‘Deuce’ is gone but not forgotten
One of the big changes in the sports world over the years is the lack of characters that used to be present in western Pennsylvania. We lost another of those memorable characters with the passing of Lawrence 鈥淒euce鈥� Skurcenski, of North Braddock.
Skurcenski died Tuesday night August 18 at ManorCare Health Services in Monroeville of complications from a stroke suffered weeks ago. Mr. Skurcenski was 73.
Deuce was one of a kind and that is an understatement. As a teenager in the 1950s, he started keeping statistics at high school games as a hobby and was still doing it as recently as a few months ago. He kept stats at more than 11,000 basketball games at various levels and 3,000 football games. Skurcenski scribbled stats on a yellow legal pad. He kept the stats mostly for himself, but also did it many years for media members. He also used to be the official scorer at the WPIAL basketball championships and some PIAA playoff games.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 go to that many games, and I get paid to do this!,鈥� West Virginia basketball coach Bob Huggins once remarked about Skurcenski鈥檚 prolific attendance at basketball games.
鈥淚 met Deuce though the Dapper Dan Roundball Classic,鈥� Roundball Classic founder Sonny Vaccaro stated. 鈥淗e was from Braddock and I was from Trafford. I鈥檒l never forget the day he met me at the Pitt Field House at a WPIAL basketball game. He came up and started talking, over the years and in my lifetime there were so many characters from Pittsburgh that are indelibly etched in my mind. Deuce was extraordinary in the sense that when you looked at all the different people, who were different in a lot of ways, but had a love for the game. Usually basketball was the common denominator in all those people.
鈥淵ou look at Deuce and he had a specific situation in keeping the score and going to the games. It was his lifelong dream. I don鈥檛 know if he knew it when he started his life, but I think he actually had a goal. He didn鈥檛 make money I don鈥檛 think, I don鈥檛 think he got paid especially in the 鈥�70鈥檚鈥� when I first started running into him at. But he kept those box scores and he was so beautiful when you鈥檇 see him. He was extraordinary because you knew what the conversation was going to be. He was very through in what he was telling you. It was a joy. I think people in Pittsburgh that didn鈥檛 have a chance to meet those kind of people especially Deuce were left out in a sense. They were pure. They were like the last honest people on earth. I never thought they had an agenda, I never thought there was anything bad. There was no motivation other than the fact that they loved the purity of the game and the significance that they carried. Deuce to me was just a beautiful human being. And that鈥檚 what Pittsburgh was for these people who were a little bit different. They were characters, but characters in a wonderful way.鈥�
Skurcenski spoke his own unique language. Games were 鈥渇rays.鈥� High-scoring games were 鈥渟moking frays.鈥� Officials were 鈥渮ebras.鈥�
鈥淚f you didn鈥檛 know Deuce and were around him, you鈥檇 wonder about the guy,鈥� said Bill Priatko, a former Steeler and an athletic director for years in the WPIAL. He also was a good friend of Mr. Skurcenski. 鈥淏ut, if you knew him, you knew what he was all about. There will never be another Deuce.鈥�
Deuce holds a special place in Fayette County sports lore. He became infamous for a scoring error in a 1988 PIAA second-round playoff game between Uniontown and Farrell. He gave two points to No. 30 for Farrell (Carletis Williams) instead of No. 30 for Uniontown (Dana Vaughns), so instead of the score being tied 20-20, Farrell had a 22-18 lead.
At halftime, officials Jim Julian and Walt Szala discussed the mistake with WPIAL executive director Charles 鈥淎ce鈥� Heberling, who was working the game as a site manager.
Although the officials knew the score was wrong, media members knew the score was wrong and fans knew the score was wrong, Heberling told the officials the score had to stand because he believed the rules stated the error needed to be corrected by the first dead ball.
Heberling was wrong about that, too, because the score could have been changed at any point in the game.
So the incorrect score stood, Uniontown lost in two overtimes, and Skurcenski drew the wrath of Uniontown fans that night. Upset Uniontown coach Lash Nesser never coached another game. Nesser, a legendary coach who won over 600 games at St. John鈥檚 High School and Uniontown, died of a heart attack later in 1988.
鈥淭he uniform numbers were all even numbers and that started the whole thing,鈥� Vaughns said. 鈥淲e were nervous for Coach Lash Nesser, he was upset, but he couldn鈥檛 do anything for his boys because his hands were tied.鈥�
Skurcenski, went to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette offices after the 1988 game, like he always did on basketball nights. He looked ready to cry.
He said what he remembered most about that game was 鈥渢he fact that I had to get escorted out of the danger that was in the Field House.鈥�
Deuce finally came to Uniontown 14 years later in December of 2002. He was the official score keeper for Woodland Hills basketball and kept the score book as Woodland Hills lost to Uniontown, 86-47.
At the time he had this to say about the trip to Uniontown.
鈥淚 wasn鈥檛 really worried about it. Uniontown is a great community for high school hoops. It鈥檚 one of those old school places with great traditions, like they鈥檝e got at Beaver Falls, Aliquippa, Duquesne, Valley and Farrell, where everybody in the town really gets behind their team.
鈥淚 heard some mumbling up in the stands, different people saying, 鈥楾here鈥檚 the guy who did us wrong at the Pitt Field House that one year.鈥� But I knew they were just trying to be funny. I鈥檓 glad I went up there. It鈥檚 a great place to catch a ball game.鈥�
The Pittsburgh basketball characters are gone: Radio Rich, Tony Tato, Mossie Murphy, Tiger Paul and now Deuce. Gone but not forgotten!
George Von Benko鈥檚 鈥淢emory Lane鈥� column appears in the Monday editions of the 缅北禁地. He also hosts a sports talk show on WMBS-AM radio from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.