When it comes to athletics, Chuck Moses grew up in the right time and place.

The 1958 Butler High School graduate stood out in four sports, football, baseball, golf and gymnastics, during his playing days.

"My father was always into athletics,"Moses said. "Not a day went by without us playing catch.

"Growing up in Lyndora in those days, everybody played sports. That's what we did. I guess I had some natural ability. I was good, but never great."

But he was good enough to become one of seven individuals being inducted into the Butler Area Sports Hall of Fame at the organization's annual banquet April 26 at the Butler Days Inn.

Despite weighing only 150 pounds, Moses played offensive guard and defensive nose guard for the Golden Tornado football team for two years and started on the 1957 squad that finished undefeated.

That team followed the 1950 Butler team as only the second unbeaten squad in Tornado football history.

"That 1957 team is forgotten a little bit because we had three ties,"Moses said. "But that team was awfully good.

"The nose guard who played before me at Butler, Buster Nastasi, went on to become a three-time small college all-American at Geneva. He was my idol. The coaches tried having me follow the same mold."

Moses later played football at Slippery Rock University and was named to Geneva's all-opponents team during his freshman year.

Butler High didn't have a baseball or gymnastics team in the 1950s, but Moses excelled in both sports.

He was a catcher throughout his baseball career. His Little League team reached Williamsport before being eliminated in postseason play, his Pony League team made the PONYWorld Series in Washington, Pa., and his Prep League team reached the World Series.

"We were always good, every year, that same group of guys,"Moses said. "Bill Saul, Bill McConnell — we had some ballplayers."

Moses was one of Butler's first elite gymnasts. Coached by Paul Uram, he competed for a Lyndora team that also had Jim Curzi and Bill Erdos.

"We never lost," he said.

The WPIALdid not have an organized gymnastics program then, so Uram contacted the few other schools in the area that had a gymnastics program to organize a meet.

The event was called the Western Pennsylvania high school meet. Moses placed first on the parallel bars and the side horse during that meet.

He also placed fourth on parallel bars at the AAUOpen meet in 1958.

At Slippery Rock University, Moses competed in football, gymnastics and golf as a freshman. A 3-handicap golfer, he played two football games a week.

"Eventually, I just got worn out," he said. "I'd play football each Saturday, then come back and play again Tuesday with the transfers. I had multiple concussions, I'm sure, but we didn't even know what a concussion was back then."

Moses lists his favorite sports memory as being a member of the Butler football team that defeated New Castle in the first game between the two teams in 39 years.

He remains involved in sports today, owning a pair of harness racing horses that compete on the Pennsylvania fair circuit.

"My son-in-law's family was in that business for years,"Moses said. "I wound up buying a horse that nobody wanted and it won three races in a row.

"We've owned horses for 24 years now."

As for his own playing career, Moses said he was set up for success.

"Playing with athletes like the Sauls and Curzi, being coached by Doggie Cavalero, Paul Uram — I couldn't lose," he said.

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This is the first in a series of articles profiling the 2008 inductees into the Butler Area Sports Hall of Fame.