Ex-City League greats pulling for Westinghouse in state playoffs
Major Harris is a legendary former Pittsburgh City League athlete, a quarterback at Brashear High School who came close to winning the Heisman Trophy at West Virginia University and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. They even named a street in the Hill District after him this summer — Major Harris Way.
Mr. Harris isn’t sure when he last attended a City League football game, but he will make his way to West Mifflin High School on Friday night to watch the Westinghouse Bulldogs play in the semifinals of the state playoffs.
Westinghouse is undefeated at 13-0 and the first City League team in 20 years to make it this far in the state playoffs. The ’House will play undefeated and WPIAL champion Steel Valley (12-0) in a PIAA Class 2A semifinal.
Westinghouse’s success this season has sent positive vibes throughout Pittsburgh Public
Schools and the City League, capturing the attention of fans and many great City League athletes and coaches of yesteryear, even if they played or coached at rival City League schools.
Mr. Harris, who finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting 33 years ago, is a prime example.
“The City League isn’t anything like it used to be, and I haven’t been following City football,” said Mr. Harris, a 1986 Brashear graduate who was the Post-Gazette High School Athlete of the Year 36 years ago. “But it’s that whole City League pride thing. What Westinghouse has been doing has sparked a lot of people’s interest. That’s why I’m going to the game. It’s almost like on the level of when a great City basketball team goes to the state championship in basketball.”
Westinghouse’s run this season has uplifted the City League and some fans, while also spreading pride throughout Pittsburgh. Call it a ’House fire. Mr. Harris isn’t alone in his newfound Westinghouse fandom. Count former great City League athletes Sam Clancy and Darelle Porter among fans, as well as highly successful former City League coaches Gus Catanese (Perry) and Ron Wabby (Brashear) — and legendary former Westinghouse coach George Webb.
Westinghouse would have to beat Steel Valley to become only the third City League team to make a state championship in football. Perry did it twice — in 1989 and 1997. The 1989 Perry Commodores are the only City League team to win a state football championship.
Mr. Porter spent his sophomore year at Brashear and then his junior and senior years at Perry. He was a football and basketball standout, the PG Athlete of the Year in 1987 and went on to have a stellar career at Pitt in basketball.
Mr. Porter now works at the Ozanam Center in the Hill District, running youth sports and academic programs. Some of Westinghouse’s players were in Mr. Porter’s programs as youngsters, and he has been to a number of Westinghouse games this season. He was at Westinghouse’s quarterfinal victory against Farrell on Saturday and plans to attend the Steel Valley game.
“I’m glad so many people in the city are getting behind them,” Mr. Porter said. “I think the last time the city got behind a City League team like this was when Allderdice went to the state championship in basketball [six years ago]. I know some old-time people from the City League ask me, ‘How can you root for Westinghouse? You didn’t go there.’ I tell them, ‘No, you root for the City League when you’re from the City.’”
Mr. Clancy was sort of a City League folk hero as a basketball-football player at old Fifth Avenue, which closed after his junior year. He then was in the first graduating class at Brashear in 1977. Mr. Clancy won a state basketball championship on a great Fifth Avenue team in 1976 and went on to be a terrific basketball player at Pitt. Then he played 10 seasons as a defensive lineman in the NFL.
“It warms my heart to hear about what Westinghouse is doing,” said Mr. Clancy, who works in the athletic department at Pitt. “I have not followed really any high school team. It’s been Pitt, Pitt, Pitt for me. But just hearing a City League team is in the football semifinals, I’m so proud of them.
“I don’t know their coach [Donta Green] personally, but I love what he’s doing for that program. To me, it looks like he’s building men with character. We know the environment that some of those kids come from. It’s hard for a City League team to do what they’re doing.”
Westinghouse became a City League power under Pete Dimperio, starting in the late 1940s. Dimperio was Westinghouse’s coach from 1946-66, won 17 City League titles, had a record of 118-5-1 against City League teams and used to regularly beat top WPIAL teams. His alltime record was 158-26-1, but there were no state playoffs when Mr. Dimperio coached. The City League had as many as 13 teams during Mr. Dimperio’s days. Now, the City League has six teams and one (Carrick) plays an independent schedule. Major-college talent is usually scarce in the City nowadays.
Mr. Webb, who played for Dimperio, became Westinghouse’s coach in 1978 and had a stellar career over 24 seasons, going 155-80-5 with five City League titles. But his teams never got to the state semifinals.
Mr. Webb, 78, lives in New Kensington with his wife but is a regular at Westinghouse games.
“The Westinghouse spirit was something you could feel when you walked through that school’s doors years ago,” Mr. Webb said. “The school, the student body, the faculty, the community ... everybody had the spirit, especially for Westinghouse football.
“Believe it or not, there used to be some people who didn’t like the fact Westinghouse was good in athletics, but the fact of the matter is that it was a pride factor. Westinghouse sports brought pride, and I think coach Green has brought back some of that pride.”
Mr. Webb plans to attend Friday’s game.
“People don’t understand that the City League is still like family,” Mr. Webb said. “When a few kids make it big from the City, it’s a pride thing for everyone. Coach Green is working them, teaching them and coaching them, and the results are obvious.”
Mr. Wabby, 73, who coached Brashear from 19812006 and had a 166-93-4 record, is following Westinghouse from afar in Bradenton, Fla. He won six City League titles and had his team in the Class 4A state semifinals when the PIAA started football playoffs in 1988.
“I talk to some former coaches who are still up there in Pittsburgh,” Mr. Wabby said. “They tell me this Westinghouse quarterback [Keyshawn Morsillo] is the closest thing to Major Harris that the City has had. ... The part that’s sad is to see so few teams in the City now. But me, I’m happy to see what Westinghouse is doing because it was always the City League against everyone else — and it will always be that way.”
The only City League coach to win a state championship (Mr. Catanese) also is pulling for Westinghouse. Mr. Catanese, 79, lives in Hampton and has been following Westinghouse this season.
“Coach Green must be doing a great job with those kids,” said Mr. Catanese, who won seven City League titles in 21 seasons. “Every time one of their kids talks in the newspaper or does an interview, they sound good. You don’t hear any cockiness, and they must love him as coach. That’s really refreshing to me.”
And to the City League as a whole.