George Guido: Talking legendary high school broadcast pairs

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, August 21, 2018 | 9:15 PM

The 120th season of Alle-Kiski Valley high school football starts in two days, and someone associated with the area for nearly half that time won’t be part of it.

Bob Tatrn, who broadcast local football starting with the 1964 season, died July 23.

Tatrn’s absence will immediately be noted Friday, when Burrell plays Valley. Tatrn had broadcast all 38 previous Burrell-Valley games.

Before a fall at his home, Tatrn was in the planning stages of again carrying Burrell, Riverview and Valley home games on Comcast Channel 190.

Tatrn started on WKPA radio before any of the three aforementioned schools came into existence.

He was paired with the late Joe Falsetti for the Arnold-Beaver Falls WPIAL baseball title game June 15, 1965, and the pair stayed together until Falsetti died in 2006.

Approaching Tatrn and Falsetti’s partnership is Scott Briggs and Dave Bacon, who carry Knoch football on WISR Butler.

This will be the 37th season of Briggs and Bacon in some form.

Originally, the two did Butler games Friday nights and Knoch on Saturday afternoons. The pair split up when there was a schedule conflict and when Briggs did Butler exclusively for four seasons.

But since 1998, it’s been Briggs and Bacon with the Knights, including Knoch’s run to the WPIAL title game in 2011.

WISR will carry Friday’s game at Hampton as Knoch and the Talbots resume a rivalry that lasted more than 50 consecutive seasons before the 2016 realignment took place.

Don’t forget that the Trib High School Sports Network will carry a considerable number of games each week, including Friday’s Burrell-Valley game.

TribHSSN will also carry its popular scoreboard show every Friday night in conjunction with more than a dozen Western Pennsylvania radio stations.

Mike and Mike return for Highlands

The original ESPN team of Mike Golic and Mike Greensburg may have broken up after 18 years on the air, but the A-K’s version of Mike and Mike are set for their 18th season.

Mike Choma and Mike Pavlik will be back to carry all Highlands football games.

Replays can be seen every Tuesday night at 8:30pm on Comcast Cable Channel 190, starting next Tuesday with the replay of the Week Zero game against Plum.

For those who prefer the Internet, you can get next-day coverage of the Golden Rams by going to youtube.com and typing in “Highlands High football.”

Ullom dies

Long-time Kittanning football coach Dave “Red” Ullom died last week at 97.

Ullom, for whom the Kittanning stadium was named several years back, came to Armstrong County after winning a WPIAL football title at Midway High School in 1956.

Midway, now part of the Fort Cherry School District, defeated Neville Island, 45-6.

Ullom, in a 2009 Valley News Dispatch interview, said he came to Kittanning in 1958 wanting the challenge of coaching at a larger school.

A World War II veteran who served in the Army Air Corps, Ullom taught biology in the Armstrong School District.

Ullom was an Armstrong County Sports Hall of Fame inductee and served on the organization’s Board of Governors until his passing.

George Guido is a Valley News Dispatch scholastic sports correspondent. His column appears Wednesdays.