Event emphasizes history and tradition of Mt. Lebanon sports
For Mt. Lebanon sports fans, the Hall of Champions induction set for Nov. 25 is a can’t miss event. For the first time ever, all athletes from all teams will gather for a reunion of sorts from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Circuit Center & Ballroom, located at 5 Hot Metal Street in Pittsburgh.
“The goal,” said Mt. Lebanon athletic director John Grogan, “is to reconnect and reminisce. The idea is to celebrate the history and tradition of all our athletic programs over the years. Right now there is nothing like that in the community currently.”
Typically, individual teams hold post-season awards banquets and alumni may hold reunions but never have all squads and players celebrated their programs and the history of Mt. Lebanon athletics in one setting. Grogan says the hope is to make the event an annual affair for alumni, family and friends of the school’s athletic programs.
While he always wanted to create such an event, the high school’s recent renovation put the idea into motion. When a new athletic wing, housing a new gymnasium, weight room, eight-lane swimming pool, wrestling area and offices, was added onto the original building, Grogan also looked for a new home for Mt. Lebanon’s Hall of Champions. Originally housed outside the old South gym, the display included pictures of all 166 WPIAL championship clubs and 33 PIAA winners as well as all district and state champions.
How to move all the pictures and trophies and where to place them that would allow for expansion befuddled Grogan until he met Glenn Bolt. He works for a company called Printscape and they created a new product that Grogan says was a “great application” for the move to their new digs. All the prints were digitalized and affixed to the walls on the second level of the athletic wing. There is also a TV component to the display.
“It’s really cool,” Grogan said. “The images are like paintings on a wall. We will have them forever.”
Thanks in part to a $20,000 donation from Elaine Cappucci, Dale Cable, Dr. Bob Schilken, Hal Kestler, Dan Goff, Gary Brown and the Shure family – all alumni – to the school district’s Century of Excellence Campaign, the project was completed this year and plans were initiated for the grand celebration, which will culminate on Nov. 25 with the induction of the Class of 2017. Nearly a dozen in number, these new members have met the requirement as either a WPIAL or PIAA champion.
While one of the objectives of the get-together is to raise funds for the school’s capital campaign, the reunion is more to reconnect with former athletes.
For example, Grogan said helping to coordinate the event enabled him to “catch up” with Shelly Demar. She played volleyball in 2000. Demar teaches in Virginia. He also mentioned that Bob Bennett, who played on the 1966 championship basketball team, will travel from California to attend the event as well as a special tribute to head coach Dick Black to be held at 11 a.m. in the high school campus’s South Gym.
“People from every era and from all over the country are coming home for this,” Grogan said. “It should be a fun and special night.”
While she will not travel that far, Stacey Franklin anticipates the evening will be the highlight of the year for former Lebo athletes. Franklin, who has helped Grogan and his committee organize the social, bleeds blue and gold. A 1986 graduate, she served as a cheerleader before earning a degree at the University of Maryland. She lives in Mt. Lebanon and has three athletic children-Mackenzie (Class of 2014), who played field hockey and currently is a senior at Elon University; Jake (Class of 2016), who played lacrosse and attends Dayton; and Chase (Class of 2020), who golfs and plays lacrosse.
“I’m very excited,” Franklin said of the event. “It’s been a long time in coming. We’ve never done anything like it before that spans multiple generations and multiple sports. Since she is a second-generation Lebo graduate, Franklin, oddly, is looking forward to the past.
“Honestly, meeting some of the older alumni who are close to my parents age,” Franklin said will be one of the highlights. “Since we will have young and old there, it will be neat to hear them trade stories and hear their reactions to what the school looks like, what the programs are like now. So much has changed even since I was there when they only had football and a few other sports.”
In addition to lacrosse, Mt. Lebanon now boasts crew, field hockey and bocci teams to go along with all the other WPIAL-recognized sports.
While thousands of athletes have competed at Mt. Lebanon, the committee sent out invitations to all the members of the Hall of Champions, those who grace the walls of the athletic wing. Because of lack of addresses, only 300 formal invitations were extended.
“Everyone is welcome, though,” Franklin said.
Patt McCloskey will be among those attending. He will welcome back former players who competed on his and his father’s (Ed) district and state championship squads. Lebo won titles in 1959, 1993, 2002 and 2006.
“I’m excited,” said McCloskey, who also played for the Blue Devils before becoming the manager. “Anytime we have a get-together it’s a lot of fun. So it’s going to be thrilling to be around players and athletes from different eras, especially the era from when my father coached all the way back to the 1970s.”
While McCloskey noted his baseball teams have had alumni reunions in the past, he said the upcoming event by far is going to be the biggest in all generations and all sports. “Bringing all these athletes together from every year, is going to be a great opportunity to catch up and to reminisce. Everyone coming together to celebrate the history and tradition we have hear is going to be amazing.”
Tickets are $90. Email lebohallofchampions@gmail.com for more details.