City League’s history in PIAAs a wild ride
Westinghouse only second Ciy team to reach semifinal round in state playoffs
Imagine a Pittsburgh City League football team qualifying for the semifinals of the state playoffs in the largest classification and playing the WPIAL runner-up, only because the school board of the WPIAL champion wouldn’t let the team participate in the state playoffs.
And imagine a year later, a different City League team making it to the state semifinals in the second-largest classification. But because of an idiotic PIAA point system, that City team didn’t play the WPIAL champion. Instead, it played a team that lost in the first round of the WPIAL playoffs.
Crazy. Absurd. Wacky. Those could all be used to describe those hard-to-believe aforementioned scenarios. But they are true — and a great illustration of the problems the PIAA had with their football playoffs in the infancy stages.
Westinghouse will play in a PIAA Class 2A semifinal Friday, making it the first City League team to make it this far in 20 years. Westinghouse’s playoff run is bringing back memories of the first two City League teams to make the PIAA semifinals 30-some years ago — Brashear in 1988 and Perry in 1989. Gus Catanese was the coach of the 1989 Perry Commodores, who qualified for the PIAA Class 3A playoffs.
“The PIAA was just getting started with all of the playoffs. I’m sure things have changed a lot since then,” Catanese said.
They sure have — and much for the better. But the stories are still worth telling from those first two years of the PIAA playoffs that involved City League and WPIAL teams.
Confusion and controversy marked the 1988 and ’89 state playoffs. But that 1989 Perry team had a magical finish and is still the only City League team to win a state championship in football. Westinghouse has visions of becoming the second.
“It’s our Super Bowl of Pennsylvania high school football,” said Catanese, 79, who lives in Gibsonia. “To this day, I’m surprised how many people remember that state championship game of ours. People that weren’t even associated with it remember it. I even have neighbors who say things to me about it. It’s nice to hear.”
Now for the history lesson. Although the PIAA had basketball championships since the early 1900s, there were no state playoffs for football until 1988. But many schools, coaches and fans around the state didn’t believe the state football playoffs should be staged. They thought it made the season too long for high school kids. In Western Pennsylvania, many believed the WPIAL championship was enough to satisfy a team.
The school boards and administrations of more than two dozen WPIAL schools voted not to participate in the PIAA playoffs, even if their team qualified. Some of the schools made their decisions before the season started in 1988. One of those schools was Upper St. Clair. The Panthers finished 7-3 in the regular season, but got hot in the playoffs and won the WPIAL Class 4A championship with a 7-0 victory against Central Catholic at Three Rivers Stadium.
But because Upper St. Clair’s school board voted not to participate in the PIAA playoffs, Central Catholic went instead, and played Brashear of the City League in the state semifinals on a Saturday afternoon at South Stadium (now Cupples Stadium).
Brashear featured a Parade All-American linebacker in Mike Booth, a talented running back in Jim Lincoln, who later won a college national championship at Georgia Tech, an athletic quarterback in Fred Kerr and a highly successful coach in Ron Wabby.
“Our 1987 team was actually probably better, but there were no state playoffs then,” Wabby said.
Against Central Catholic, Brashear held leads of 8-0, 8-6 and 14-12, but Central Catholic running back Mike Campolo scored the winning touchdown on a 9-yard run late in the third quarter and Central Catholic won, 19-14. Central Catholic, which was 6-2-2 in the regular season, went on to win the state championship a week later, defeating Cedar Cliff at Penn State. To this day, then-Upper St. Clair coach Jim Render is irked by the school board’s decision that cost his team a chance at a state championship.
A year later, there was confusion and disbelief over what played out in the PIAA Class 3A playoffs. Due to a ridiculous point system that the PIAA changed one year later, Greensburg Salem qualified for the state playoffs, even though it lost in the first round of the WPIAL playoffs to Seneca Valley, 3520. Aliquippa went on to win the WPIAL 3A title. But back then, things were so chaotic with high school football in the state that some teams were in one classification in the WPIAL and another for the PIAA playoffs.
Although Seneca Valley was in the WPIAL 3A playoffs, it was in Class 4A for the PIAA playoffs. And the PIAA had a rule in its goofy playoff system that a team could not be knocked out of contention for the PIAA playoffs if it lost in the district playoffs by a team in a larger classification. And because Greensburg Salem (92) had one fewer loss than WPIAL champion Aliquippa (10-3), Greensburg Salem had more points in the PIAA playoff system, and qualified for the PIAA playoffs.
Greensburg Salem played Perry in the PIAA semifinals on a Saturday afternoon at South. Perry’s defense that year was superb, featuring a few future major-college recruits. Although Greensburg Salem outgained Perry in yardage, 250113, Perry won the game by 23-0.
The next week, Perry shocked the world of Pennsylvania high school football when it won the state title by knocking off defending champion and perennial power Berwick, 20-8. After the game, legendary Berwick coach George Curry actually told reporters that he thought game officials cheated.
“Perry shouldn’t have won the game,” Curry said. “I think the officials were bought.”
Catanese still remembers Curry’s actions and comments after the game, but that doesn’t take away the great memories he has from that wonderful day. Perry would make the state championship game again in 1997, and would play Berwick again. Perry, led by quarterback Rod Rutherford, would lose this time, 17-14.
“It was probably the highlight of my coaching career, but we should’ve won in 1997, too,” Catanese said. “That still gnaws at me a little. But that 1989 season was special. And honestly, I truly feel this way. What George Curry did and what we did in that [state championship] game made all of us famous.”