EDGEWOOD
Lost in the Fifties
HIGH SCHOOL
Reunion
EHS CLASS OF ’59 60TH REUNION Charleston, SC April 29, 30,
WELCOME EDGEWOOD HIGH
Edgewood School District was a public school district serving the families of Edgewood, PA and surrounding communities by providing K-12 public education. The school opened October 6, 1892 in the town of Edgewood and operated for 90 years before closing.[1] The Edgewood School District was eliminated by court order in July 1981 when the students of Edgewood were included in the newly formed, larger, Woodland Hills School District.[2]
55th Reunion Shanksville Pa.
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UPCOMING EVENTS
Summer 2019 60th Reunion
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Summer 2015
OCT 2014
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SCHOOL NEWS
Sept 30 - Oct 2 , 2014
Class of '59 held it's 55th Reunion
in Ligonier, PA. A dinner, a school bus ride to Flight 93 Memorial and picnic at Kitty's farm.
Sept 2009 The Class of '59 held it's
50th Reunion The class returned to the scene of their Senior Class Picnic for their Reunion, Oglebay Park in Wests Virgina.
History of Edgewood High School
By Tory N. Parrish
Thursday, April 23, 2015, 11:48 a.m.
With its family-like setting, the former Edgewood School District was a place where students considered their classmates to be anyone attending school at the same time, regardless of grade level, an alumnus said.
“You really learned from the people older than you and respected them and you really sought to model the right behavior ... and you passed it along to younger people,” said Dallas Frey, 63, who graduated from the Edgewood High School in 1970.
That atmosphere was forever altered with the court-ordered merger of the district with four nearby school systems to form the Woodland Hills School District in 1981, he said.
Seeking to spotlight the spirit, academic achievement and history of the former Edgewood district, Frey is among a group of alumni on a planning committee that is organizing the first Edgewood High School All-class Reunion. All alumni and former staff are invited to the event scheduled on July 17 and 18.
“The school was the heart of Edgewood. As far as our generations go, it always will be,” said Roswell, Ga., resident Jeff Boucek, 55, a 1978 Edgewood graduate and member of the planning committee.
Edgewood's merger with four other school districts into Woodland Hills was the settlement of a racial discrimination lawsuit filed in 1971 by black parents of General Braddock School District students, who alleged their children were being racially segregated by the state's consolidation of various school districts in Allegheny County.
In 1981, U.S. District Judge Gerald Weber ordered that General Braddock be merged with four predominantly white school districts in the eastern suburbs — the Churchill Area, Edgewood, Swissvale Area and Turtle Creek Area school districts.
Twelve towns, including Rankin, Forest Hills and Wilkins, now comprise the Woodland Hills School District, where 3,846 students were enrolled in the 2013-14 school year, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
In the 1980-81 school year, 731 students were enrolled in the Edgewood School District.
“Edgewood was a highly academic school….It was a great school to raise your kids in,” said Penn Township resident Joseph Marasti, who was an Edgewood High School business teacher and coach from 1968 to 1977 and principal from 1977 to 1978.
There are no Edgewood alumni younger than 50, and many of the alumni he knew are deceased, Boucek said.
In 2005, a reunion for the Edgewood classes of 1965 to 1975 drew a crowd of about 300 alumni and guests to The Edgewood Club, where the high school used to have its dances, so alumni decided to expand upon that success with the all-class reunion, Frey said.
Events during the all-class reunion in July will include a party, Rock the Square, in Regent Square; a tour of the former Edgewood schools, which now are housed in the Woodland Hills School District's Edgewood Elementary School; and a reunion party at the Sen. John Heinz History Center in the Strip District.
Expectations and interest in the all-class reunion are high — 237 people had RSVP'd online as of Thursday afternoon — but organizers don't yet have an estimate of how many people will attend, Frey said.
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Montour, Edgewood football teams
of '58 join for reunion
Members of the 1958 WPIAL football finalists - Montour and Edgewood - gathered at Downey's House in Robinson Township to watch the game Saturday. Among them: Bill Rudison of Montour, left, and Wayne Tamarelli of Edgewood, front.
Players from Montour's team got together Saturday to watch game film, just like any undefeated WPIAL team would do on a mid-November Saturday.
But these weren't the 2010 undefeated Spartans and the game film wasn't from Friday's win against Indiana.
These guys had gray hair, some of them sipped on beers, the film was black and white and the game they watched was more than 50 years old.
Members of Montour's 1958 WPIAL championship team had a reunion in Robinson to watch game film from the title game 52 years ago. This wasn't your normal championship team reunion, though. The opponent was also present.
Former players from Montour and Edgewood got together, 23 players total at Downey's House, a restaurant in Robinson. They sat together and watched the 1958 WPIAL Class B championship, won by Montour, 20-7, against Edgewood at Dormont Stadium.
"I don't think anything like this has ever happened in the WPIAL before, where both teams get together," said Bill Kriger, the standout quarterback on the '58 Montour team.
A few players came from out of town and one former Edgewood player, Rich Demore, came from Colorado Springs, Colo.
Art Betts, the coach of the '58 Edgewood team, also was present for the affair -- for a while. He left about a half-hour before the film stopped. The old film was transferred from "reel-to-reel" and put on a DVD for the event.
"We lost," Betts said. "Why would I stay and watch? Who wants to watch a game you lose?"
Betts was 28 at the time. Now he's 80, but certainly doesn't look it.
Bruce Frey, who is a high school football radio color commentator for WBVP-AM and WMBA-AM, attended the event clad in his maroon Edgewood letter jacket. He was 4 in 1958, but his father took him to the game.
"This stuff is more important to me than doing a game with [current Hopewell running back] Rushel Shell," Frey said.
The idea for the event was hatched a few years ago at an Edgewood class reunion. In the early 1980s, former Edgewood player John Brown had called Kriger when Kriger was Montour's head coach. Brown wanted to know if Kriger had a tape of the '58 game because Brown wanted to make a copy of it. Kriger obliged.
Minds started churning at that class reunion.
About six months ago, former players from both teams were contacted. Players were introduced before the game film played. During the film, they laughed. They joked. They re-lived.
"I know this might seem crazy to a lot of people, but a lot of us remember the plays in this game like it was yesterday," Huber said.
Besides Kriger, Montour players in attendance were Dennis Schavolt, Rich Mangiamelle, Dave Yanish, Bill Rudison, Bill Olivani, Fred Dudak, Rich Macek, Rich Phillips, Joe Pass and Bill Kutzavitch.
Besides Brown, Demore and Huber, former Edgewood players at the reunion were Ron Champ, Wayne Tamarelli, Ron Heller, Neil Mackay and his brother, Howard, Dick Dodez, Ron Gontar, Bob Farr and Skip Gove.
"Just look at the animation among the guys here today," Brown said. "There is a lot of connection. No one here is talking about what we have to do today or what we have to do with our wife today. All they're talking about is a game 52 years ago."