Guido: A-K Valley mourns passing of prominent sports figures Nicholas, Heffner

By: George Guido
Saturday, August 14, 2021 | 6:15 PM

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Two prominent local sports figures passed away over the last several days.

• Tony Nicholas, long-time Kiski Area football and track coach, administrator and founding member of the Kiski Area Sports Hall of Fame, died Friday at his home in the Spring Church section of Kiski Township.

A 1951 graduate of the former Vandergrift High School, Nicholas served in the Navy during the Korean War and graduated from IUP. He began his career as an educator at Vandergrift for two years before it merged to form Kiski Area.

Nicholas is best known for teaming with fellow assistant coach Frank Morea and head coach Dick Dilts in creating one of the best football runs in Alle-Kiski Valley history. From 1967 through 1972, the Cavaliers won 57 games and lost only 6 for a .904 winning percentage.

Kiski Area won 45 consecutive Foothills Conference regular-season games, starting with the final week of 1967 until the third week of the 1973 campaign, a WPIAL record that stood for 26 years. He also served as a track coach.

Nicholas eventually became as assistant principal at the school for 16 years, retiring in 1990. But he wasn’t through contributing to the Kiski Area community. He was a founding member of the Kiski Area Sports Hall of Fame and was the go-to guy for information on inductees past, present and future.

Memorial donations can be made to the George G. McMurtry Fire Department, P.O. Box 6, Vandergrift, PA 15690.

Funeral arrangements are being handled by the Curran-Shaffer Funeral Home of Apollo.

• Steve Heffner, one of many outstanding basketball players developed at the former Ford City High School, died Monday at 68.

Heffner was a key member of Ford City’s 1971 Section 1 basketball champions. It was the school’s 30th section title.

Ford City absolutely dominated the A-K scholastic basketball landscape for nearly 50 years. But what was important in ’71 was, by then, many of Ford City’s section opponents had become much larger schools that had been merged such as Valley, Highlands and Kiski Area.

The Sabers proved they could overcome the enrollment differential in the WPIAL’s largest division.

Heffner went on to play at Fairmont State and later transferred to Westminster, where he was part of a team that included Ford City teammate Don Tylinski and Kiski Area graduate Greg Foreman.

After Westminster, Heffner taught at Lenape Elementary in Manor Township and at Shannock Valley Elementary in Rural Valley.

He retired from teaching after winning multiple awards such as a child advocacy award and Walmart’s Armstrong County Teacher of the Year.

Heffner then turned to music, where he was the lead singer in a band called “The Versatiles” with his sister, Katt.

He was also a popular DJ for social events such as weddings and community fundraisers.

The family has asked that memorial donations be made to the Stephen L. Heffner Education Foundation, 220 South Jefferson St., Kittanning, PA 16201.

Funeral arrangements were handled by the Welsh Funeral Home of Ford City.

A-K Hall gallery

The public can meet and see some of the A-K Valley’s stars of the past on Thursday night when the Alle-Kiski Valley Sports Hall of Fame has its grand opening of a public galley.

The Hall leased space in the old G.C. Murphy building in Tarentum on Corbet Street by the railroad tracks.

The event is part of Tarentum’s Night Market, where businesses in the borough stay open from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on the third Thursday of the month.

Ribbon-cutting will take place at 6:30.