Did you know?
If you thought people a hundred years ago celebrated New Year’s Eve with quiet dignity — you were wrong.
“New Year given noisy welcome,” read the headline on the front page of the Jan. 1, 1914 edition of the Uniontown Morning Herald.
“Care-worn 1913, overburdened with the trials of the last twelve months, sank into oblivion at one second after 12 o’clock this morning and Mischievous Master Nineteen Fourteen, and inexperienced in the ways of the world, appeared on the scene,” said the lead paragraph, in prose fit for a romance novel.
There was more. In those days, Uniontown’s Herald Square was the town’s gathering place for those wishing to usher in the New Year.
“All eyes were turned toward the town clock while others who were more fortunate, held their watches in their hands, with eyes glued to the crystals,” it was reported.
But minutes before the town’s clock “proclaimed the hour of twelve,” the sounds of revolvers, Roman candles and fire crackers had already begun. Those, despite the instructions by Uniontown’s Chief of Police, Frank McCarty, that his patrolmen would not allow gunfire and fire crackers. Some of the revelers were warned, but none were arrested.
More than a half century later, on Jan. 2nd, 1968, gunfire and fire crackers had been replaced by something more insidious — outright malicious mischief.
“Windows Broken At 14 Business Places,” was the headline that greeted the readers of the Morning Herald that day.
“Total damage was estimated at hundreds of dollars when slag, bricks and railroad spikes were thrown,” in a pre-New Year’s Eve mass act of vandalism. There had also been a number of cars that had their tires slashed and their hubcaps stolen.
Perhaps one of the most shocking New Year’s stories, for many people across the country, came on Jan. 2, 1978.
“Clemente’s Death Is Mourned,” read the front-page headline.
Clemente had died on New Year’s Eve while he was heading to Managua, Nicaragua on a mission of mercy for earthquake victims.
His untimely death sealed Clemente’s legacy as not only one of the greatest athletes of his generation, but as a man of enormous character.
There have always been New Years that have caused many people to have “hope and confidence” for the days ahead. (That’s not necessarily an original thought)
“Hope And Confidence For 1963 In District,” was the main headline on the front page of the Uniontown Evening Standard, on Dec. 31, 1962.
And also on that front page, beside the artist’s depictions of an old man adorned with a “1962” banner on one side of the page, and a baby with one that said “1963” on the other side, there was an item that must have produced a sense of community pride.
“UHS Band In Parade On TV At 9 Tonight,” read the headline.
The Uniontown Joint Senior High School Band was about to march in the annual Orange Bowl Parade.
It was the second time in three years that the Uniontown High School Band had appeared on national television during a parade before a New Year’s bowl game.
“Huge Throng Sees UHS Band Event,” read the headline on the front page of the Jan. 2, 1960 edition of the Morning Herald.
The headline was accompanied by a large picture of the Red Raider Band marching along the parade route of the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, Calif.
Vice President Richard Nixon had been the parade’s grand marshall, and “among the spectators in the grandstands were Chief Justice Earl Warren, and California Gov. Edmund G. Brown.”
Of course, there had been other Fayette County natives who traveled to Pasadena on New Year’s days, and they all gained national attention.
All-American Buffington native,, Francis “Moose” Machinsky, played for the Ohio State University football team that defeated the University of Southern California 20-7, in the 1955 Rose Bowl game.
Uniontown High School graduates Bill Munsey and All-American quarterback Sandy Stephens played in two Rose Bowl games. They played for the Minnesota Golden Gophers that lost the 1961 game to the University of Washington Huskies, 17-7. That team still was given National Championship honors. (In those days, the final national championship polling was conducted before the bowl games were played)
The following year, the Golden Gophers returned to the Rose Bowl.
Munsey scored one touchdown, and Stephens scored two, and he was named Rose Bowl MVP in the 21-3 victory over the UCLA Bruins.
In the 1969 Rose Bowl game, Uniontown High School’s Ray Gillian scored a touchdown on a 16 yard pass reception to help his Ohio State Buckeyes win a 27-16 victory over O.J. Simpson and his USC Trojans.
Ironically, while Nixon had been the grand marshall of the 1960 Tournament of Roses Parade, while he was the president-elect he and Bob Hope were in the stands watching Uniontown’s Gillian catch his game-capping touchdown pass.