Aliquippa’s 49ers team was one for the ages
I wish it can happen again to Aliquippa before my days are done. For I would like to see others on top of this world as the way I felt after the game and as I arrived home. For this I will never forget as long as I live.
George “Sudie” Danovich penned those words in his journal in April of 1949, just after he and his Aliquippa teammates conquered the world of Pennsylvania high school basketball, winning the school’s first state title with a 29-0 record.
Up until then, only two WPIAL boys teams had won PIAA championships with undefeated records. Only 10 others have done it since. Tuesday marked the 70th anniversary of Aliquippa’s 63-51 Class A state title victory against York in front of a standing-roomonly crowd of 10,000 at Convention Hall in Philadelphia.
Mickey Zernich. James Frank. Clarence “Bud” Shaw. Dale Cable. Danovich. Joe Richards. Jerry Montini. Those were the seven seniors on a team that is known, by most, simply as the 49ers, a group of talented players that was as ethnically diverse as Aliquippa itself was at the time. Their names became part of Aliquippa lore, but it was the success they went on to have in their professional careers — not as athletes, but in roles such as educators and doctors — that also made this group so unique.
“Those people who played on that team were legends and what they did was the pinnacle of success. Everyone wanted to experience that,” said Melvin Steals, a 1964 Aliquippa graduate who, like many Aliquippa players of that era, idolized the 49ers.
Like every steel town in Western Pennsylvania, Aliquippa was a vastly different place in 1949 than it is today. Back then the town was flourishing due to the existence of Jones & Laughlin Steel and its mill that stretched for seven and a half miles along the Ohio River. Aliquippa’s population stood at 27,000. The town had 10 elementary schools, which sounds almost unfathomable. Today, the population has dwindled to about 9,000.
Many of the 49ers had jobs as kids. Frank drove a coal truck at the age of 13. Danovich, who grew up in his grandmother’s 32-room boarding house, cleaned rooms, prepared meals and changed spittoons. Cable and Richards sold newspapers.
When they weren’t attending class or working, they were playing ball.
“Those were tight neighborhoods. We played from morning until the streetlights came on. That meant it was time to go home,” said Cable, who also played football and baseball.
Cable, 87, is one of two living seniors from that 49ers team. He resides in Mt. Lebanon. Richards, 87, lives in Murrells Inlet, S.C.
Aliquippa had previously reached the WPIAL final twice, losing to Duquesne in 1941 and 1947. Nate Lippe, who helped lay the foundation for the 49ers success, coached both of those Aliquippa teams. Finally, in 1949, under first-year coach Sam Milanovich, the Quips were ready to break through.
The Quips went unbeaten in the regular season, ripping through Section 2 (and schools
such as New Castle, Farrell, Sharon and Ambridge), which for decades was considered one of the toughest sections in the state. The Quips beat Homestead, 44-30, at Pitt Stadium to claim their first WPIAL title. Richards scored a gamehigh 12 points. The headline in the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph read “Aliquippa Wins WPIAL Floor Title.”
Aliquippa followed with state playoff victories against Somerset, Westmont and Sharpsville, setting up a showdown for the PIAA title against a York team that was 27-2.
On Wednesday, March 30, Aliquippa players and coaches drove to Pittsburgh and boarded a train that departed for Philadelphia at 2 p.m.
“It was unusual to have been beyond, say, a visit to Pittsburgh,” Cable said. “That was probably the most distant traveling that those of us at that age had done at that time. A trip to Philadelphia was a big thing.”
The players passed the time by reading newspapers and comic books, telling jokes and singing, sometimes to the tune of Zernich’s harmonica.
After spending three nights at the Penn Sheraton Hotel and lots of sightseeing and playing cards, it was game time. Aliquippa cemented its legacy with a state title, getting 18 points from Zernich, 13 from Frank and nine from Danovich.
“There were no superstars. Jimmy Frank and Mickey Zernich were the high scorers, but everyone else won games along the way,” said Pete Simoni, a 1949 Aliquippa graduate who was friends with many of the players.
What next? That’s what Richards and his teammates pondered while at the hotel after the game.
“It was one of the strangest things,” he said. “We always had a ‘next game.’ We’re just sitting there not knowing what do.”
The newly crowned state champs returned home Sunday. On Monday, school was cancelled and a parade was held in their honor, with an estimated 30,000 people in attendance.
“That time was the highlight of my life. It’s been downhill every since,” Cable said, facetiously.
Like many of his teammates, Cable went on to have a successful career. After being drafted into the Korean War, he was a long-time teacher at Aliquippa and then Mt. Lebanon.
Danovich played for legendary coach Press Maravich at West Virginia Wesleyan prior to becoming a science teacher at Aliquippa Junior High.
Both were junior high coaches at Aliquippa, and they began to build teams in the mold of the 49ers. Their teams went undefeated four years in a row. Among their prized players were Richie Mann, who coached in the NFL for more than 30 years, and Jarrett Durham, who later starred at Duquesne. Durham was born in February of 1949, just as Aliquippa’s 49ers were making history.
“It was the hallmark for the young basketball player,” Durham said. “It let you know that you could do it because it had already been done in Aliquippa in 1949. Coming up as a young basketball player, it wasn’t out of the reach. If you worked hard, you had a shot.”
Frank and Zernich were two of the biggest success stories from that team.
Frank, who passed away in January, was president of Lincoln University, the first African-American president of the NCAA, and later commissioner of the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
Zernich continued his playing career at Pitt, where he was a captain, and then went on to become a highly respected orthopedic surgeon. He was also Aliquippa’s team doctor for many years.
Both Frank and Zernich also served in the army as officers.
Montini became a teacher, principal and coach at Aliquippa. Richards and sophomores Ralph Greco and Richard Billingslea were also teachers.
“Not only were they undefeated state champions, but they were pretty much all super successful off the court,” said Nick Lackovich, a 1979 Aliquippa graduate. “When you have a Jimmy Frank, who was the first black president of the NCAA. Mickey Zernich, who was a top-of-the-line orthopedic surgeon. A number of them were educators. That’s the biggest thing that stands out to me.”
Sixty-seven years after the 49ers set what Lackovich called the “gold standard” at Aliquippa, Lackovich coached the Quips to a perfect season and PIAA title in 2016.
“We were 30-0 and they were 29-0, so we were able to nudge them aside a little bit,” Lackovich said, jokingly.
Cable said he kept a close eye on that team, just as he did the Mt. Lebanon girls team that went 31-0 and captured a state title in 2009. Cable’s granddaughter, Madison Cable, was a sophomore on that team and one of Mt. Lebanon’s star players.
“I never brought up in Madison’s presence that we were undefeated. I guess it was just a little bit of a superstition,” Dale Cable said.
Melvin Steals and his twin brother, Mervin, are songwriters who wrote “Could It Be I’m Falling in Love,” a hit by the Spinners in 1973. The song was about a girl, but it could have just as easily been about how people feel about the 49ers, a team that is still revered seven decades later.
Said Cable: “Coming up, all of those guys who played before you are all heroes and giants. Then you play and go 29-0 and you realize you’re as good or even better than they were. It’s a heck of an experience.”