Montour
Cradle of Quarterbacks
By Doug Kennedy

This past football season, the Montour Spartans were one of the best teams in western PA. Led by one of the best players in the state, running back/linebacker Christian Wilson, Montour ripped through the season en route to an appearance in the WPIAL Triple-A Championship game at Heinz Field.

Head coach Lou Cerro has ignited a program that had been on life support for the better part of four decades, unable to be revived even by sports cable giant ESPN and their misguided reality show. But back in the mid '60's through the early '70's, Montour was a legitimate powerhouse. The school nestled in the pastoral area of Pittsburgh that lists McKees Rocks as its postal address won back-to-back WPIAL titles in 1963 and '64.

And for a period of six years, the Spartans sent four quarterbacks on to play at either Penn State or Pitt. It began back in 1966 when Chuck Burkhart chose the Nittany Lions as his school of choice. A year later, Dave Havern matriculated to the University of Pittsburgh. And then it was John Hufnagel who also chose Penn State; and finally, Billy Daniels followed Havern and entered Pitt.

Said Havern, whose older brother, Tom, played fullback and linebacker at Montour in the early '60's, "The expectations at that time were very high. With Bob Phillips running the program, we were years ahead of the other schools. I went 24-2-1 as a Montour starter and was all WPIAL and All-State, but I had a mediocre Montour career because we won only one championship."

"It was a great place to grow up," said Burkhart, the first of the Montour QB's, regarding his high school days. "It had an outstanding environment. We couldn't get into a lot of trouble because there wasn't a whole lot to do."

"We were a small community so we had a close knit group, and Montour had a great football history," said John Hufnagel, who arguably was the most talented of the group.

"I became a quarterback at Montour because of the guys who came before me," said Daniels, the fourth Montour QB. "They set a heckuva example in the ways of competing and winning and the way they handled themselves. That's what you looked up to as an impressionable youngster."

Daniels went onto admit that his idol when he grew up was his predecessor, Hufnagel.

"He must have lived a sheltered life," quipped Hufnagel.

Actually the McKees Rocks, Kennedy, and Robinson Township area produced a few other quarterbacks in the same era that went onto have outstanding collegiate careers.

"For an eight or nine-year period," said Havern, "there was at least one McKees Rocks quarterback starting in the Pitt-Penn State game."

That group included Chuck Fusina (Penn State) and Bob Medwid (Pitt). Add in Tommy Clements (Notre Dame) and you can see why Havern said, "15136 was well represented."

The aforementioned three were all graduates of Sto-Rox High School, one of Montour's stiffest rivals.

The Montour chain actually began when Wally Abrams played at Penn State in the early '60's. It concluded in the late '70's, when Danny Daniels, younger brother of Billy, became Dan Marino's backup at Pitt. That's a total of six in less than 20 years.

Penn State was always the choice for Burkhart, who now lives in Dallas and works as the Director of Development in that area for Coca-Cola.

"We had a great group of student athletes and everyone graduated," he said. "I went there because of those athletes, Joe (Paterno), and the school."

During his time there, Burkhart engineered back-to-back Orange Bowl wins against Kansas and Missouri and was at the helm for 22 straight wins from 1968 through 1969.

"I don't know if that will ever be matched again," he said of those consecutive victories. Besides those 22 straight at Penn State, Burkhart never lost a football game during his Montour career either.

Havern, who was affectionately known as "The Mouse" because of his size, chose Pitt for a variety of reasons. The first was being able to be close to home.

"I grew up following Pitt and loved Dave Hart (then Panther coach). And I knew I could jump on the 21-B and be home to Kennedy Township in a half an hour."

The other, and probably the most important, was the knowledge that he would have the opportunity to play. With only 16 kids from the class prior to Havern's, Hart was faced with the challenge of building the team from the ground up.

"Here I was in my sophomore year throwing over three-hundred balls," recounted Havern.

For his career, he ranks 12th on the all-time Panther passing yardage list with 3,695 yards. Labeled as an overachiever, Havern engineered the greatest comeback in Pitt history, when the Panthers roared back from a 35-8 halftime deficit to pull out a miracle 36-35 win over West Virginia in 1970.

"We had 18 straight first downs," Havern said. "It showed a lot of grit and hard work by the guys. That's what made it memorable."

Havern, who had the privilege to coach Marc Bulger at Central Catholic, is now in his fourth season as the head football coach at Shadyside Academy. His team went 9-2 this past season.

QB No. 3, John Hufnagel, probably had the most natural ability. From 1970 through 1972, he threw for 3,545 yards (8th on the Lions' all-time passing yardage list) and 26 touchdowns. His choice to enroll at Penn State was made simple because two of his former high school teammates, Burkhart and tight end Ted Kwalick were there.

"We had good football teams, but we always managed to lose a game and that was disappointing," Hufnagel said. "That's why Chuck (Burkhart) always says that he was the better quarterback."

Following his graduation, in which he was sixth in the Heisman Trophy balloting, Hufnagel was a 14th round selection of the Denver Broncos. But after a few very undistinguished seasons he set sail for the CFL, where he was the backup to Tommy Clements when the Winnipeg Blue Bombers won the 1984 Grey Cup.

Starting in 1999, Hufnagel began his NFL coaching career, making stops with the Browns, Colts, Jaguars, Patriots, and Giants, a position he held until mid-way through last season.

Hufnagel, who lives in Jacksonville, says that he's on sabbatical.

"I'm not out of coaching, I'm just waiting for the phone to ring," he said.

The fourth and final Spartan quarterback was Billy Daniels, who currently resides in Pittsburgh and manages securities, trading, and sales for Mellon Financial Markets. Like Havern, Daniels was part of a rebuilding process at Pitt. Following a 1-10 season in 1972, Johnny Majors came to Pittsburgh with a plethora of recruits (90 or so).

"There weren't many of us left who started as freshman when Johnny arrived," recalls Daniels.

With a 6-4-1 record, the Panthers, led by Daniels, were invited to play in the first ever Fiesta Bowl in 1973 against a Danny White led Arizona State team.

"I remember playing on that field. It was painted green for TV and it was like playing on cement."

The Panthers lost that game 28-7. During his career, Daniels threw for 2,308 yards and is 16th on the all-time Panther list.

However you look at it, this string of Montour quarterbacks was quite a feat, perhaps something that has never been rivaled in collegiate history.

Said Chuck Burkhart, "I don't know if you could find any other high school to have that number of quarterbacks go off and play Division 1-A ball and do it well."