BB Flenory knows a thing or two about making his mark in New Kensington.<\/p>\n
As a prolific basketball star at Valley High School in the mid 1970s, he finished with more than 1,800 points and was selected to the Parade Magazine\u2019s All-American team.<\/p>\n
So, when the opportunity arose to recognize another New Kensington great, Flenory, a member of the Willie Thrower Awards Foundation board of directors, didn\u2019t hesitate.<\/p>\n
He nominated Thrower for induction into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame, and earlier this year, the hall of fame committee accepted Thrower\u2019s credentials for enshrinement.<\/p>\n
In front of foundation board members, family and friends, and other representing the Robert \u201cTick\u201d Cloherty Western Chapter, Thrower will take his place Saturday among some of Pennsylvania\u2019s all-time athletic greats.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were absolutely thrilled when we found out that Willie would go into the hall of fame,\u201d Willie Thrower Award Foundation president Bob Pallone said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur foundation has been working very hard to bring attention to all that Willie Thrower meant through his play on the field and impact off the field when he became the first African American (quarterback) to take a snap in the NFL. We\u2019re always working on things to keep that legacy alive. We have really grown and been thrilled to the amount of attention we\u2019ve gotten. We are really looking ahead to the 75th anniversary and some big things for that time. We hope to include the Chicago Bears and the Pittsburgh Steelers in those plans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Willie Thrower\u2019s son, Melvin, will represent and induct his father during Saturday\u2019s 63rd banquet and ceremony at the Valley Forge Casino Resort, King of Prussia.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember us watching the Super Bowl between the Redskins and the Broncos when Doug Williams quarterbacked the Redskins to the championship,\u201d said Melvin of the first black quarterback to win a Super Bowl.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t fully understand it because I was young, but he said, \u2018Someday, they will know who I am.\u2019 I never forgot that. At that time, nobody really knew who my dad was except for those who were close to him and knew what he did. No one knew what he accomplished and what he did to break the color barrier for African American quarterbacks. He knew his day was going to come. He said he might not be here to witness it, but he had hope that a day like (Saturday) would come.\u201d<\/p>\n
Willie Thrower is one of 13 inductees in this year\u2019s class, which includes Darrelle Revis, the Aliquippa and Pitt standout who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame earlier this year.<\/p>\n
Former Phillies shortstop Larry Bowa, retired PIAA executive director Brad Cashman and Michael Bantom, a St. Joseph\u2019s University star who was part of the 1972 U.S. Olympic basketball team that lost a controversial gold medal game to the Soviet Union in Munich, also are part of the class. <\/p>\n
\u201cAll of the inductees have their great stories of facing adversity, not giving up, pushing through, and going over every hurdle they had to go through to get to where they became great and beyond,\u201d Melvin said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is why I can\u2019t wait to hear their stories. With my speech, I know I only have so much time, but I don\u2019t want to forget anything. There is so much I want to say.\u201d<\/p>\n
With a last name of Thrower, he almost seemed destined to be a quarterback.<\/p>\n
And what a quarterback he was.<\/p>\n
Thrower helped lead the former New Kensington High School to WPIAL football titles in 1946 and 1947 after helping the Red Raiders to a runner-up finish in 1945.<\/p>\n
He was recruited to play in college at Michigan State, and in 1952, he was the Big 10\u2019s first black quarterback as part of the Spartans\u2019 national championship run.<\/p>\n
Just a year later came his one opportunity in the NFL.<\/p>\n
Signed as an undrafted free agent by Bears owner and coach George Halas, Thrower made history as the league\u2019s first black quarterback to play in a game. The date was Oct. 18, 1953, and Thrower found himself under center against the San Francisco 49ers in a competitive 35-28 loss at Wrigley Field.<\/p>\n
Thrower struck up a connection that season with Bears starter George Blanda, whose prowess under center and in the kicking game provided a long career that resulted in enshrinement into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n
Eighteen years after his passing, the foundation that bears his name was formed to honor some of today\u2019s top high school quarterbacks. The Will Thrower Award has been presented since the spring of 2021 \u2014 celebrating the 2020 season \u2014 to recognize the top Western Pennsylvania High School quarterback.<\/p>\n
The player is chosen by a panel of coaches from each conference in the WPIAL and City League, media reporters and broadcasters and several other game officials.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe get a thrill every year in handing out the award, which the foundation was formed to do,\u201d said Melvin Smith, the founder of the Willie Thrower Award Foundation.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut to have him receive this induction award reaffirms to us that we are doing the right things. It was so exciting to hear that he was going to be going into the hall of fame. That was something we hadn\u2019t dreamed of. So many people have heard Willie Thrower\u2019s story, but many others haven\u2019t. It is great to know that more people will hear his amazing story (this weekend).\u201d<\/p>\n
A Willie Thrower statue at Valley Memorial Stadium commemorates his career at the high school, college and professional levels.<\/p>\n
In honor of the 70th anniversary of Willie Thrower\u2019s first snap in the NFL, the Willie Thrower Awards Foundation held a celebration in New Kensington from Oct. 12-18, 2023, with a number of events to mark the occasion including a parade, a homecoming festival, a community day with a cookout, a football skills camp and live broadcasts. <\/p>\n
The Foundation hopes to celebrate in 2028 with a number of events to mark the 75th anniversary of Thrower\u2019s achievement. The Foundation, Smith said, hopes to possibly arrange a scrimmage between the Bears and Steelers at Valley High Stadium before the teams play a preseason game at Acrisure.<\/p>\n
The Bears have been an ardent supporter of Willie Thrower and the Willie Thrower Foundation. In April, the Bears invited Melvin and Willie Jr. to be their guests at the NFL Draft with an up-close view of the stage in the shadow of Acrisure Stadium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BB Flenory knows a thing or two about making his mark in New Kensington. As a prolific basketball…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-293579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}