![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/TMC-L-davekuriscocaptains-1.jpg\")
The Dieruff football team went undefeated in 1979. Dieruff players and captains Rich Gimbor, Dave Kurisco, and Rich Sniscak, and Coach Bruce Trotter celebrate with city championship trophy at a banquet. (Morning Call File Photo).<\/p>\nDieruff High School\u2019s football tradition always was branded with the image of having blue-collar, rough and tough, physical players who loved to win in the trenches.<\/p>\n
But in 1979 when the Huskies had one of the greatest seasons in school history, winning the East Penn Conference title with a 10-0-1 record, the team\u2019s star running back was as physical as any of the team\u2019s linemen.<\/p>\n
His name was Dave Kurisco, who would just as soon run over defensive players as he would run around them.<\/p>\n
Kurisco put up staggering numbers.<\/p>\n
He rushed for 3,830 yards in his career, including 1,982 yards as a senior in that special 1979 season when he had 22 touchdowns and six two-point conversions for 144 points.<\/p>\n
At the time, he had the second-highest single-season rushing total in District 11 history behind only Stroudsburg legend Artie Owens, who ran for 2,061 yards in 1971.<\/p>\n
But it was more than Kurisco\u2019s running ability that made him special. It was his toughness and team-first attitude.<\/p>\n
Lots of memories about Dieruff\u2019s legendary No. 20 came rushing back in recent days after Kurisco died last week at the age of 64.<\/p>\n
The Dieruff football team went undefeated in 1979. Dieruff players and captains Rich Gimbor, Dave Kurisco, and Rich Sniscak, and Coach Bruce Trotter celebrate with city championship trophy at a banquet. (Morning Call File Photo).<\/p>\n
\u201cI had the good fortune of playing alongside Dave for four years, starting in ninth grade at Harrison-Morton and then for three years at Dieruff,\u201d said Rich Sniscak, the former Allen and Parkland football coach and District 11 Hall of Famer who was Dieruff\u2019s quarterback in 1979. \u201cIn that four-year period, we lost a total of three games. Dave was the primary reason for this success as he established himself as a premier running back in the Lehigh Valley and state.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tyrone Reed, another member of the 1979 team and the brother of Pro Football Hall of Famer Andre Reed, had to deal with Kurisco at practice and remembers trying to tackle him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat guy had the ability to run around you, over you and through you and I pitied any defensive back that tried to tackle him,\u201d Reed said. \u201cIn practices, I played both ways as did Rich Sniscak and Rich Gimbor. I had the opportunity to try to tackle him, and it didn\u2019t scare me, but I knew I was going to be in for a battle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reed said that even though Kurisco got a lot of attention and headlines, he was as humble as any team member.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs far as him as a person, he was genuine, he was a good guy,\u201d Reed said. \u201cHe was one of us. He was down-to-earth, a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy who would give you the shirt off his back if you asked him. We hung up our entire high school career and it\u2019s heartbreaking to see him leave this earth. We\u2019re going to miss him.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Dieruff's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/TMC-L-dierufffootball1979-1.jpg\")
Dieruff\u2019s 1979 championship football team (left to right) had a reunion and celebrated the team\u2019s undefeated season. Team members included Rich Sniscak, Ron Carl, Bruce Trotter, Dave Kurisco, Tyrone Reed and Rich Gimbor.(Illustration by Cesar Laure and Craig Larimer The Morning Call)<\/p>\n
Gimbor, who also played with Kurisco at Ferrum College near Roanoke, Virginia, before Gimbor moved on to Marshall University, was also a close friend. In fact, he joined Sniscak and Reed in visiting their longtime buddy a few days before his death.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were friends all through junior high and high school, and we were undefeated at Harrison-Morton and then we started together in 10th grade at Dieruff and he was just so explosive,\u201d Gimbor said. \u201cI had never seen a running back like him, even at Ferrum or Marshall. He had short legs, but big thighs. He didn\u2019t cut or turn, he would just run you over. If he got out in the open, no one was catching him because he was so fast.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt Dieruff I was the fullback, and he would follow me up the middle and my back would always burn and it was because of his spikes always going up my back. He was low to the ground, and he just was tough to bring down.\u201d<\/p>\n
After graduating, Kurisco suffered a detached retina while participating in a practice for the Pennsylvania team in the Big 33 Classic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat set him back quite a bit because he didn\u2019t play a lot in his first year at Ferrum, and then he played in his second year,\u201d Gimbor said. \u201cI think he worried about the detached retina, and it affected him. While I saw glimpses of his greatness at Ferrum, he wasn\u2019t where he should have been. Ferrum at the time, was a junior college, and it was the best place in the country to go and get a Division I scholarship. It just didn\u2019t happen for Dave.\u201d<\/p>\n
But memories of Kurisco\u2019s ability live on in the hearts and minds of his teammates and Dieruff alumni and fans, who would love to see the Huskies return to a place of prominence in local football.<\/p>\n
Typically, Kurisco gave credit to others at a reunion honoring the team on the 25th anniversary of its special season in 2004.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a whole team effort,\u201d Kurisco said.\u00a0 \u201cThe line didn\u2019t get the credit it deserved. Everything in the paper was about me, but I knew it wasn\u2019t just me. You take a guy like [fullback] Rich Gimbor. In the locker room at the end of a game, I had my facemask marks all over the back of him. He made sure I got through the holes.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the fourth game of the 1979 season, Kurisco put himself in the EPC record books for points (38) and touchdowns (six) in a game when Dieruff routed Central Catholic and its talented quarterback Andy Baranek, 48-27. It was just one of many memorable moments in a special season and career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had the good fortune to play with and coach many outstanding running backs and Dave was the best I played with or coached,\u201d Sniscak said. \u201cDave was all-league, all-state and the MVP in the Big 33 Classic. He had more yards after contact than any back I ever played with or coached. Dieruff had its share of outstanding tailbacks through the years. \u2026 Mark Howard, Tony Jordan, Kevin Easterling and Tosh Riddick among them. In no way am I diminishing their talent or accomplishments, but Dave Kurisco was the best I have ever seen.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 1979 team is not unbeaten without him,\u201d Sniscak added. \u201cHe was the best!\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Reed and Gimbor said that any Mount Rushmore of Dieruff football legends would have to include Kurisco.<\/p>\n
\u201cBesides being a great player, he was a good guy,\u201d Gimbor said. \u201cOne of the traditions we had was before every game we\u2019d all go over to his house on the East Side and his mom would make dinner. We never wanted to miss it because we were superstitious and we didn\u2019t lose a game when we went to his house for dinner. Also, his dad had a friend, Ripper Rich, who had the Beef Baron place off Catasauqua Road. The owner said to Dave that for every touchdown he scored, he\u2019d get a Delmonico steak sandwich. Well, Dave scored a lot of touchdowns, so we went over there and ate pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Funeral arrangements were private, but a special memorial mass and celebration of life is being planned.<\/p>\n
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