Allegheny College Athletics

1930-49: The Expansion Era

The First All-American
In 1931, Bob Garbark led the Allegheny football team to a 6-1-2 record, and became the first athlete in school history to be recognized as an All-American, being named to the Grantland Rice-Colliers All-American team. A three-year captain, Garbark finished fifth in the nation with 15 touchdowns and 90 points during the 1931 campaign, and ended his career with 30 touchdowns, which remained in the top-five in program history for over 50 years. It was the first of countless contributions that Garbark made to the Allegheny athletic department, as you will read further on.

Going Out With Style
In the last of his 10 years at the helm of the Allegheny men's basketball team, C.D. Baker's 1931-32 squad goes 16-5 overall. Captained by another prominent figure in Allegheny history, Bob Garbark, the Gators opened the season on a 12-game winning streak, which remains the longest in program history. The 16 wins stood as a school record until 1984-85, when the Gators finished 19-9.

Cross Country Takes the Course
In February 1931, the Allegheny faculty approved a report by its new athletics committee that endorsed both intramural and intercollegiate athletics, which provided development of physical prowess and good sportsmanship. With this, the committee supported the concept of intercollegiate competition in sports other than the traditional ones of football, track, and basketball, namely swimming and cross country. The Allegheny cross country squad took part in its first official varsity season in 1933, under the guidance of head coach (and athletic director) H.P. Way and captain Hasson Rocky, who was inducted into the Allegheny Hall of Fame in 1986 for his cross country and track prowess.

H.P. Leads the Way
In 1934, H.P. Way led the Gators in the program debut of men's soccer, as Allegheny picked up the first win in program history, 2-0, against Slippery Rock.

Destined for Greatness
A prominent member of the Allegheny men's soccer program in its early days was Raymond P. Shafer. Shafer starred on the pitch for four seasons, and in 1937 became the first All-American in the history of the men's soccer team, a unique accomplishment since the Gators were only in their fourth year of existence, and Shafer earned the honor during a period in which All-America honors were not separated by large or small school classifications. Shafer was a four-sport athlete at Allegheny, lettering in track, basketball, and golf in addition to his soccer exploits.

After graduating from Allegheny in 1938, Shafer earned his law degree from Yale, and embarked on a long and fruitful political career. In 1948, he was named the Crawford County district attorney, before he won a seat in the Pennsylvania Senate, serving from 1959-62. After serving as the Pennsylvania lieutenant governor under longtime friend Bill Scranton, Shafer was elected the 39thgovernor of the state of Pennsylvania, remaining in office from 1967-71. Following his stint as governor, Shafer remained active as an Allegheny alum, serving on the school's Board of Trustees, before serving as the College's president from 1985-86. He was a charter member of the Allegheny Hall of Fame in 1980.

Teeing Off
In the late 1920's into the early 1930's, Allegheny athletic director H.P. Way oversaw a period of growth in Gator athletics, which went hand-in-hand with the school's administrative decision to do away with all athletic scholarships. From this, the Gator golf team was born, playing its first official season as an intercollegiate sport in 1934. Coached by W.S. Tippin and captained by Fred Kiebort, the Gator five-man team competed four dual meets on the season - two against both Grove City and Edinboro - and finished 3-1.

Welcome to the Club
Since its inception in 1934, the Allegheny men's golf team has been proud to call The Country Club of Meadville its home course. The Gators hosted their first-ever home invitational - "The First Annual Invitational Golf Tournament" - on May 27, 1938. Allegheny's four-man team of Raymond P. Shafer, Norman Martin, Herbert Willison, and Linn Myers topped the six-team field with a combined score of 355, one shot ahead of runner-up Grove City. Martin led the Gator four by shooting 84, good for third place, while individual medalist honors went to Geneva's John Majcher. All 24 entrants were provided with caddies.

Legendary Lineup
In 1939-40, the Gators had their most successful campaign dating back to the '31-32 season, finishing 12-3 overall. Coached by K.J. Lawrence, that squad featured three future Allegheny Hall of Fame members in the lineup in William Falloon, Arthur Gratz, and Alex Hart. Gratz was the team's leading scorer, while also boasting an undefeated singles record on the Gator men's tennis team. The 6'9" Falloon towered over the opposition, and went on to be named both All-District and All-Pennsylvania in 1941, while Hart earned a total of 12 letters, with four apiece in basketball, soccer, and track

Garbark, Baseball Return to The Hill
Allegheny baseball experienced a hiatus in the early 20th century after the sport was dropped in 1915 due to incessant weather and field problems, but saw a resurrection in the mid-20th century due mainly in part to a key role player in Allegheny history. Bob Garbark was an All-American football player at Allegheny, though the school did not have a baseball team when he attended here in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Between 1934 and 1945, "Garbie" played in seven major league seasons, for the Indians, Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Athletics and Boston Red Sox. A reserve player, including years behind Hall of Fame catcher Gabby Hartnett, Bob appeared in 145 Major League games for legendary managers that included Hartnett, Walter Johnson and Connie Mack. After his pro career, "Garbie" came back home to his beloved Allegheny, and in the spring of 1947, baseball was back in business "on the hill." He quickly established himself as a community icon as well, coaching youth baseball and refereeing basketball and football games throughout Crawford County. Garbark was well known as one of the finest boys baseball coaches in the Meadville community.

A New Home
After the shelving of football from 1943-45 due to the number of male students called to World War II, plans were made for developing a new athletic facility on land acquired on North Park Avenue. In 1948, the athletic facility that included a football stadium with cinder track, a baseball and soccer field, and equestrian riding area was completed. Donated by the class of 1945, a brick and wrought iron gate framed the main entrance from Park Avenue. The Gators defeated Susquehanna University 14-6 in their first football contest on the new gridiron on Oct. 9, 1948. In 1962, the facility was officially named Andrew Wells Robertson Athletic Complex, after the 1906 Allegheny grad who starred in football at the college before going on to serve a chairman of the board of the Westinghouse Corporation and as a member of the Allegheny Board of Trustees.

New Team, New Field
In his first two years, 1947 and '48, Garbark and his Gators played their home games at Meadville's Athletic Park, those historic grounds off Water Street, just west of where C&J Industries is housed today. The stadium, with a roofed grandstand that could seat hundreds of fans on its wooden bleachers, had been home to recreational and semi-professional baseball games for decades. It was also the site of barnstorming games that featured noted professional players from the big leagues and particularly the Negro Leagues of the 1930s and '40s. On that Athletic Park field on Sept. 2, 1942, the Negro League's Cleveland Buckeyes played a regular season game against the Jacksonville Red Caps. Then, on May 9, 1949, the Allegheny squad moved into new facilities on upper Park Avenue, on the field that is still its home turf today. An impressive layout featuring the school's baseball diamond and football stadium, early on it simply was called College Field. It now goes by the name of Andrew Wells Robertson Athletic and Recreation Complex, in honor of 1906 graduate Robertson who had played here under Coach Rickey, and today the sprawling facility is home to eight Allegheny varsity sports teams. In that first season, The Meadville Tribune flashed large headlines to publicize Allegheny baseball's "first home game since 1915" and described in great detail the "three-hour marathonon Saturday afternoon" in the Gators' 13-7 loss to University of Rochester. Just over a week later, Allegheny won on its new home field for the first time, scoring seven runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to beat St. Vincent College. At least two of the games in that inaugural 1949 season drew more than 300 fans, according to the newspaper reports.

Female Trailblazers
While Allegheny had fielded a women's basketball that competed intercollegiately for several decades, a major step in the advancement of female athletics came in a three-year span in the late 1940's.In 1948, Virginia Minor became the first female to play on the Allegheny men's tennis team, and earned two letters for the men's team before graduating in 1952. During her senior season, she helped the squad to its best season in program history up to that point, as they finished 9-0.

In 1951, the Allegheny men's golf team made history, becoming one of the first in the nation to have a female player on the varsity roster when it welcomed freshman Nancy Johnson onto the squad. Johnson, a native of Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania where, according to local newspaper reports, "is very well known in golf circles," made her debut for the Gators in the season-opening dual match against Behrend at the Oakland Beach Golf Course, winning her head-to-head match 8 and 6 to help the team post a 9-0 victory.

A True Legend Continues to Give Back
Throughout its 200-year history, Allegheny College has shown a penchant for churning out successful leaders in all walks of the professional world. At the top of this list is 1948 graduate Frank B. Fuhrer, who starred as a four-sport athlete with the Gators before rising to unparalleled heights in the business world. He earned a total of 11 letters, participating in basketball, soccer, baseball, and golf, while serving as the captain of both the basketball and soccer teams during his senior year.

After graduating from Allegheny and receiving a Master's in Organizational Behavior from the University of Pittsburgh, Mr. Fuhrer went on to lead a number of successful businesses, and in 1982, founded the Frank B. Fuhrer Wholesale Co., which has grown to become the 20th largest beer wholesaler in the United States, with a staff of nearly 300 that serves an 11-county region and sells approximately 15 million cases of beer annually.

A prodigious amateur golfer, he has remained active in the sports world throughout his career, holding ownership of several Pittsburgh professional sports teams, including the Pittsburgh Triangles Professional Tennis Team (1974-76), the Pittsburgh Spirit Indoor Soccer Team (1979-81), and as part of an ownership consortium of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the mid-1990's.

A member of the Western Pennsylvania Golf Association Hall of Fame, Mr. Fuhrer has also been a large financial supporter of various golf tournaments and invitationals in the Western Pennsylvania region. The Fuhrer Invitational remains the top purse in western Pennsylvania for golf associations, while he has sponsored the Association's team matches with other golf associations since 1994. His donations have also completely underwritten the Palmer Cup match with the Tri-State Section, PGA of America, and the Williamson Cup matches, among others.

Throughout all of his successes, Mr. Fuhrer has remained a large supporter of Gator athletics. In 2006, his generous donation allowed for the complete refurbishment of the Allegheny stadium at the Robertson Athletic Complex. Now named Frank B. Fuhrer Field, the renovation included a new Field Turf playing surface, a synthetic track, a full lighting system, and a large scoreboard. In addition, Mr. Fuhrer remains the top sponsor of the annual Allegheny Golden Gator Golf Outing.