We conclude our Look Back at the Tyrone Area High School 1964 football season and the events and issues and advertisers of that time period. We wish to thank you, our readers for taking your time to remember or to be informed about a place in time we can never go back to again, and the continued great program that we proudly call our Tyrone Area High School football team.
Tyrone finished 8-1-1 for first-year head coach John Schonewolf, the Eagles’ best mark since 1956 when the Orange and Black went 9-1 under coach John Chuckran.
The tie with Hollidaysburg in the final game of the season dropped Tyrone to a fourth place finish in the Western Conference with 455 points. A win over the Golden Tigers would have pushed Tyrone into a tie for the top spot in the conference with Northern Cambria.
Altoona’s senior fullback Mike Reid set a new school record in winning the Blair County scoring race with 107 points. John Witherspoon of Claysburg-Kimmel with 82 points and John Hirt of Bellwood-Antis with 81 points. Reid broke the 33-year old mark set by Harry “Sis” Dinges who scored 101 points as a senior in 1931. Dinges was Bellwood-Antis first football coach from 1938-39, after graduating from Catawba College.
Bill Gearhart led the Eagles in scoring with nine touchdowns and two extra points for 56. Senior end Max Schnellbaugh, a converted halfback, was second in the scoring parade with six TDs and a team-high 13 PAT kicks for 49 points. Tony Singer had seven TDs for 42 points and Chuck Hickes had four touchdowns, including three on runs of 70 yards or longer for 24 points. Dave Langenbacher had three scores for 18 points and Frank Maisano, Bob Keefer, Rick Shellenberger, Bob McNeal, Jim Nau and Charlie Soellner had one TD each. Don Friday kicked four PATs and Dale Erdley rushed for one. Tyrone outscored their opponents 249-110.
Gearhart, a senior left halfback, rushed for a net 681 yards on 165 carries, to lead the ground attack for the Eagles. Gearhart gained 617 as a junior and 275 as a sophomore for a career total of 1,573 yards. Bill was injured during the preseason and was not fully utilized until the third game of the season and also was limited to one carry in a late season contest as well. Gearhart’s running mate at right halfback, fellow senior Tony Singer, a converted offensive guard, was the number two rusher on the squad with 501 yards on 125 carries. Junior halfback Chuck Hickes was next with174 yards on 36 carries. Bruce Tepsic also had better than 100 yards rushing with 114 yards on 20 carries.
Terry Turnbaugh led the Eagles through the air completing 39 of 84 passes for 695 yards and nine TDs. Bill Gearhart tossed 10 completions in 32 passes for 259 yards and two TDs and Chuck Hickes added three of six for 68 yards and one score.
Max Schnellbaugh was the Eagles top receiver with 17 catches for 452 yards and six touchdowns, Bob McNeal, another converted lineman, had 15 receptions for 242 yards and one TD and the senior halfback duo of Gearhart and Singer had 15 grabs between them (Singer had eight catches for 159 yards and three TDs and Gearhart seven catches for 99 yard and a pair of TDs).
Tyrone gained 1,821 yards rushing and 1,015 more through the air while yielding 1,149 rushing and 584 passing.
The Eagle defense intercepted 15 passes and recovered 14 enemy fumbles while opponents intercepted five Tyrone passes and recovered just five Eagle fumbles.
Tyrone was one of three Central Counties League teams named as “Outstanding” at the Central Counties League meeting held in Bellefonte. Lock Haven and Chief Logan were also selected in addition to Tyrone. Preparations for a league champ according to a ratings system was set up at the meeting to begin in 1965.
Bill Gearhart and Tom Templeton were selected to the All-Central Counties First Team All-Stars. Templeton, one of just two juniors on the First Team was chosen at guard and Gearhart at halfback was the third highest vote getter on the squad.
Charlie Soellner was named to the second team at center and Bob McNeal, Max Schnellbaugh, Bob Keefer and Tony Singer were all picked as Honorable Mention. McNeal was a second team pick last year at guard, but switched to a flanker position in 1964 and both he and Schnellbaugh received the same number of votes, missing the second team by just five points.
There were first and second team and honorable mention selections, but there was no distinction made between offense and defense.
While the league didn’t have a true champion, the Central Pennsylvania Association of Sportswriters, who had opposed naming more than one team as champ for the previous 10 years, used a rating system to name Tyrone the unofficial League champ, showing the Eagles with a rating of 23.75 and Chief Logan second with 22.0 points followed by Captain Jack of Mount Union with 17.50 and Lock Haven with 16.75.
The Central Pennsylvania Association of Sportswriters also named Tyrone coach John Schonewolf “Coach of the Year” in the Central Counties Conference, receiving all but one of the votes cast. Schonewolf is the second most successful first-year coach in Tyrone football history. Only William Skean’s 9-0-1 mark way back in 1924, is better among first-year records at Tyrone. Tyrone posted their best mark in eight years in 1964, in addition to beating both Lewistown and Lock Haven both for the first time since 1956, and was the first Eagles team since 1956, to record two shutout victories in the same season.
Schonewolf is the 15th head coach at Tyrone, having served as an assistant under Ron Corrigan for four years and then replacing Corrigan when he retired from coaching at the end of the 1963 season to attend graduate school. Schonewolf was a graduate of William Penn High School in Harrisburg, where he played football for three years. He was named to a First Team position at tackle on the Central Penn League All-Star Team and served as co-captain at William Penn his senior year.
Upon graduation, Schonewolf attended Lock Haven State College, where he was a four-year member of the football team at tackle, including being part of an undefeated squad as a sophomore. During his senior year at Lock Haven, coach Schonewolf was named to the Honorable Mention list on the Pennsylvania State College All-Star team. He graduated from Lock Haven and began his teaching career at Tyrone. He also had coached the Golden Eagles track team for the previous three years.
Tom Templeton, a junior tackle, was selected to the Honorable Mention List of the United Press International All-State Football Team in 1964 and senior running back Bill Gearhart received Honorable Mention honors on the Associated Press All-State Team.
Members of the squad included: Seniors Bill Gearhart, Jim Nau, Bruce Tepsic, Bob McNeal, Max Schnellbaugh, Tony Singer, George Eckroth, Milt Updyke, Jim Thomas, Bob Keefer, Ron Iadorola, Max Soellner, Bill Carson, Jim Crampton and Dave Kimmel. Juniors Terry Turnbaugh, Chuck Hickes, John Forcey, Dave Langenbacher, Frank Maisano, Charlie Soellner, Craig Batcheler, Melvin Romano, John Hoover, Tom Templeton, Randy Smith, Don Friday and Nick Delozier.
Sophomores: Bob Mertiff, Dave Holmes, Gene Reese, George Dean, Rick Shellenberger, Dale Erdley, Terry Bonsell, Larry Albright, Bob Stewart, Curt Werner, Dave Rhoades, Jim Brown, Mike Androski, Tim Singer, Steve Hall, John Sultage, Charles Hoover, Tom Hostler, Ray Beckwith, George Mayhue, Bill McElwain, Jack Walk, George Shultz, Paul Frye, Doug Brown Dick Updyke, Dick Fisher and Lynn Kahley.
For your enjoyment return to past glories of Tyrone High School football and the Tyrone area with us next fall when during the 2003 football season, we will Look Back at Tyrone Football during 1931, when head coach Walter Mensch led the Golden Eagles (8-1-1) to their second straight eight-win season.
