Mid Mon Valley Sports Hall of Fame to add 7 members
The Mid Mon Valley All Sports Hall of Fame will add seven inductees during ceremonies at its 21th annual banquet at The Willow Room in Rostraver Township June 20. The banquet will begin at 5:30 p.m.
These seven new inductees will bring the membership to 219. The original Mon Valley Sports Writers Hall of Fame started in 1951 with the selection of Stan Musial and Bert Rechichar.
The 2014 class includes Milfred “Bubby” Holmes, the late John Maczuzak, Maurice Mathieu, Heather Ferrari Milkent, Tony Segzda, Chuck Smith and Ed Zuraw.
A 1973 Monessen graduate, Holmes was a gifted athlete in football, breaking records with the Greyhounds, running for 3,746 yards and scoring 304 points. Holmes was a rare three-time Mon Valley Conference selection and made the Big 33 team. Holmes was featured in Sports Illustrated’s “Faces in the Crowd” at the age of 14 in the Oct. 27, 1969 issue after he scored nine touchdowns for Monessen Junior High over two games on only 17 carries. He received 150 offers for colleges and chose the University of Minnesota, where he was a running back and a teammate of Tony Dungy, the Gophers’ quarterback. Injuries plagued Holmes during his college experience.
Holmes makes his residence in Invergiore Height, Minn.
A graduate of Monessen High School in 1957, Mathieu was the Mon Valley Football Big 6 All Conference scoring champion with 132 points in 1956. Coach Armand Niccolai singled out Mathieu as one of his best players and rival coach Rab Currie of Charleroi liked the running back so well that he persuaded the youth to attend Miami University on a football scholarship. Knee injuries eventually ended his college playing career. Mathieu was inducted into the Monessen Quarterback Hall of Fame in 1972.
A graduate of Ellsworth High School in 1959, Maczuzak lettered three years in football and basketball. At 6-5 and 240 pounds, Maczuzak received 27 scholarship offers before choosing the University of Pittsburgh.
In football, Maczuzak started as a tackle on both offense and defense, anchoring the left side of the offensive line and protecting quarterback Fred Mazurek and halfback Paul Martha. In 1963, the Pitt team lost only one game, at Navy, and ended the year ranked fourth by AP with a record of 9-1. When a late season contest against Penn State was postponed because of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the team was lost in the mix for premiere bowl games and decided not to take a bid.
Maczuzak signed a one-year contract with the AFL’s Kansas City Chiefs in 1964. He did well enough that ownership wanted him to continue to play, but he instead opted to begin a 38-year career in the steel industry. Maczuzak died Dec. 27, 2013.
A 1990 Belle Vernon graduate, Ferrari Milkent has the distinction of being the first female from Belle Vernon to receive an NCAA Division I scholarship in softball. In high school, she was named Section 3-AAA Player of the Year.
She was inducted into the Robert Morris Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000 and her uniform No. 7 was retired. Ferrari Milkent maintains 11 career records. She played shortstop and outfield and twice was named All-NEC Tournament.
A baseball lifer, Segzda spent seven decades around the game. He was a star player at California High School as an outfielder and pitcher. In 1947, his senior year, he pitched California to the Section 17 title, ending Charleroi’s five-year hold on the title. The Pittsburgh Pirates signed him after he pitched a no-hit shutout in American Legion ball that summer.
Segzda played minor-league ball for the Pirates in Uniontown for three years with the Coal Barons, and later with Class B York. He played a few more years for the Pirates at Class A Charleston, S.C., and Williamsport in the Eastern League. Overall, Segzda pitched six seasons in minor-league ball, compiling a record of 30-34 with an ERA of 4.56.
Segzda was hired by Fred Uhlman of the Baltimore Orioles as a scout in the late 1980s. He signed California University pitcher Rick Krivda in 1991.
A 1973 Ringgold High School graduate, Smith was the Rams’ first two-time All-Mon Valley Conference selection, in 1971 and 1972 as a defensive tackle. More than 100 colleges recruited him. West Virginia University was Smith’s choice, and he put his name in the school’s record book with 100 assisted tackles in a season, which is still the Mountaineers’ record. Smith was an Honorable Mention All-American and was named to WVU’s 1970-79 all-decade team.
Smith signed with the Cleveland Browns and played in an exhibition game before being released. Smith went on to play semi-pro ball for the Clarksburg Red Raiders and Washington Generals.
With a Master’s degree in safety engineering, Smith is president and founder of West General Transit, Inc. along with Cambros Manufactured Housing, and Ave and Bell Estates.
A 1957 Charleroi graduate, Zuraw began competitive pole vaulting at age 13. He set the Mon Valley Track Meet records of 10-10 as a junior and 11-9 as a senior. A graduate of West Virginia University in 1966, Zuraw set a record by clearing 15 feet as a senior. As a coach at Herndon High in Virginia, his teams turned out several local, regional and state champions. In 1979, Zuraw began coaching at George Mason University. One of his athletes was Rob Mussio, a decathlon competitor in the 1992 Olympics.
In the 1980s, Zuraw competed on the U.S. Senior Masters Tour and was ranked as a No. 1 pole vaulter in his class.
Along with the Hall of Fame inductees, 18 senior scholar-athletes from Mon Valley high schools will be honored. Those high schools include Belle Vernon, Bentworth, Brownsville, California, Charleroi, Elizabeth Forward, Monessen, Ringgold, and Yough.
Tickets are $40 and seating is limited. To reserve tickets, contact Steve Russell, Hall of Fame general chairman, at 724-258-3823 or email him at stephenrussell1106@comcast.net .
Mid Mon Valley Sports Hall of Fame memorabilia can be viewed at the Hall of Fame museum at the Bentleyville Best Western Garden Inn.
The Hall of Fame selection committee includes chairman Brian Herman, Russell, Carl Crawley Jr, Dale Hamer, Tom Jenkins, Bill Kubin, Randy Marino, Stan Milchovich and Bill Hughes.