DALLAS TWP. — Precisely six decades after he led the first Dallas Area High School football team on to the field as starting quarterback, Al Dendler returned to Mountaineer Stadium to watch his former team in action.
What he saw looked much different from what he recalled from his high school days.
Not only were the Mountaineers playing on artificial turf, under the lights in a modernized high school stadium, they dressed and performed in a much more impressive manner.
“We looked like clowns,” Dendler recalled of the Sept. 9, 1957 game when Dallas lost, 6-0, at Tunkhannock to start what he called a “tough year.”
Dendler’s clown comment was describing the team’s uniforms, not its performance.
The Mountaineers took the field for the first time wearing the red jerseys with white sleeves left over from Dallas Township and the black pants with bright orange stripes from Westmoreland, two of the five schools that merged to create Dallas Area.
With Dendler watching, Dallas defeated Pittston Area, 38-7, while playing in much-more, color-coordinated, blue-and-white uniforms.
Dendler had been a freshman playing for Westmoreland on Thanksgiving Day 1956 in a 7-6 victory over Dallas Township. He landed the quarterback job as a sophomore when the players from that game joined forces as teammates.
Now a Tampa area resident, Dendler was visiting at Harveys Lake, realized it was the anniversary and made plans to attend the game. He attended the game with Bob Shotwell, of Shavertown, a running back on the first Dallas High School team.
