Allegheny College Athletics

1950-69: An Era of Stars

The Buck Stops Here
In 1952, goalkeeper Bob Buck received Second Team NSCAA All-America honors, one of 21 players to land on the annual listing while earning the first of two career All-American honors.  In addition, George Culberson, Dane Hannum and John Gow all earned All-Region honors.  Buck, a charter member of the Allegheny Hall of Fame, earned four letters for the Allegheny men’s soccer squad, four on the track and field team, and three on the basketball team, serving as captain for all three programs during his senior season in 1954.
 
Charter Member
While Allegheny had its share of stars through the first half of the 20th century, it took 60 years for the program to see its first 1,000-point scorer.  Eugene McIndoe was the Gators’ leading scorer in all four of his seasons with the Gators (1950-53), and his career total of 1,244 points stood as a program record for 27 seasons.  A three-time team MVP and All-State honoree, McIndoe eclipsed the 1,000-point mark during a senior season in which he set another long-standing record, as he needed just 19 games to total 458 points, an Allegheny record that remained intact until 1979.    McIndoe was a member of Allegheny’s inaugural Hall of Fame class in 1980.

Bishop Takes King
Just two years after Eugene McIndoe tallied his 1,000th career point on the hardwood, Bill Bishop replicated the feat in 1955.  After scoring 124, 210, 416, and 434 points in his four seasons, Bishop ended his career with 1,185 points, second only at the time to McIndoe's 1,244.  During his senior season in a win over Edinboro, Bishop scored a career-high 36 points, which remained a Montgomery Gymnasium/David Mead Field House record for 31 years.

In addition to his prowess on the basketball court, Bishop was just as impressive on the baseball diamond.  In 1955, the Gators ran off an 11-2 record, thanks in part to Bishop, an overpowering pitcher.  He went 7-0 on the mound, with 87 strikeouts and a 0.75 ERA in 67 innings.  A charter member of the Allegheny Hall of Fame, Bishop's father was know to remark that "the majors made a mistake not drafting him," an archived note in Allegheny's baseball history records says.

Grand Opening
Montgomery Gymnasium served as the hub of Gator athletics through the first half of the 20th century.  In October 1953, the College’s Board of Trustees decided that it was time for an upgrade, and announced the plans of building an addition onto the existing Montgomery. Construction began on a 17,000 square foot  insulated steel-walled structure that included new office space, a regulation basketball floor, and workout room that cost approximately $500,000.  Because the field house was the fruit of a community effort, the trustees named it the David Mead Field House, for the man who founded Meadville in 1788.  The name was kept secret until the grand dedication of the building on January 8, 1955, when Allegheny defeated Edinboro 79-61.  Dick Wigton scored the first basket in the building’s history.  The David Mead Field House remained the center of Gator athletics until 1997, when the David V. Wise Center was completed.  The Field House fell victim to the wrecking ball in 1999, but Montgomery Gymnasium remains standing, and widely used today as the main center of the Allegheny Dance and Movement Studies program.
 
Three-Year Superstar 
A 1958 Allegheny graduate, Jim Villa remains one of the football team's most prolific legends.  Playing for the Gators from 1955-57, Villa excelled as a two-way player, manning the linebacker and running back spots, and earned a plethora of accolades.  He was an All-District and All-State selection in both 1956 and ‘57, while earning Associated Press All-America honors in 1956 after rushing for 16 touchdowns.  That season, he ran for 1,073 yards, and turned in the top single-game effort of his career, rushing for 259 yards and four touchdowns in an Oct. 27 victory over Bethany.  Under head coach Red Moore, Villa scored 29 career touchdowns, and remained in the top five of Allegheny’s career scoring list for nearly 30 years, while he is the lone player in team history to score over 100 points while only playing for three seasons..  Selected in the same 1957 NFL draft as Hall of Famers Jim Brown, Paul Hornung, and Len Dawson, Villa went on to play professionally in the Canadian Football League for the Ottawa Rough Riders.  He was inducted into the inaugural class of the Allegheny Hall of Fame in 1980.
 
Putting the AC in the PAC
Two years after the NCAA’s endorsing of the use of athletic scholarships, President Lawrence Pelletier encouraged the Allegheny athletic teams to schedule only non-scholarship, unsubsidized opponents.  At the same time, Case Tech, Western Reserve, John Carroll, and Wayne State join to form the Presidents’ Athletic Conference with the intent of keeping the business of athletics from disrupting academic operations.  In 1957, Allegheny, Bethany, Thiel, and Washington & Jefferson join the Presidents’ Athletic Conference, which was groundbreaking in that students on academic probation were ineligible to compete.
 
Macky an All-American
Allegheny earned the first PAC men's soccer championship in program history in 1959, as the Gators were able to earn the conference crown with a 3-1 win over Case Western Reserve, then named Case Tech.  Captain Dave Macky, who was inducted into the Allegheny Hall of Fame in 1996, earned All-America honors following the season, and earned his First Team All-PAC honors for a second straight season.
 
Take the First Shot
Under the leadership of Captain Harmon, the Gator rifle program began in 1959 with a roster of six student athletes, closing out the team’s inaugural season with a 10-6 record. In 1960, Allegheny closed out the season 16-4 overall, including a 7-1 mark in head-to-head matches and 9-3 in postal matches.  Several of the postal matches, which consisted of Allegheny recording their scores and sending their scores to their opponents, saw the Gators defeat nationally-recognized teams such as Illinois, Kent State, Boston University, Tennessee, Holy Cross, Alabama, Iowa State, Cincinnati, and Minnesota.
 
Johnston Scores at Will
While the 1950’s weren’t a time of great overall success for the Allegheny men’s basketball team in the standings, the Gator did boast individual star power throughout the decade.  Following in the footsteps of Eugene McIndoe and Bill Bishop, Jim Johnston closed out the decade with an impressive four-year career that saw him as one of the leading scorers in the region in all four years (1956-60).  On March 3, 1959, he put together his finest performance, when he scored 53 points on 17 field goals and 19 free throws, to pace Allegheny to a 109-106 victory over Edinboro.  The 53-point performance, which remains a program record, came just one month after he originally set a new team mark with 39 points in a Feb. 2 victory over Bethany in a contest in which he went 23-for-24 from the foul line.  Over his final two seasons, Johnston averaged 22.6 points per game, and graduated as just the third player in team history to eclipse 1,000 career points, finishing with 1,027.
 
Hanson’s Gators go Back-to-Back
Under the leadership of head coach William C. Hanson, the Gators scored back-to-back PAC swimming championships to close out the 1950s.  In 1959, the Gators picked up the PAC crown after trailing Washington & Jefferson headed into the final event, Allegheny won the 400-yard medley relay to edge the Presidents, as the Gators scored 73 points compared to 70 scored by Washington & Jefferson.  In 1960, the Gators cruised to the team title, scoring 91 points to outdistance themselves from the pack, as second place Washington & Jefferson scored 53 points.
 
Success Comes Early
After being established as a varsity sport for the 1955-56 season, the Gator wrestling team wasted little time in leaving its mark on competition.  The 1958-59 squad, under coach John Chuckran, finished 9-1 in dual meets on the year, and captured the first Presidents’ Athletic Conference championship in school history.  David Dunn (167 lbs), Bill Blair (157), Dave Sawhill (177) and Bruce Olderman (HVY) all claim individual PAC titles.  
 
Hosting the 1960 PAC Championships at the David Mead Fieldhouse on Mar. 4-5, the Gators headed into the second day of competition 10 points out of first place, but saw their wrestlers win four of the eight weight classes (123 - Al Coulter, 137 - David McChesney, 157 - John Bernhard, and 177 - Dick Dunn) to win their second straight PAC championship on the same day that the Allegheny men’s swimming team also captured the PAC team title.
  
PAC Presence Made
The Country Club of Meadville served as the site of the 1961 Presidents’ Athletic Conference men’s golf championships, and the Gators used the home-course advantage to win their first conference title, topping Case by two strokes in the two-day event contested May 12-13.  Sitting in second place following the opening day of competition, the Gators closed with a final total of 323 on the deciding day to tally a two-day total of 647.  The Gators’ Jim Davis led the second-day charge, using a pair of birdies to close with a final round 77.  Steve Beinhauer was the Gators’ top finisher in the two-day event, carding a two-day 159 (76-83).  The 1961 PAC title kick-started a five-year run that saw the Gators win four conference championships.
 
First Conference Title 
The 1961 Gator football team captured its first Presidents’ Athletic Conference championship, finishing the season 6-1 under head coach John Chuckran.  Allegheny outscored its opponents a combined 131-63, with the defense posting three shutouts.  Stoner Tracy was named First Team All-PAC on both offense (quarterback) and defense (defensive back), while Joe Valentino earned First Team nods as a defensive tackle.  Tracy was named to the Allegheny Hall of Fame in 1983, and Valentino in 1995.

The Swinging Sixties
Between 1960 and '64, the Gator baseball team totaled an outstanding record of 44-10. Two of those seasons featured hard-hitting and sure-handed fielding Glenn Beckert, who would go on to play 11 Major League seasons, mostly with the Chicago Cubs.  The New York Yankees wooed Beckert, one of Allegheny’s most celebrated athletes, but before graduation in 1962 he signed with the Boston Red Sox, thus required to skip his senior season of college ball. Beginning near the end of the 1960 season and going through part of the 1963 campaign, Garbark's teams were all but unbeatable, winning 39 or 44 games. This included an all-time Gator record of 18 consecutive victories spanning parts of 1962 and '63. During this stretch, the Gators captured their first five PAC titles, kicking off a stretch of 14 conference championships in 20 seasons.  

The Gold Glove Standard
A 1962 graduate of Allegheny with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science, Glenn Beckert was a three-year member of both the basketball and baseball squads and earned three letters in both sports. Beckert did not compete his senior year due to his professional baseball contract.  In basketball under coach Bob Garbark, Beckert lead the team in his junior season with 278 points scored.  Beckert also played under Garbark on the baseball field, earning All-Presidents’ Athletic Conference honors as the First Team shortstop in 1959, 1960, and 1961. Beckert guided Allegheny to its first PAC title in 1960 (6-1) and to its second in 1961 (8-0). It started a tradition in which the Gators won 14 of 20 PAC titles in 20 years (1959-1978) under Garbark.  

Originally signed with the Boston Red Sox, Beckert was drafted by the Chicago Cubs and started his major league career in 1965. As the Cubs’ premier second baseman for nine years, Beckert held a lifetime batting average of .283 with the Cubs.  In 1968 Beckert tallied a 27-game hitting streak and in 1969 he also strung out hits in 26 straight games. In 1970 Beckert was named to three different All-Star Teams,  including the selections of the National League, The Sporting News, and the Associated Press.  After recording batting averages of .287, .280, .294, .291, and. 288, respectively,  from 1966 through 1970, Beckert reached a pinnacle in his career by drilling 181 hits in 530 trips to the plate for an average of .342 in 1971. Beckert collected his 1,000th hit in 1969, a year after he was named Chicago Player of the Year, one season after he ripped a career-high 189 hits.  Beckert has also won the coveted Gold Glove award and the Toughest to Strike Out award.  Following his career with Chicago, Beckert played for two years with the San Diego Padres.

Four Times As Good
In 1963, John Berhnard became the first wrestler in Allegheny history - and just second in Presidents’ Athletic Conference history - to win four consecutive conference championships, with one at 147 lbs. and three at 157.  A two-year team captain and two-time William Johnson Wrestler of the Year for the Gators, Berhnard lost just three matches over his junior and senior seasons, and graduated with an all-time record of 39-10.
 
Byers Joins the All-American Standard
In 1966, Joe Byers scored All-America honors, continuing a string of success for the Allegheny men’s soccer squad by earning All-American Honorable Mention plaudits during his senior season.  The Sewickley, Pennsylvania native was additionally a four-time All-Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC) designee while leading the squad to a pair of PAC Championships and twice finishing as the conference's leading scorer.
 
Late Game Heroics
On November 2, 1968, the Gators scored a dramatic victory over archrival Thiel College to capture their second PAC championship and seal a perfect 6-0 conference record. The 35-32 victory came in a contest that saw 10 lead changes, and was capped off with a touchdown pass from Mike Ganey to Jay Lewis in the final minute.  The Gators finished 7-1 overall on the year, and after the season, then-Pennsylvania governor Raymond Shafer ‘38 hosted the Gators for a dinner banquet in the Governor’s Mansion in Harrisburg.  Five players were named First Team All-PAC, including Colin Smith (TE), Jim Stover (OL), Pete Blufarb (OL), Ganey (QB), and Lewis (DB).
 
Remembering a Hero
During his four years with the Gators, Dennis Andrews established himself as one of the top wrestlers in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference.  He was a three-time PAC champion, winning the 137 lb. title in both 1963 and ‘65, and the 147 lb. championship in ‘66, while he finished as runner-up at 147 in 1964.  Graduating with an all-time career record of 38-1, he was a two-time team MVP.  Following his graduation in 1966, Andrews joined the U.S. Marine Corps, ascending to the rank of first lieutenant and being sent to fight in the Vietnam War, where he was tragically killed during a combat mission on July 14, 1968.  Just two months earlier, Lt. Andrews evacuated a downed helicopter during combat, for which he was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star for Valor.  That fall, the Allegheny athletic department established the Dennis D. Andrews Memorial Wrestling Trophy, to be awarded annually to the wrestler who exhibited the same qualities of leadership, team spirit, discipline, and athleticism as Lt. Andrews.  
 
Rifle Era Ends with a Bang
The rifle team won the 1969 Western Pennsylvania Intercollegiate Rifle League Championship, closing out the year with a 15-1 record.  The Gators’ final salvo came courtesy of a win over the University of Pittsburgh and St. Francis, where the Gators scored an impressive 1,303, led by a team-high 272 points from Rick Fields.
 
Offensive Explosion
On October 18, 1969, the Gators win one of the wildest games in program history, defeating Carnegie Mellon 70-39.  Quarterback Mike Ganey completed 16 of 22 passes for 322 yards and five touchdowns, while Jay Lewis set school records for receiving yards (254) and touchdowns (5), with four receiving TDs and one interception return.  Tied at 20 midway through the second quarter, the Gators jumped to a 34-27 lead entering the final stanza, before erupting for five fourth quarter touchdowns, including three passes from Ganey to Lewis.  In a game that would make current college football offensive juggernauts like Oregon and Baylor proud, the Gators gained 516 yards of total offense. The victory over the Tartans also avenged the Gators’ 1968 loss at CMU, the lone blemish on a 7-1 overall record.