Guido: Kiski Area to say good-bye to Davis Field

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, October 24, 2017 | 8:51 PM

This time, it's for sure.

Kiski Area will play its final home game Friday at Vandergrift's Davis Field against Armstrong.

During each of the past two Week 9s, we've had a tentative “Adios-Davis-Field” column, because it was not determined whether the new stadium at the school would be ready for the following year.

Now, work actually will be done in several weeks. That means if the pre-World War II regular season schedule prevailed and teams played through Thanksgiving weekend, a game would be there this season.

But next year will be the official unveiling of Dick Dilts Stadium. The football program has actually used the site for practice since Day 1, so it won't be like they're going to an unknown area.

We presume Kiski Area will have a home scrimmage before the 2018 regular-season starts, just to work out any kinks that would come about. The school's track program also will be headquartered there next spring with the new bleachers, concessions stands and restrooms, the final pieces to the puzzle.

We won't know when Kiski Area's first home game will be next season until the WPIAL schedule comes out in January.But one thing we do know is there is a trend in the WPIAL to bring football games to the high school campuses.

Last Friday, Armstrong played its final home game at Kittanning's Dave ‘Red' Ullom Field.

The school will have a stadium on its campus on Bluffington Drive in Manor Township in September.Freeport moved its games last year from the downtown stadium, adjacent to the former high school on Fourth Street, to the school campus in Buffalo Township.

This year, Blackhawk had intended to move its games from Darlington Stadium, close to the Ohio border, to the high school in Chippewa Township. But the steel was coming from Florida, and that effort stalled in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma.

There will still be, however, more than 20 WPIAL schools that play games off-campus next year, including Apollo-Ridge, Leechburg and Springdale.

Gilchrist honored

Brackenridge native and former Har-Brack High School football standout Carlton Chester “Cookie” Gilchrist will be getting his place on the Buffalo Bills' Wall of Fame Sunday at New Era Field in Orchard Park, N.Y.

Gilchrist will be the 31st honoree on “The Wall” that rings the stadium during Buffalo's game against the Oakland Raiders.

Gilchrist played for the Bills from 1962-64, and Buffalo fans immediately took a liking to the bruising, 251-pound fullback that seemed to personify the grittiness of the team's former home, War Memorial Stadium — a.k.a “The Rockpile.”

He was the old American Football League's MVP in 1962 when he had 1,096 rushing yards and a league-leading 13 touchdowns.

In '64, Gilchrist and quarterback Jack Kemp led the Bills to the first of back-to-back AFL championships, the only major pro sports titles won in Buffalo to date.

In 1953 at Har-Brack, Gilchrist led the Tigers to the WPIAL title game at Pitt Stadium, a 0-0 tie against Donora. On Oct. 30, 1953, in a game against similarly undefeated Vandergrift, Gilchrist scored five touchdowns and seven extra points in a 68-33 victory — a performance that garnered Gilchrist legendary status.

He was born May 25, 1935, and died in Monroeville on Jan. 10, 2011.

Because of a decades-old feud with late Bills owner Ralph Wilson, he wasn't part of the Wall of Fame until this Sunday.

‘The Wolf' coming to Leechburg

Speaking of Orchard Park, N.Y., someone who played his high school ball there but gained fame as a Steelers lineman will be headed to Leechburg next week.

Craig Wolfley, Steelers guard for 10 seasons and now part of the team's radio broadcasts, will be the guest motivational speaker for the Robert E. Nigro Education Foundation dinner, which will be held at the Leechburg Marconi Club at 6 p.m. Nov. 3.

Wolfley is an entertaining after-dinner speaker if you've never heard him in that capacity. He also coins phrases during his broadcasts like “trickeration.” Tickets are $30 per person with proceeds benefiting the foundation's scholarship program.

Checks may be made payable to: RENEF c/o 202 Summit St., West Leechburg, PA 15656.

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

Tags: Kiski School