Bartolomucci was a football lifer
Don Bartolomucci was a football lifer. As a player football provided him with an education, and later a career in education and coaching.
Bartolomucci was a crackerjack running back on some fine Brownsville High School football teams in the 1950s. A four-year starter, he played on teams that posted records of 5-5 in 1952, and in his sophomore year in 1953, they posted a 6-4 mark and handed Uniontown its only loss. In 1954, they were 9-1. The lone blemish was a 19-7 loss to Duquesne. Even with one loss, Brownsville was accorded WPIAL championship status in some quarters. They were WPIAL champs as measured by Dr. Roger Saylor鈥檚 rankings. By his ratings system, the Brownies were WPIAL champs, even though they had lost to Duquesne.
In 1955, Bartolomucci鈥檚 senior campaign, the Brownies went 7-2-1.
鈥淚n the four years that I started we never had a losing season,鈥� Bartolomucci stated. 鈥淢y brother, Frank, was a senior and I was freshman and I went to elementary school in Newell, and in eighth grade, I traveled up to the high school and played JV football and freshman football. Then in ninth grade, I was fortunate to go to camp and start with my brother. He was a right halfback and I was a fullback, and Howie Brashear was the left halfback.鈥�
Bartolomucci earned All-Big Six honors in 1954 and 1955.
鈥淚t was a big thing in the valley to be in the Big Six at that time,鈥� Bartolomucci recalled. 鈥淢aking the conference team was like making the WPIAL team for us back then. My sophomore year, I made honorable mention and we used to have the banquets at the Twin Coaches, and that was a big deal. My junior year, I was first team All-Big Six, and in 1955, my senior year, I tore up my knee and I didn鈥檛 get to play the whole season, so that year I made second team All-Big Six.鈥�
When Bartolomucci graduated from Brownsville in 1956 he was coming off that knee injury and his participation in Washington County-Fayette County All-Star game was a big factor in getting a college football scholarship. He was a starter on the Fayette County All-Star squad that defeated the Washington County All-Stars, 14-6, in front of 5,000 fans in Connellsville.
鈥淲hen I tore my knee up my senior year,鈥� Bartolomucci explained. 鈥淚 had some letters and offers, but I didn鈥檛 have anything concrete, so playing in that All-Star game was very, very important for me because I didn鈥檛 have any offers. When the game was over John Popovich, the coach at Waynesburg College, came in the locker room and recruited a bunch of kids from the valley. There were four of us that were recruited to Waynesburg.
鈥淭hree of us started our freshman year, which was a pretty big honor. I starter four years, we didn鈥檛 win a lot of games, but we won a lot of fights.鈥�
Bartolomucci played on Yellow Jacket squads that went 1-5-1 in 1956, 3-3-1 in 1957, 3-5-1 in 1958 and 1-6-2 in 1958. He garnered Little All-American Honorable Mention honors 1958 and 1959. He was selected as an All-District fullback. He had a big season in 1959 rushing for 808 yards. He played in the Gem Bowl All-Star game in 1959. The East downed the West in that game, 17-16.
鈥淭he Gem Bowl was college players from the Big 10 and small colleges,鈥� Bartolomucci said. 鈥淭he head coach on the West squad was Ara Parseghian. I ended up playing for the West squad and I kicked an extra point in that game. It was a great experience playing for somebody like that.鈥�
Bartolomucci went to work for New York Life Insurance and worked for them from 1960 to 1965. He started his coaching career an assistant at Beth-Center High School in 1965.
鈥淏ill Connors, who was a quarterback in high school when I played, got the head coaching job at Beth Center,鈥� Bartolomucci said. 鈥淚 gave him a call and asked him if I could help him out. But I didn鈥檛 have a teaching certificate. I was friends with Marion 鈥淪lugger鈥� Klingensmith who took me to the Education Department in Harrisburg and I got an emergency certificate and I needed 13 or 14 extra hours. They hired me on an emergency certificate, that鈥檚 how I got into education. I got certification right away from California University and that鈥檚 how my career started.鈥�
Bartolomucci served as a position coach at Beth-Center from 1965-70, defensive coach from 1970-78, head coach from 1979-1987, assistant coach in 1989 and was head coach again from 1990-94.
鈥淚 was an assistant for Bill Connors for 14 years,鈥� Bartolomucci offered. 鈥淭hen I got the head job, in 1987, my assistant coach got killed in a tractor accident and I kind of lost interest, I was pretty broken up over it, so I resigned. It鈥檚 a good thing I did because in 1989 I had heart surgery. It worked out perfect for me. I became an assistant with Bobby Keys at Jefferson-Morgan, I wanted to see if I could handle it and come back. Then I re-applied at Beth-Center in 1990 and I coached there for five years.鈥�
His record at Beth Center was 99-46-4 with trips to the WPIAL playoffs in 1982, 1986, 1991, 1992 and 1994. In 1982, 1986 and 1994 he won Century Conference championships. His 1986 squad made it to the WPIAL Class AA championship game and lost to Burrell, 3-0.
鈥淏eth-Center had great tradition,鈥� Bertolomucci stated. 鈥淚t started with Bill Connors and then through my tenure and Ed Woods had a great career there too. It was all about who you hired as coaches, I always hired people that I coached, so I didn鈥檛 have a problem selling them on the system. You have to have three things in coaching: administrative support, great assistants and you have to have great kids. I was lucky I had all three aspects.鈥�
Barolomucci retired from teaching in 1993, but continued to coach. He returned to Brownsville, taking over a program that was floundering with a record of 3-27 in the previous three seasons. Three years later in 1997, Brownsville was in the WPIAL Class AAA championship game at Three Rivers Stadium, falling to an outstanding West Allegheny team, 51-24. Brownsville also qualified for the playoffs in 1998, 1999 and 2000.
鈥淚 wanted to go home,鈥� Bartolomucci said. 鈥淵ou have be in the right place at the right time and they had some outstanding athletes coming up. We had an unbelievable group of athletes and I still have breakfast with some of those kids. It was a great group and we had a great run.鈥�
Bartolomucci married the former Marjorie Kuklo in 1959 and they have three children, Don, Terri and Marc. Bartolomucci is retired and resides in Scenery Hill.
The overall coaching record for Bartolomucci is 147-82-4. He was honored as Coach of the Year in Washington County, the Century Conference and the Eastern Association of Interscholastic Football Officials. He was inducted into the Washington-Greene County Hall of Fame in 2010.
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.