Laurel celebrating 50 years of football

By TODD KRISE

New Castle News

What if Michael’s Jordan’s parents never gave him a basketball?

What if The Jackson 5 never gave little Michael a microphone?

And what if George Miles was never given that maroon and brown cardboard football helmet for Christmas in 1959?

Well, the Laurel High football program might not be what it is today, which celebrates the program’s 50th anniversary. A pregame ceremony is set for 6:30 p.m. before Laurel’s matchup against North Catholic.

Miles was an undersized seventh grader entering his first year of junior high football when the coaches informed him that there weren’t enough helmets to go around.

Instead of pouting, Miles went home, grabbed that cardboard helmet and strapped it on.

The rest is history.

Miles became a standout kick returner and defensive back for the Spartans from 1962-64. He went on to Slippery Rock University, and upon graduation, returned to Laurel as a teacher and assistant coach.

He became the Spartans’ head football coach in 1972 and compile a 201-128-4 record in 32 celebrated seasons.

“I was spurred so much in the interest of the game because my coach (Sam Nan) knew just so much about football,” Miles said. “He was so interesting to watch when it came to strategies.”

Miles, who was preceded by Laurel football patriarchs Barney Bakewell, Nan and Leonard Rich, coached the Spartans into prominence for parts of four decades. He won eight of the school’s 11 conference championships and Laurel’s lone WPIAL title in 1980.

“That was just the biggest part of my life for 41 years,” said Miles, who retired from football in 2003. “The school and that football program ... are just so demanding, especially during the season.”

But that’s what makes Laurel football so special, Miles said. Everyone from the administration to the booster club to the hundreds of coaches and players realize what it takes to make a successful football program.

The Laurel administration will honor these individuals tonight.

“My thoughts about Laurel really center around the people that I met there,” said Nan, who coached the Spartans from 1963-68. “That’s what Laurel is to me: People. I can’t explain it but people seem to be gung-ho about football more than they are about any other sport out there.

“That has sort of prevailed throughout the years.”

 

THE BEGINNING

For football to get started at Laurel in the late 1950s, it needed a spark plug. Very little work had been done on the grassy fields surrounding the high school.

That’s when Barney Bakewell stepped in.

Bakewell, a Princeton junior high teacher at the time, collected a group of hard-working farmers and started grooming a playing surface. Bakewell’s two daughters, Debra Ann and Linda Ann, were even employed to pick up stones off the field. The ladies were paid 10 cents for every 10-quart bucket of stones.

Old pipes were used as goal posts and the bleachers came from the Hickory Race Track. A friend of Bakewell’s who worked at Penn Power donated poles and cable wire to construct a fence.

“Everything was taking shape,” Bakewell said, “and it almost started to look like football was played here.”

Next on the list was uniforms, and again Bakewell’s family was put to the task. His wife, Billie Ann, along with three volunteers, cooked food for a uniform fundraiser. The profits were immediately sent to the superintendent to buy football equipment.

Helmets and pads started to flow in “three and four at a time,” according to Bakewell. “Whoever they fit, got them.”

When the uniforms needed cleaning, it was Bakewell and his family who washed them in Princeton’s boiler room on the weekends.

“We were yelled at for being in the way of the janitor,” Bakewell said, “but for five years every weekend, the uniforms were washed.”

So in 1958, Laurel football was born. The Spartans played a junior varsity schedule in their first year and officially started playing at the varsity level in 1959.

Laurel humbly won only two games in Bakewell’s four years at the helm. He finished with a career record of 2-26-2. Since then the Spartans have compiled a win-loss record of 269-176-8.

“I still live in Laurel and I have gone to a couple games recently,” said Bakewell, who is now in his 80s. “Attending the games and seeing the beautiful facilities and the pride the community has for its football, I forget about all the challenges I had to face to bring football to Laurel.

“I am so proud of where Laurel football is today and it makes me wish I would have never left as coach.”

             

FIVE DECADES OF FOOTBALL

Bakewell left the program in the strong hands of Sam Nan in 1963 — the same year lights were erected at the football field.

Immediately, the Spartans turned it around. In Nan’s first year, Laurel went 4-2-2 for its first winning season.

“The crowd began to come and the support started to build,” said Nan, who won Laurel’s first Tri-County championship in 1965. “The lights were a great advantage to me because that made football more attractive and kids started to come out.”

Nan finished with a respectable 24-15-3 record over five seasons, while his successor, the late Leonard Rich compiled a 12-14-1 record from 1969-71.

Nan jokingly said his greatest contribution to Laurel football was his recommendation of George Miles to Rich, who hired Miles as an assistant in 1969.

“(Miles) took the program to another level,” Nan said.

How about another universe?

Miles, as a confident 25-year-old head coach in 1972, took the Spartans on a whirlwind of success during his first nine years on the job. Laurel was 71-20-2 over that stretch, won five Tri-County championships and upset mighty Clairton in the 1980 WPIAL championship game at Mt. Lebanon High School.

“We were a powerhouse in the ’70s,” Miles said. “Everyone in the school who should’ve been playing was playing football. That was important. You don’t get that now. There are just too many other things to do.”

Miles led the Spartans to three conference championships and eight more WPIAL playoff appearances from 1981-2003.

Former Laurel standout Lance Nimmo was a star lineman on the Spartans’ 1996 Allegheny Conference championship team. He went on to play at West Virginia University and spent some time in professional football.

Nimmo, who missed his entire senior season at Laurel because of injury, became the first former Spartan to earn a Super Bowl ring when he played for the New England Patriots in 2005. He admits that missing his senior year is one of the worst things to happen to him.

“That was gut-wrenching,” Nimmo said. “Where I live I can tell when the lights are on at the football stadium. I can kind of hear faintly the announcer. It’s always a big deal in Laurel. Even when they’re not having a successful season, they always have a heck of a crowd at that stadium.”

Nimmo’s words ring true today under current head coach Jerry Holzhauser, who had big shoes to fill when he replaced Miles in 2004.

JERRY’S KIDS

“I thought long and hard about it,” said Holzhauser, who was an assistant for 28 years prior. “It was something I dreamed about. When it came true, it was truly a blessing having my name attached to it. Not everyone gets the opportunity to become head coach at Laurel.”

Holzhauser made an immediate impact in his first season, going 9-2 and winning the school’s 10th conference championship. He earned his 32nd win as head coach last week in a dramatic 15-8 victory over Clairton.

When asked to express his feelings toward the tradition-rich program he’s now in charge of Holzhauser said:

“It’s something that has created stability at Laurel,” he said. “It’s something the community always looks forward to. They know that when August rolls around, that it’s time to play Laurel football.”

Cardboard helmets and all.