Neshannock dedicating stadium in honor of Bob Bleggi
Written: Sep 18, 2009
  By TODD KRISE
New Castle News
He always has been known as a knowledgeable teacher, fierce competitor and respected coach.
But the one thing that Neshannock High coaching legend Bob Bleggi never would stand for is running up the score against a weaker opponent.
Bleggi always kept one eye on the field and the other on the scoreboard in more than two decades on the Lancers’ sidelines.
“If the other team did it to me, that’s up to them,” the 73-year-old said. “I always thought it was up to the team getting hammered to surrender or to put in the second team. If they didn’t want to ... that was fine.”
Which makes tomorrow night’s pregame festivities all the more ironic.
The Neshannock Township School District will dedicate the school’s football stadium — and scoreboard— in Bleggi’s honor before the Lancers’ matchup against county rival Shenango.
The pregame ceremony is scheduled to begin a half-hour before the game’s 7 p.m. start.
“It’s funny,” Bleggi said. “It’s very humbling. It wasn’t expected. It’s special because most of my family is going to be there.”
Bleggi, who led Neshannock’s football team to a 112-77-12 record from 1966-86, winning five Tri-County championships along the way, will be escorted by his six grandchildren — Melissa, Miki, Caitlyn, Rob, Mark and Jaclyn — on the same grounds he spent almost five decades as a teacher, coach and administrator.
“There were some people in the community, some people on the board that felt this should have been done,” current Neshannock athletic director Gary Weimer said. “They kind of got the ball rolling. I had a gentleman write a letter to me that felt it should’ve been done. There was a lot of support for it.”
Bleggi already was a Lawrence County star before graduating from New Castle High in 1954. As a teenager, he excelled at football, basketball, track and baseball.
College football legend Paul “Bear” Bryant offered Bleggi a scholarship to play football at Texas A&M, but a severe case of homesickness brought Bleggi back to Westminster College, from where he graduated in 1960.
Shortly thereafter, Neshannock hired Bleggi as a teacher and assistant football coach.
“It was the only school I applied to,” he said. “Luckily, a vacancy came open.”
Bleggi was an instant hit. Including his responsibilities with the football team, he was instrumental in starting the school’s track and field program — a team he coached from 1964-1986, compiling a 110-52-2 record.
He was hired as head football coach two years later and became known throughout the county as an innovative offensive mind.
“You could always expect the unexpected,” former Shenango coach Frank Bongivengo Sr. said. “I think he made me a better defensive coach because it was going to be a long week of practice anytime we played Neshannock.”
After retiring from coaching in 1986, Bleggi served as Neshannock athletic director from 1987-2006. He remains the chairman of the WPIAL track and field committee and is commissioner of the Midwestern Athletic Conference.
Bleggi was inducted into the Lawrence County Historical Society Sports Hall of Fame in 1988 and also is the fullback on the All-Time New Castle High Football Team.
“He is highly thought of in the Lawrence County area, specifically Neshannock,” WPIAL executive director Tim O’Malley said. “He’s done an awful lot for that district. The decision to dedicate the stadium after him is well-deserved.”
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