Aug 28, 2022 11 min read

Jim Dumm is not bashful about telling someone he loves them.

“The world would be a better place if people told one another that more often,” Dumm said, a couple months ago, in concluding his acceptance speech on being inducted in the Mid Mon Valley Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame.

The world is a better place with Jim Dumm in it. That is a certainty.

He expected much from his players when he coached football but never more than he was willing to give of himself.

Dumm has given a lot.

“Honestly, it started when I began coaching at Charleroi,” Dumm said. “Getting to hang around and coach with Louie (DeFelices). I learned so much. He was my main man. He always had my back. I cherish that to this day.

“I was tough on my players but I always let them know through word and deed I cared about them and I loved them. When they realize that, they start responding. It works. I believe in that approach. It is heartfelt.”

Even today as he struggles with health issues, Dumm concerns himself with others and their well-being.

He is a 1965 graduate of Norwin High School and was a semi-pro player for the Norwin Warriors from 1965-1969. Dumm was cut from the high school team as a sophomore and a junior. He was a walk-on at Youngstown State.

After suffering a broken leg, he transferred to Waynesburg College (University) and started three years from 1970-72, playing defensive end, defensive tackle and middle linebacker.

“At Waynesburg, I realized the dream of my life, getting to play with my brother Paul,” Dumm said. “In my senior year, Paul was a freshman defensive end, then later the team’s center. He got a free agent tryout with the Oakland Raiders.”

Dumm was named first-team NAIA District 18 in ’72. He was Waynesburg’s Most Valuable Player that same year and was named Associated Press third-team All-State defensive end in 1970.

A team captain as a senior football player, he led the Yellow Jackets in tackles. He was such a versatile athlete he earned a letter in baseball as a pitcher and lettered in track and field.

He signed a free agent contract with the Baltimore Colts and played during the preseason. He also had a stint with the Chicago Fire of the now defunct World Football League. The Colts contacted him again. But Dumm was offered a teaching job at Elizabeth Forward and he accepted.

“I went through two professional training camps,” Dumm said. “I did the best I could. I have injuries that still hurt today.

“I told my mom, ‘I’m going to go teach and coach football.'”

Dumm had coaching stints at Elizabeth Forward under Bob King and later under former Steelers’ lineman Pete Rostosky and Gary Cathell. He also served as an assistant at Charleroi under Bob Hodgson and had stops at California Area High School under Tom Webb then Brady Barbero. He also coached at Ringgold and at Clairton under Tom Nola from 2011-14, when the Bears won three WPIAL championships and two PIAA crowns.

He did serve one season as an assistant to Bill Tornabene at Waynesburg. Dumm returned to Charleroi as head coach from 1998 through 2002.

In his first season, he was named Century Conference Coach of the Year. The Cougars won the conference title and advanced to the WPIAL Class AA quarterfinals, where they lost to Washington.

As a player, coach, friend, teacher and family leader, Dumm has always led with passion and love.

This is a man who cares, a man one would be grateful to play with, work with and most of all share a friendship.

His sincerity is only surpassed by his compassion and support of others.

Those characteristics define Dumm.

Do not be fooled, he’d want to split an opponent in half on the field. While he was fun to be around, he was focused and committed to success and victory on the field and in the classroom.

“He’s one of a kind,” said former Charleroi standout lineman and wrestler Dave Grillo. “Jim would do anything for you. Anything. He’s just a great man, great person.

“He was there for me when I played for him and he’s there for me today. He’s still on my (butt) like he was when I was in high school.”

The way Dumm so meticulously taught the game, particularly line play, was demanding yet rewarding. Shortcuts were intolerable. Dumm was of the, “Do it the right way or don’t bother doing it” philosophy.

He is so easy to admire,” said Steve DeFelices, son of Lou DeFelices. Steve played for Dumm at Charleroi, coached with him at Elizabeth Forward and has been a long-time friend.

“Jim’s the most complete coach I’ve ever been around and I’ve been around some great ones. He teaches technique better than anyone. He can go move-for-move against anyone. He can scheme with the best and he can motivate his kids,” he said.

“I’ve never been around a guy like him. He has no hole as coach. Most guys have a weakness, not Jim.”

Another long-time friend, Bill Hughes, a guidance counselor in the Trinity Area School District, former football and basketball coach and a freelance writer, said Dumm is unique in every way.

“I never covered him when he was a coach, but we met in the spring of 2002,” Hughes said. “I was running the Monessen (High School) strength program and was an assistant football coach as well. I was also student teaching at Charleroi at the time and Jim’s son, Jared, was a senior. I believe Coach and I spoke at a school function before Jared graduated.

“In 2003, Coach Dumm reached out to me to gauge my interest in coaching at Cal U. He said he had already spoken to whomever and all I had to do was say yes if I was interested. I passed though because I was focused on my (professional) wrestling career and did not want to pass up on the number of shows I would miss due to the coaching commitment.

“We have kept in touch ever since and I am a better person for having gotten to know Coach Dumm. “

Master Teacher

Last fall, Dumm was honored by Elizabeth Forward School District as an Educator Recognition Awardee during the District’s Hall of Fame Induction ceremony.

“I’m so proud of that,” Dumm said.

Rostosky said Dumm worked diligently to help students and players succeed in some way every day.

“The respect level for him is unbelievable,” Rostosky said. “He expected a lot. But he gave you a lot. He had patience.

“When he coached for me, I’d want to go home. Jim would be there hammering out details, figuring out how and when to get guys in motion. He was a technician.”

In all, Dumm coached a little more than 35 years. He was inducted into the Tri-County Football Coaches Hall of Fame in 2014.

Now retired, Dumm lives in Charleroi with his wife of 48 years, Marian, formerly of Uniontown. They have two sons, Jared and Jeff, a deceased daughter Lauren, and four grandchildren, who he said in his acceptance speech at the Mid Mon Valley Sports Hall of Fame “are the loves of my life.”

The respect he has among teaching and coaching peers is immense.

To this day, he keeps in contact with many former players and students. The correspondence goes both ways.

Dumm also attempts to help kids getting into college or helps to promote them to be recruited by schools that make the most sense for their future.

“Jim’s a larger-than-life personality,” said Don Hartman, who worked with Dumm at California under Webb. “We hit it off the first time we met. He’s unlike any other person I ever met.

“I followed him around like a puppy. The gift he has is to get his players to work so hard and then have them walk off the field thanking him and telling him they love him for working them like that. It is totally rare. I just felt if I could get a piece of that in my coaching career it would be such a blessing. My times with him I have with me forever.”

With Dumm, there weren’t really any rivals, just friends.

“Jim Dumm’s teams were always well-prepared, precise in execution and really physically tough,” said former Washington coach Guy Montecalvo. “(Charleroi) got after you regardless of their record or yours. In fact, even in our state championship year (2001), they played us as tough as anyone. Jim, Moose (Bob Hodgson) and Louie (DeFelices) and the other assistants did a great job with the Charleroi program year in and year out.

“I could never look at Jim as an adversary because he is such a good friend. They don’t come any more caring, genuine or sincere as Jim Dumm. One thing I’ll always hold close is that in good times and bad, one of the first guys to reach out was Jim. As difficult as his challenges are now, he maintains his positive attitude and his strong Christian faith.”

Dumm’s presence may have led some to be misled in his athletic pursuits. By all accounts, he was light on his feet and his ability to move and maneuver belied his big frame.

He recalled a semi-pro game he played in for the Wheeling Ironmen so many years ago on Wheeling Island.

“They gave me $600 a game and I didn’t have to practice,” Dumm chuckled. “Our games were never close because we were so good.

“One night, I played half the game. I blocked a punt and scored a touchdown. I had incentives. I received $100 extra for both of those feats. I just sat there and counted the money.”

Said Hughes: “Jim and I speak a few times a week. He is as genuine and no-nonsense as there is. He tells it like it is. He hasn’t coached for years but Coach is still helping coaches get their players into colleges to continue their educations and careers. For everything the game has given Coach Dumm, he has given back 10-fold and has paid it forward to the level very few do.”

Dumm attended more than 50 football coaching clinics during his career. He spent a week with an offensive line coach at Maryland.

He was offered the offensive line coaching job at the University of Texas El Paso. He turned it down to stay home.

What so many local students and athletes would have missed if he’d have gone.

“I always said, when you are teaching or coaching kids, you better bring you’re “A” game because that’s what they deserve each day,” he said. “I have been lucky to be around great coaches and people. Monessen was our rival at Charleroi. But I was so happy to be connected to (the late) Coach Jack Scarvel. He always took the time to talk. He took care of his kids. He and his family made them spaghetti dinner on game days. That’s how you reach people’s soul. That’s how they know you care.

“I tried to take a little bit from everyone I came in contact with.”

Grillo said the caring and concern Dumm showed him and the football team and line play he learned from him were lessons of life as well.

“I was fortunate to play for Joe Moore (legendary line coach) at Pitt,” Grillo said. “I compare Jim to Joe. For both, we had to be so fundamentally and technically sound it was incredible. They were so thorough and detailed.

“Jim gave us quizzes and tests. I go to Pitt and Joe did the same thing. Jim took me to professional tryouts all over western Pennsylvania. He found out the Atlanta Falcons need a long snapper. He’d go with me every day and have me make 1,000 snaps. We did it for a month.

“It’ just the kind of person he is. What a great man.”