THE SEASON AND THE GAME THAT STARTED IT ALL

April 1st, 2023

This is one of those long-ago look backs. I mean way back. There will be more long-ago stories to come.

I realize that many who will read this were not even born in 1969 but I think to appreciate Malvern football history, you must understand where it all started.

In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s MP football experienced success under the late, great guy and coach, Mike Mayock (Co-champs in 1959 and 1962). From 1963 through 1968 MP hit a bit of a rocky stretch and had a record of 17-30. The rest of the league took turns being IA champs- Penn Charter in ’63 and ’67, Haverford School in ’64 and ’65 and GA in ’66. Episcopal and Haverford School were co-champs in 1968. Unfortunately, MP was not in the mix. The Friars went 0-8 in 1967 and 2-5 in 1968. In these two years MP did not win an IA game. In 1969 a change was made and Nick Robak was replaced with a young, brash CYO coach out of St. Dots in Drexel Hill. His name was Jack “Shark” McGuinn. Shark was very successful with the green and white at the CYO level. There were some who questioned whether a 7th/8th grade school coach could make the jump to the high school level. It was not going to be easy but those who knew Shark felt that he could turn the program around.

MP came into the 1969 Inter-Ac season at 2-1. They lost their opener to Roxborough 33-27. In the next two games they came out on top of the former Archbishop Kennedy of Conshohocken 12-8 and Tower Hill of Delaware 42-14. With the 2 early wins they had already matched their total number of wins in the last two years. The Friars opened the Inter-Ac season against Episcopal. They had not fared well against the Churchmen in the previous two years, having lost 39-6 and 42-0. In the beginning of the season McGuinn had rolled the dice by starting as many as 8 players from the freshmen and sophomore class. This was back in the day when very few teams, if any, played freshmen on the varsity level. It was unthinkable. With so many young starters and EA returning players from a 1968 co-championship team, many pundits expected a repeat of 1967 and 1968. Well, not so fast. MP raised a few early season eyebrows. Kevin Kolmer did the damage with the only score, a one yard run. The staunch defense did the rest. Final score MP 6 EA 0.

The 1969 Malvern Prep Inter-AC Co-Champs

Next up was co-champ Haverford School. This was the Episcopal game all over again. Many were thinking that the Malvern win against EA might have been a fluke. Could the Friars repeat and be 2-0 in the league? In another down to the wire barn burner the Friars prevailed 10-6. Kevin Kolmer stepped up once again and provided all the offense Malvern needed when he capped off a 4 play, 31-yard drive with a two yard plunge. Kevin also added the two-point conversion. A late safety by linebacker John Galbally iced it for the boys in blue. With this win, people were beginning to talk. MP had just knocked off the co-champs from the 1968 season in back-to-back games. Were they for real? Chestnut Hill found out the following week.

After two defensive battles Malvern exploded against Chestnut Hill with a 40-0 rout. In this game Kevin had a lot of help. He scored once but was assisted by his brother Brian from 44 yards out and John “Tagger” Leahy with a 5 yard run and a 60 yard pick six. The last two scores were added by the always reliable Dave Sirhal. Dave had one of each, a 45 yard run and a 4 yard TD pass from QB Billy Kuharich.

The stage was now set for “the game that started it all”- Malvern Prep Friars vs the Penn Charter Quakers. Penn Charter was coached by local high school football icon, Ray Dooney. In his 16 years at PC, Ray had coached the Little Quakers to 6 outright IA championships and 2 co-titles. It was easy to say that the IA title usually went through Penn Charter when Ray was coaching. To win the title you had to beat them. 1969 was going to be the last year of his storied coaching career and his team had their eyes set on making it special. Dooney had teams that were undefeated in 1963 and 1967. It looked like his 1969 team would go in the books as his 3rd undefeated team. The Quakers had come into the game undefeated at 6-0 and were on a roll. Like MP, they had won two tight games against Haverford School 14-7 and Episcopal 14-6. PC had only given up 40 points on the year and no one had scored more than 2 touchdowns in a game against them. You could handicap this game anyway you wanted but the odds showed that Penn Charter was a heavy favorite. It was a 16-year veteran coach vs some guy who was coaching grade school last year. What were Malvern’s chances?

Shouldn’t even be close, right? Well, it certainly started out as a no contest. On an overcast afternoon at Malvern Prep, Penn Charter showed why they were the ones to beat as they jumped out to a very commanding 20-8 lead with 6:20 still left in the 2nd quarter. After much build up, Ray Dooney’s squad felt comfortable. On the other hand, the MP locker room at half time could not have been quieter. Was the storied season done? Had the magic run out? Not so. Shark told us that he was so confident in Brian and Kevin Kolmer running behind Brian Ameche he could call the plays out from the sidelines. That’s all the Kolmers and the team needed to hear. The first half was all Penn Charter. The 2nd half was all Malvern. After seeing the 1st half who would have anticipated that a totally different team would come out of the Malvern locker room. Certainly not Penn Charter. Behind Brian Ameche at tackle (Wall of Fame) and Phil Miele at TE, Malvern took the opening kickoff 77 yards in 11 plays. Kevin and Brian took turns doing the damage. The big play of the drive was Brian Kolmer outracing the PC defense for 49 yards to the Malvern 4. Played with Brian (Wall of Fame). Glad he was on my side. I have seen every fullback since 1969 and I put him up against any FB Malvern has ever had. Two plays later Kevin took it in from 2 yards out. As he did all year Kevin also added the 2 points and now the score was 20-16 Penn Charter.

“We got ourselves a ballgame” would be the familiar response from any announcer after a big score. From being totally out of it to being right back into the ball game on one drive was a remarkable turnaround. Early in the 4th it was All League LB John Galbally who helped the Friars come all the way back. His strip sack of the Penn Charter QB was recovered by defensive tackle Jim Sullivan. For the 1969 team, John Galbally (Wall of Fame) was our version of Brian Dawkins. Like Dawkins, John was always around the ball. His “heart and soul” playing ability was a true inspiration to the rest of the defense. John was an irresistible force who made key plays in every game. No play was bigger or more key than this strip sack. The Friars were set up on the Penn Charter 16. Five plays later Brian powered in from the one. Kevin Kolmer added another deuce and holy s*** the Friars go up on top 24-20. As you might expect, the game was not over. Penn Charter was undefeated for a reason. They responded by driving from their own 17 to the MP 30. Looking poised to regain the lead, Penn Charter had their hopes cut short by a Kevin Kolmer interception. Kevin went both ways and was an Inter-Ac selection at DB. What didn’t Kevin do? The interception came with 2:36 left in the game and pretty much sealed the deal. However, Kevin wanted to leave no doubt who was one of the best players on the field that day and scored one more time to make the final, Malvern Prep Friars 30 Penn Charter Quakers 20.

After the game Ray Dooney recounted “I honestly thought we had them. We were doing everything the way we should and at halftime I began to breathe a little easier. But they came out in the 2nd half ready to play football.” Yes Malvern did. Led by the Kolmer brothers, Kevin and Brian, John Galbally, Dave Sirhall, Brian Ameche, Phil Miele, Tagger Leahy, and Jim “Bird Legs” Cummings (hope Jim is okay with me repeating a nickname from long ago) the Friars did what many thought was impossible. They came back from a 20-8 deficit against one of the best teams in the area. In the 2 previous years Malvern only managed one TD. In this unforgettable game MP scored 30 points against an undefeated team that had only given up 40 total points in their previous 6 games and only gave up 85 on the year.

I have no idea how close the vote was for IA MVP in 1969. Paul Hutter from GA got the nod. Kevin Kolmer had a season to remember for Malvern Prep. Game in and game out he was a major difference. He carried the offensive load all year long. None bigger than on the biggest stage of his senior year- the Penn Charter game. In 8 games Malvern scored 24 TDs. Kevin scored 13 of them. Malvern scored 174 points. Kevin had 94 of those points. That is more than half the offense if you do the math. Great year Kevin, and way to help get the Malvern Prep football program back on track.

What the Penn Charter win showed was that Malvern could battle with anyone. The seniors on this team had battled adversity the last two years but never lost faith in each other. They set the tone for the program and set the tone for the juniors, sophomores and freshmen behind them. Play hard, play every down, never give up and play to the end. If you do that, you have a shot to win every game.

How did this all turn out? What did this game and this season really mean to the Malvern football program? You be the judge. Three years later Malvern took their first outright Inter-Ac title and became the 1st undefeated Malvern Prep team in the Inter-Ac era. Since 1972 Malvern has dominated the Inter-Ac with 33 titles, 25 outright and 8 shared. The Inter-Ac title now runs through Malvern Prep. It all started in the 1969 season, and it all started with the huge win against Penn Charter. Great job seniors of the 1969 Malvern Prep Friars. Thank you.

Had some help on this one. Thanks to classmate and teammate, Michael Riordan, for his insights and suggestions.

Brian Ameche takes out two Penn Charter tacklers as Friar ballcarrier Kevin Kolmer 21 breaks out for a gain in Friday's Inter-AC contest at Malvern. Charging in at the right is Charter's John Sabatino.

Malvern's Brian Kolmer was stopped on this one, but it wasn't often that the hard running Friar was curtailed in Friday's game. Making the stop is Charter's Chuck Mitchell

Malvern's Phil Miele has his hands on the ball, but Penn Charter's Dan Entwisle sneaks in underneath to intercept this Bill Kuharich aerial in Friday's game.

More to come……………

04.1.23