This is the eighth and last in a series of articles profiling the 2012 inductees into the Butler County Sports Hall of Fame. The Hall’s annual banquet is at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at the Butler Days Inn.

By John Enrietto

Eagle Sports Editor

Alfred “Alf” Allam was all about kids.

He taught tumbling, wrestling and swimming at the YMCA. He served as a lifeguard and swim instructor at Alameda Park. He organized and supervised the Soap Box Derby for seven years and brought four Little League teams to Butler.

But Allam’s ultimate claim to fame was helping to found the Butler Area Midget Football League with Butler High School head coach A. Gerald Cappezzuti in 1948.

Allam eventually became the BAMFL’s first president and will be posthumously inducted into the Butler County Sports Hall of Fame at Saturday’s annual induction banquet.

Allam remained involved in the BAMFL until his retirement in 1976. He died in 1979.

“I never met the man, but he had vision,” said Bob Greaves, current BAMFL president and coach of the league’s Meridian entrant. “He saw the potential of football in the community of Butler.

“This league has lasted a long time because it was organized and structured the right way.”

The football field at Memorial Park was named Alf Allam Field in Allam’s honor in 1968.

The BAMFL’s first official game was played Sept. 19, 1949, as a preliminary to the Butler-Allegheny high school game. At the urging of Cappezzuti, four sections of the league were established in 1959 — Southside, the Island, West End and Institute Hill. That’s when Allam was named president of the circuit.

In the BAMFL’s early years, the league was supported by the Optimist Club and Butler City Board of Recreation, which Allam headed.

“This league is unique in that it’s lasted all these years,” Greaves said. “The community has gotten smaller and that’s reflected by the number of teams we now have, but the interest is still strong.”

The BAMFL is comprised of East Butler, Butler City, Center Township and Meridian today. The league’s teams will join forces with the Greater 19 Youth Football League in 2013.

“We will still be playing our in-house games, too,” Greaves pointed out. “That’s a tradition we will not let slip away.

“Football is still king in this area. When local teams are competitive, the town gets excited. Our youth football league has a real connection with the community.

“Alf Allam was in on the ground floor of all of that,” Greaves added.

Cappezzuti and Allam both believed football success at the high school level meant teaching the basics of football to players at a young age.

“Keep kids interested and they’ll keep playing,” Greaves said. “That’s why we still have 13 and 14-year-olds playing in our league.

“We want to keep kids playing football for as long as possible.”

Tickets for the Hall of Fame dinner are $20 and are available at Parker Appliances in Chicora, Moses Jewelers at the Clearview Mall, Bill’s Beer Barn or Snack n’ Pack in Butler, Maddalon’s Jewelers in Zelienople, Saxonburg Drug or at www.bcshof.com.