Butler linebacker feeds off legacy of 1950 WPIAL champs
At 5-foot-9, 190 pounds, Butler junior linebacker Evan Orloski does not cut an imposing figure on the football field.
Doesn't bother him a bit.
His grandfather showed him the way.
Bob Deal was an offensive guard for the Golden Tornado. He stood 5-foot-5 and weighed 172.
And he anchored a line that led the 1950 Butler football team to a 9-0 record and the WPIAL championship.
To this day, it is the school's only outright district title on the gridiron. The 1977 Butler team shared the crown with Penn Hills.
“My mother was pregnant with me when my grandfather died,” Orloski said. “But the stories were passed down through the years. I know about his legacy. I'm inspired by it.”
Orloski was fourth in tackles for Butler last season. An incoming senior, he has yet to experience his first varsity win.
“That's OK. I never take the field expecting to lose,” Orloski said. “What my grandfather was a part of here ... It inspires me to push harder, to be a member of the team that will be remembered for turning around the Butler football program.”
Seventy years ago, Butler football was the best in the region.
Longtime Butler sports broadcaster Jim Lokhaiser was a sophomore in the program that year. The varsity roster had 36 players.
“I've seen a lot of great players come through Butler over the years,” Lokhaiser said. “That 1950 team was the best we ever had here.
“I remember our JV team going against those guys in practice. It was brutal. They broke two or three of our guys' legs. That team could have beaten some small college teams like Geneva, Westminster, maybe even Slippery Rock back then. They were that good.”
The 1950 Butler team outscored its opponents 249-67. The 249 points scored — 27.6 per game — set a school record at the time.Only three teams — Mt. Lebanon, Sharon and Peabody — scored twice against the Tornado defense. No foe scored more than 14 points.Their other victims that year were Kittanning, Grove City, Har-Brack, Beaver Falls, Vandergrift and Penn Township.“Deal and (Bill) Shindle were the guards. They were short, but they were stocky and built .... so strong,” Lokhaiser said.Shindle stood only 5-6 and weighed 190 pounds.It was a different time. A game program cost 10 cents. And players took care of business.“Deal and Shindle used to tell the coaches to stay on the sidelines, that they'd take care of practice,” Lokhaiser said, laughing. “Nobody got out of line.”“My dad told me opposing linemen used to always talk crap to him,” said Deal's daughter, Ruth Orloski. “He wouldn't talk back. He said, 'We would just beat them on the football field.'”There were no WPIAL playoffs in 1950. Butler was one of three undefeated teams going into the final weekend. Uniontown dropped a 20-7 decision to Latrobe and McKeesport defeated Ambridge, 27-7, leaving the Tornado as the lone unbeaten team in the district.Butler's final game was a 12-0 shutout of Penn Township (now Penn Hills), a game played in a driving rainstorm.The late Walter Lonchena, the Tornado's starting center at 160 pounds, wished there was a playoff in those years.“Championships should always be decided on the field,” he said years later. “But nobody around here would have beaten us.”
Left end Frank Herbenick went on to play at Thiel College and eventually started the Moniteau football program. Right tackle Tom Pickett and running back Bill Pickett went to Pitt. Left tackle John Honse went to the Naval Academy, quarterback David Reed to Allegheny.Gordon Yingling and Laverne Kline played right end, Vince Seezox was a running back, Joe Monteleone a flanker back.Most of those guys played defense as well.“There wasn't much passing back then,” Lokhaiser said. “Monteleone and Seezox rushed for about the same amount of yardage. It was a balanced ground game.”Reed threw for two touchdowns and set up a third in a 32-6 win over Grove City. Monteleone raced 83 yards for a score on the first play of a 24-6 win over Beaver Falls. Bill Pickett scored three touchdowns in that game.Seezox scored three touchdowns, Kline two in a 32-13 triumph over Sharon. Seezox and Kline scored the soggy touchdowns in the title-clinching shutout of Penn Township.It was a winning team, regardless of circumstances.
A. Gerald Capezzuti was head coach. Assistants were James McDowell and John Ifft. McDowell played on the 1916 Butler football team, the program's most recent undefeated season before 1950.Ross Manuel, who died Dec. 21, was one of the last living members of the 1950 team.Carol Danichak, his daughter, heard some stories about his playing days.“He told me about the New Castle rivalry, how it was so big that the players had to leave their helmets on when they boarded the bus to go home, just to ensure their safety,” she said.She also relayed a story of how apple juice packed for a road trip got mixed in with equipment bags.“That team played an entire game with their uniforms all sticky and smelling like apples,” Danichak said. “Then they rode home on the bus with those uniforms on.“My dad had rheumatic fever as a child. He was in a wheelchair for two years. He was always so proud to be on that team.”
Val Deal, another of Bob Deal's daughters, said her father had a nickname of the “Golden Toe.”“He did a lot of kicking for the team,” she said.The entire team left a legacy that has been unmatched in Butler football history.“That was a senior-dominated group ... and they were good,” Lokhaiser said.Evan Orloski will be a senior football player this fall.“I reach for the skies no matter what,” he said. “I'll go through life that way.”Thanks to 1950.
