sophomore Dave Adams at 120 in 1951. A breakdown of Bellefonte’s last five dual-meet seasons under Smith: 11-0 in ’48, 10-1 in ’49, 10-0-1 in ’50, 10-0 in ’51 and 10-1 in ’52.

These are just some of the many reasons why the Bellefonte Area School Board approved the naming of the wrestling room in honor of Smith. That dedication ceremony will take place at the Bellefonte gym at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 8. The Red Raiders’ dual meet against Philipsburg-Osceola will follow at 7 p.m.

Bellefonte added two more state titles in 1953, senior Ken (Foxy) Moyer at 127 pounds and Adams at 138 pounds, but the head coach then was Stan Mousetis, who had been hired as the assistant under Smith the previous year.

Smith resigned his teacher-coach position after the 1952 season to accept the head wrestling job at Allentown High (District 11). Eventually, he had four state champs at Allentown in the late 1950s, including Al Rushatz in ’58, who won an Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association crown, plus an NCAA third-place finish for the U.S. Military Academy. Smith’s 1957 Allentown squad, meanwhile, won two individual titles and added two second places and departed Rec Hall with the mythical team title.

Smith certainly should claim some credit for Moyer and Adams winning titles in ’53 with Mousetis, a former PIAA (in 1946 for Washington) and EIWA champion (1948 at Franklin and Marshall). Moyer previously lost in the 1950 PIAA 95-pound state finals to Manuel Pihakis of Canonsburg and Musser lost in the ’51 state finals to Shamokin’s Ken Faust 6-3 at the Johnstown Cambria County War Memorial, instituting the first of many one-day format state meets. The ’51 state event also featured another revision with one wrestler from each of four state-wide regions competed for the gold medal but in 11 weights this time around.

Two more multiple District 6-9 champions during the productive Smith Era included Bill Krebs in ’48 and ’50 and Larry Fornicola (1950-51). Bill Fisher won one at 145 in ’52 and added a Central Northwest Regional crown the same year. Fornicola is the only Bellefonte native to win an NCAA tournament title. In 1955, he won EIWA honors at 137 for Penn State and a national crown at Ithaca, N.Y., defeating Andrew Kaul, a Big Ten champ from Michigan, 8-0. Later Larry coached at Allentown Dieruff High where he produced two PIAA champs, one in 1964, which happened to be the year Smith retired from coaching, and one in ‘65. Dieruff won the unofficial team title in ’64. Fornicola later became the first head coach at Keystone Junior College.

He’s one of many deceased former Bellefonte wrestlers from that era, including Musser, Riglin, Masullo, Sam Markle, Krebs, Russ Letterman, Pat Kelly, Pete Huey, Tom Bear, Gene Watson, Blair Confer, Bob Wert, Jim Stem, Bob Hull, Bill Alterio, Lee Smith, Budd Whitehill, Tom Cowan, Bill Tate and Dick Thompson, among others. Coach Smith died in 2007, one year before the Penn State wrestling program celebrated its 100th anniversary. It was Whitehill who started the wrestling program at Lycoming College, and one of two winners from Bellefonte (the other was Bob Nellis) in the Tribe’s first road dual meet (at Lock Haven).

Krebs lost to Joe Solomon of Canonsburg in the state finals 7-4, and Solomon went on to win EIWA and NCAA titles for Pitt later in the 1970s. Solomon also is a Hall of Famer both as a collegiate competitor and referee. Krebs lettered with the 1954 Penn State squad, the year after the Lions won the NCAA title in Rec Hall for Hall of Fame coach Charlie Speidel.

Coach Smith, who won an EIWA title for Penn State in 1945 (155 pounds), said one day he was definitely interested when Speidel asked him if he would like to be Bellefonte’s first head coach. Speidel had two head coaching stints at Penn State, with one four-year military hitch sandwiched in between. That’s when former State College attorney (and Centre County Judge) R. Paul Campbell coached the Lions. Campbell also won an EIWA title in 1930 for the Lions.

“Coach Smith was like a father figure,” Adams said on the phone recently from his home in Goshen, Ind. “I’ve been around lots of excellent coaches but Glenn was the best one I’ve ever been affiliated with. He was a disciplinarian. On the bus for our road trips there was no carrying on. Shoes had to be shined and coats and ties had to be worn or you were in trouble. Plus, you never wore your Varsity B sweater.”

Following graduation from Penn State, Adams coached briefly at Boiling Springs, where he started the school’s prestigious holiday tournament. For years, Bellefonte attended that District 3 school for two days of good competition. He then returned to Penn State, where he was an assistant coach for five years. He then accepted a position at the U.S. Naval Academy. Adams left Navy in the late 1960s and headed Pitt’s wrestling program for 13 years, replacing Dave Johnson. Later, Adams assumed special administrative duties at Pitt, then became athletic director at San Jose State and Akron. Adams also played a key role in forming the Eastern Wrestling League in the 1970s, when Pitt and Penn State pulled out of the EIWA, where he once served as president.

On the mat, Adams won an EIWA title for Penn State at 147 in 1957 and bowed to Ed Eichelberger of Lehigh in the ’56 NCAA finals.

Adams belongs to five Halls of Fame — Bellefonte (1999), Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Hall of Fame (2004), Pennsylvania Wrestling Coaches Association (1983), the EWL and District 6. He also served on the NCAA Wrestling Rules Committee for 19 years. Finally, he was the Chief of Operations for 36 years for the head scoring table at the NCAA Division I tournament.

“The next NCAA meet at Madison Square Garden in March will be No. 60 for me,” he said, “but now I go as a fan with some of my Midwest buddies. But to young and old wrestling fans, classmates and retired wrestlers back in Bellefonte, come and bring your friends and families to the dedication ceremony honoring Coach Smith in the high school gym.”

Looking back at some of the history of those early days of schoolboy wrestling in Pennsylvania, Clearfield was the power for nine seasons when Bellefonte threw its hat in the ring. The Bison, coached by the legendary Art Weiss Sr., registered 16 individual crowns between 1938 and 1946 followed by Waynesburg (10), Canonsburg (8), Forty Fort (7), DuBois and Farrell (6 each) and Kingston (5). Once Bellefonte joined the fray in 1947, Smith’s teams during that six-year stretch captured four titles, the same as nearby Philipsburg (now P-O), Washington and Shamokin. Clearfield again led with 10 for a total of 26. Next in line for that six-year period was Canonsburg with seven, two more than Waynesburg. Overall, Clearfield owns 40 titles while the Canonsburg-Canon McMillan jointure has 42 entering the 2015-16 campaign.

Markle was a sophomore when Bellefonte fielded its first wrestling team. In three seasons, he posted a 21-8-1 record while serving as team captain his senior year (1949). He also wrestled on the ’57 Penn State team which won the EIWA title at Rec Hall.

“Smith was a dedicated coach, teacher and mentor who not only developed wrestlers, but also inspired future leaders,” Markle wrote in a note he mailed me a few weeks before his death in September. It was Markle, the committee chair in 1947-48; team captain Don Hess, a copper and brass company sales-marketing regional director; Adams and teammate Phil Sieg, real estate developer, who made the commitment to dedicating the wrestling room in Smith’s honor. Sieg had a 14-4 record as an upper weight while Hess, also a Bellefonte Hall of Fame inductee, won 12 of 17 bouts competing in the lower weights.

Markle, who enlisted for four years in the U.S. Navy after his high school graduation, was involved with wrestling some 60-plus years either as a coach, competitor or referee. He officiated 400-plus schoolboy meets and 100-plus collegiate events, not to mention PIAA Championships. He was a “no-nonsense” person on the mat and he made sure the wrestlers gave it their all for six minutes, or however long it took to decide the winner, and then shake hands at the end of each bout. Former Bald Eagle Area coach Dick Rhoades said you could count on Sam being consistent with his calls.

Sam, who also worked numerous district and regional tournaments, once served as interim coach at Bellefonte near the end of the ‘59-60 season. Ron Pifer, who turned out to be Sam’s brother-in-law, won back-to-back PIAA titles (1957 and 1958) under Coach Mike Flanagan between 1955 and the tail end of his contract for another job. However, Sam did work with Ron in those earlier years. Sam also coached golf and junior high wrestling and once served as assistant principal at Bellefonte. At a special ceremony this past August, Sam was inducted into the Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Hall of Fame. At Penn State, Pifer was a three-time NCAA placer, finishing fourth, third and second. Ron also coached the Army team and Superior (Wis.) State and is credited with coaching eight PIAA champs at State College combined in separate stints — first in the 1960s-70s and then again in the early 2000s. He also served as assistant principal at State High. His Bellefonte record was 60-2 (39 falls). He’s in the Bellefonte, Pennsylvania Chapter of the national organization, District 6 and PWCA Halls of Fame.

As a freshman, Moyer lost in his 1950 title bout 2-0. “He (Pihakis) was just too strong. I couldn’t take him down,” said Moyer.

Moyer had a 54-6-1 record and lost only three dual meets. He later enrolled at Stevens Trade School in Lancaster and stayed two years. His next stop was Waynesburg College but an arm injury and the fact that he was married kind of marked the end of a brief collegiate career.

Moyer had both Smith and Mousetis for head coaches at Bellefonte, which paved the way for a smooth transition since he had been a staff member the previous year. “Coach Smith was a health and physical education teacher,” Moyer said. “He also coached JV football. He didn’t want me playing football at all. In phys ed class, he would point to certain kids he thought would make good wrestlers. He’d say ‘I want you and you and you to be at wrestling practice’ and that was his method. I know I wrestled in the eighth grade exhibition bouts before the varsity matches started. I remember Nick Delallo was another guy who wrestled those exhibition bouts. But Coach Smith was strict. There was no fooling around with him.”

Moyer, who also had a long career in vocational-technical teaching in the county, officiated for many years as well. One of his top thrills came as a Stevens Trade School wrestler after he drew with Ed Peery, a Pitt freshman at the time, in a Mid-Atlantic AAU event staged at West Chester for freshmen only. “Pitt brought about 18 kids. My wife kinda kidded me and said I was bragging since I had been named the OW that weekend,” he said with a grin. Moyer, a 1999 Bellefonte Hall of Fame inductee, said he also plans to attend the upcoming NCAA meet in New York.

Smith, Riglin, Masullo, Musser, Bellefonte High Schooler Jimmy Thal and Fornicola also were added to the Bellefonte Hall in 1999. Smith, a Mount Carmel native, also belongs to the Pa. Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, the same as Fornicola, and the PWCA Hall. The NCAA didn’t sponsor its annual tourney during World War II (1943-45), preventing Smith from getting the opportunity to earn All-American honors.

Riglin had a 32-5 schoolboy mark and competed four years at Franklin and Marshall. He lost his life in a military aviation accident. Musser wrestled at Lock Haven State after a solid career at Bellefonte where he registered a 52-5-2 mark. After college, he started the wrestling program at Central Dauphin, where his kids won five District 3 and three Southeast Regional individual crowns. Next up for Musser was his return to Bellefonte in 1962. The Red Raiders, in seven seasons, captured sectional honors 11 times, district honors six times and regional individual titles.

Masullo, after beating Faust in the 1949 state semifinals, then won the championship in his next bout. and Bellefonte had its second straight PIAA title. Masullo’s record was 27-10-3. The ninth PIAA title in Bellefonte history went to Thal in 1991, ending a 33-year drought. He won at Hershey in the 127-pound class after finishing fifth the year before. His coach was Fran Johnson.

And then No. 10 came along in 2010 when Mitchell Port, ending the season at 45-0, went all the way after placing in two previous PIAA appearances. He also won multiple district and regional titles. Cousin Brock Port placed in last season’s PIAA meet.

In college, Mitch went wild, winning three EWL titles and three NCAA places, including a runner-up finish last March for Edinboro University. His coach at Bellefonte was Mike Maney and his college coach was ex-Penn Stater Tim Flynn.

Maney, a state champ for BEA, spent two years as head coach at P-O before taking over at Bellefonte. He earned two All-American places for LHU in the early 2000s.

This story was originally published November 25, 2015 at 1:31 AM with the headline "History lesson: Bellefonte to name wrestling room for coach Glenn Smith."