Bellwood-Antis battled Bedford at home on Oct. 25, 1941.
Bob Killen was the head coach of the Blue Devils and Lew Myers and Tim Nolan were his assistants. There were 45 boys on the roster. B-A opened the season with a win over Bigler Township (21-0), now part of the Moshannon Valley School District, but then lost four straight games to Tyrone (18-7), Lock Haven (43-0) Saxton-Liberty (7-0) and Mount Union (6-0).
The Blue Devils upped their record to 2-4 with an 18-0 victory over Bedford.
Dean Halbritter scored the first touchdown for Bellwood-Antis returning a pass interception 45 yards, for a score near the end of the first half.
Then on the ensuing kickoff, lightning struck for the Blue Devils. Bedford fumbled the kick at their own two-yard line where Joe Garman scooped it up and stepped in for the second Bellwood-Antis touchdown in as many plays.
B-A scored the final TD of the game with about two minutes to play when quarterback John Rowan tossed a pass to Steve Hatfield for a 30-yard TD,
Despite a 1-4 start, the 1941 Blue Devils would use the Bedford win to jumpstart a second half of the season that saw B-A win four of the final five contests to finish 5-5.
The Blue Devils were scheduled to play Lewistown on Oct. 25, 1957, but the game was canceled.
Dwight Troutman, Bellwood-Antis High School principal, requested the cancellation, saying that at midweek 240 students were out of school as a fluenza epidemic ravaged the area. Troutman said that the football had been hit especially hard. Nearly all the illness had been attributed to the flu.
A week earlier the game with Captain Jack Joint High School of Mount Union had also been called off. That was at the request of the Captain Jack principal. At the time, Troutman reported that the illness had not yet affected the Bellwood-Antis district.
There was a new head coach at B-A in 1957. Walter Galbreath, a graduate of Altoona had immediately gone into the Army following his high school graduation for two years before continuing his college education at Shippensburg State Teachers College where he played for four years as a quarterback. Then coach Galbreath became the first coach at Bald Eagle Area as the Eagles started a football program. He coached at BEA from 1952-55 before moving on to Coatesville as the head football coach there before coming to Bellwood. Galbreath taught
Assistant coach Earl “Red” Henry had played football at Bellwood-Antis, where he was one of the greatest centers in the history of Bellwood-Antis football and then at Catawba. Henry coached at Morrison’s Cove in 1956 after serving four years in the Air Force. Henry was back at his alma mater for the first year and was teaching history and geography.
Also assisting in his 10th year on the staff was George Guyer. A 1936 Roaring Spring grad, who attended Penn State and graduated from Franklin and Marshall in 1940. He began teaching and coaching at Bellwood-Antis in 1945. Since that time he had been the head track coach as well as assisting the football team. In 1957, he was also guiding the new junior varsity, which had a regular schedule for the first time separate from the varsity.
Bellwood-Antis defeated Central 37-13 on Oct. 25, 1963 for their eighth straight win of the year and 15th of their last 16 going back to the 1962 season.
Central was able to do something no other 1963 Blue Devil rival had done. The Scarlet Dragons scored twice and held the high-powered Bellwood-Antis offense below 40 points for the first time in five contests.
The touchdown tandem of Walter Rhoades and Bill Cherry combined for five touchdowns, five extra points and 334 yards rushing between them.
Cherry put B-A on the scoreboard Roaring Spring Athletic Field, crashing in for a two-yard score and Rhoades ran for the PAT. Central had stopped the Blue Devils on a fourth down and six at the Dragons-14, but B-A got new life on an unnecessary roughness penalty.
Central ran the kickoff back 90 yards for their first score before the B-A fans had a chance to stop cheering for the B-A touchdown.
The Blue Devils of coach Chet Dillen, then promptly drove 80 yards down the field for another score to take control. Rhoades motored the last eight yards for the TD and Cherry added the PAT rush.
Cherry notched his second TD gain blasting in from his fullback spot in the Blue Devils’ Single-Wing formation from two yards out. A 22-yard pass play from Rhoades to Warren Wilson was the key. Rhoades rushed for the PAT and a 21-7 halftime advantage.
In the third quarter, Central turned the ball over on a Bill Cherry interception, which was returned six yards to the C-19. Rhoades covered the final nine yards for the TD and Cherry rushed for the extra point.
The Scarlet Dragons drove 54 yards in just three plays to become the first opponent to score two TDs against the B-A defense.
Bellwood-Antis capped the scoring with a 50-yard drive. Cherry, who totaled 144 yards on 23 carries, rushed for gains of 13 and 16 yards and Rhoades, who carried 24 times for 190 yards, finished up with the 12-yard TD. Cherry added the PAT.
