Jun 1, 2013 7 min read

Tom Hay was one of the most prolific swimmers in the history of the WPIAL and PIAA.

While at Peters Township, Hay won five WPIAL and five PIAA gold medals and made All-America status eight times.

In 1989, Hay set a PIAA record of 48.62 seconds in the 100-yard butterfly that lasted 21 years until broken in 2010. He holds the Peters Township record for the 100-yard butterfly and 100-yard freestyle, as well as several pool records in the Pittsburgh area.

Hay will be one of 14 people, along with a Team of Yesteryear, inducted into the Washington-Greene Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame this year. The ceremonies take place Friday, June 14 at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Meadow Lands. Tickets are $45 and can be ordered by contacting B.J. at 724-678-4320.

Joining Hay in this year’s class are John Ballein (football), Rebecca Braun-Champlin (marksmanship), Doug Crouse (track and field), Gregg Day (soccer), Dave “Bimbo” Vallina (softball), Tom Diamond Sr. (Posthumous, wrestling), John Ross (Posthumous, wrestling), Sylvester Terkay (wrestling), Elizabeth Proudfit (basketball), Bryan Matusic (wrestling), Thomas P. O’Connor (youth service), Bob Gregg and Mark Uriah (sports broadcasting) and the 1992 Canon-McMillan High School wrestling team will be inducted as the Team of Yesteryear.

After graduating high school, Hay went on to Michigan, where he was a part of five Big Ten championship teams.

He was a four-time All-American before graduating, then competed in the 1992 Olympic Trials in the 100-meter butterfly, finishing 19th.

Hay swims for the Peters Township masters program and is a volunteer coach for the Peters swimming program.

The following is a look at seven other honorees. Biographies of the first group appeared in a previous edition of the Observer-Reporter.

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Elizabeth Proudfit

Basketball

Elizabeth Proudfit was arguably the best female basketball player of the 1990s in the Washington-Greene County Area.

She led Washington High School to three conference championships and a WPIAL title in 1992. In the process, Proudfit scored 1,951 points, the most by a female in school history, and was named the Observer-Reporter Player of the Year three times.

A valedictorian, Proudfit attended Harvard University, where she was a four-year starter and a co-captain on the basketball team.

She finished her career in the top 15 in school history for career points (13th, 1,113), career steals (6th, 162), career assists (7th, 402), and three-point field goals (8th, 120). She was named Ivy League Rookie of the Year in 193 and helped the Crimson to a conference title in 1996.

She received numerous academic awards, including the Radcliffe College Association Award as the top female athlete in college class for 1996.

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Bob Gregg and Mark Uriah

Sports Broadcasting

Working together since 1983, Gregg and Uriah have been the premier sports broadcasting team in Western Pennsylvania.

The two have worked together for 20 football seasons, 25 basketball seasons, 10 wrestling seasons, and 20 baseball and softball seasons. Gregg and Uriah have covered the Pony League World Series, Washington & Jefferson College football and the Washington Wild Things.

They also announce for Pennsylvania Cable Network for the Powerade finals and the PIAA team wrestling finals.

WJPA Sports is a four-time winner of the Pennsylvania Associated Press Broadcasters Associaton Award for Best Sports Play-by-Play.

Gregg is a graduate of Washington High School and attended the University of Miami and Geneva College. Uriah is a Chartiers Valley graduate and received a journalism degree from Ohio State University.

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John Ross

Posthumous, Wrestling

Ross was a successful coach at Canonsburg High School, coaching 11 wrestlers to PIAA individual titles and the 1950 team to a PIAA team championship. Ross had a 90-34-2 record from 1948-56.

Besides the 11 state champions, Ross coached 20 WPIAL champions and led four teams – 1949, 1950, 1951 and 1953 – to WPIAL team titles. His 1948 and 1955 teams were WPIAL runners-up.

Ross was inducted in the Pennsylvania Wrestling Coaches Hall of Fame in 1986.

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Thomas P. O’Connor

Youth Service

O’Connor has been a moving force in youth baseball in this area, serving on the PONY Baseball International Board of Directors since 2006. He is PONY Baseball Division Director for the West Region East Zone since 2006 and is responsible for PONY Baseball in a five-state area, including Pennsylvania and Ohio.

O’Connor served as PONY Baseball Region Director (1985-2005); Washington Youth Baseball vice president (1979-1985); Washington Bronco League coach (1973-1978); World Series Tournaments, Inc Board of Directors; and PONY League World Series ground crew chief (1997-2007).

He has been the Bronco 11-Year-Old World Series Tournament Director in Richmond, Va., since 2009.

At Union High School, located in Girard, O’Connor was a captain and three-year letterman in basketball; an All-Erie County first team selection in 1959; captain and three-year letterman in baseball, and an All-Erie County first team selection in 1959.

O’Connor attended Slippery Rock and won three letters in soccer.

O’Connor has served as vice president of the Brownson House Board of Directors, won a Joint Service Club Volunteer Award in 2007, a Kiwanis Club Distinguished Service Award in 1995 and an Army ROTC Outstanding Support Award in 1988.

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Bryan Matusic

Wrestling

Matusic had a distinguished career in wrestling, punctuated by a silver medal in the 1992 PIAA Championships in Hershey. He also finished fourth in 1990 and took third in the National High School Championships in 1992.

Matusci was a three-time section champion, a two-time WPIAL champion and amassed a career record of 114-16-2 (.876).

He was a two-time Junior National All-American in freestyle, a two-time Cadet National Champion in freestyle, a three-time Pennsylvania state champion in freestyle and a two-time Pennsylvania State Champion in Greco-Roman.

At Penn State, Matusic had a career record of 112-37 (.751), was named Freshman Wrestler of the Year in 1993 and was a four-time national qualifier (1993-97) and Eastern Wrestling League finalist in 1995.

He received a medical degree from the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2001 and completed a medical residency and fellowship in Anesthesiology from UPMC in 2006.

He is a board certified anesthesiologist and serves as Director of Anesthesiology at Advanced Surgical Hospital in Washington. Matusic owns Advanced Anesthesiology Services, LLC.

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1992 Canon-Mac wrestling

Team of Yesteryear

The 1992 Canon-McMillan wrestling team was PIAA state team champions, finished as a WPIAL runner-up, won a section title, had a 20-match winning streak and finished the regular season undefeated.

The team had five section champions, three runners-up and two third-place finishers. Three wrestlers won WPIAL titles, one a silver medal and one a bronze. Two others finished fourth.

Of the seven PIAA qualifiers, Keilan O’Daniel and Brian Matusic were runners-up, Mark Angle and Tim Rohaley took fourth and Bobby Owens was sixth.

The Big Macs were the first team to win a PIAA team title without an individual champion. The team’s head coach was Jim Neuman, and his assistants were Ozzie Gavazzi and Jim Vulcano.