Who made that tackle? Who scored that touchdown? Who caught that pass?

Each is a common and frequently asked question from parents, fans, and sports writers who have attended Belle Vernon Area High School football games. For the parents, they are questions regarding their sons' performances on the field, with the answers correspondingly tied to a little chest expansion and button busting.  

For many fans, the questions are dismissed as quickly as the next play begins. But for sports writers in the press box, correctly identifying the player is a must for accurate game stats and for the next day's story.

When the Bellmarette and Rostraver school districts merged in 1965 to create the Belle Vernon Area School District, gone but not completely forgotten were the Bellmar Hurricanes and Rostraver Leopards.

When the collective student body voted on a new school and team nickname, the leopard, an obvious carryover from Rostraver, was the mascot of choice.

Selecting new school colors was another issue. Belle Vernon had sported black and gold colors, while Rostraver's athletes were outfitted in green and white.

Lou Rood, current Belle Vernon football coach, moved into the district in 1968, several years after the merger.

"I was a sophomore in the 1969-70 school year, but I remember hearing about the classes voting for the mascot and school colors," Rood recalled.

Then Rood paused in his answer to laugh.

"The only problem was that the kids voted for two light colors, gold and white," he said. "We still have those colors, but you need a dark(er) color to blend in for everyone, including coaches to be able to see the numbers, especially on the football field where there may be several players involved in the action or a play may take place on one end of the field. Gold numbers on a white jersey, or white on gold, are difficult to see."

When Rood was a sophomore, Belle Vernon wore black jerseys. As a junior, the Leopards wore green jerseys.

Old traditions often die a slow death, don't they?

In the four decades since the merger, the colors have changed as often as have the coaches, Rood explained. "Our colors have been green, gold, white, black, different shades of gold, yellow, and green."

In recent seasons, the Leopards' uniforms have retained the gold and white colors, but coach Gary Dongilli added forest green more than a decade ago.

In 1946, Belle Vernon and North Belle Vernon formed the Vernon Jointure, with Vernon High School established in what had been the Belle Vernon High School located on Market Street in Belle Vernon.

When the new school district was created in 1965, five municipalities -- Belle Vernon, Fayette City, North Belle Vernon, Rostraver, and Washington Township -- were included in the merger.

Two high schools, Rostraver and Bellmar, were in operation until the new high school was constructed, opening April 17, 1967.

Jim Weir was the athletic director at Rostraver when the schools merged and was named to the same position in the new Belle Vernon Area School District.

"Students voted to keep Rostraver's mascot," he said. "They thought it was a better idea to have the nickname Leopards instead of Hurricanes."

When they voted on school colors, Weir, like Rood, recalls that the decision was to go for the gold and white, "but we kept adding different shades of greens for everything to blend together. For a while we used the old blacks and greens of the former districts. It was a smooth merger. All the communities were close and got along. Our kids had grown up together and knew each other. There were no problems combining the districts. I enjoyed the merger. I enjoyed being a Leopard all those years."

Weir laughed about serving as football coach -- and temporarily as gymnastics coach -- in addition to having been the athletic director.

"I coached football and never won anything," he said, "but when I was AD, the gymnastics coach took a leave and I became the interim coach. That was 1975 and we won the WPIAL and state titles."

Weir, 88, served as Belle Vernon's athletic director for 35 years. He retired in 1987, five years after Belle Vernon named its football stadium in his honor.

When Belle Vernon Area High School's football team opened the 2006 season, the Leopards began a new era under first-year head coach Lou Rood. At the same time, the Leopards will recognize a rich football past by honoring the Belle Vernon Area Football Hall of Fame's 2006 Class.

INDUCTEES
"Coach" John Clark
Skip "Wayne" Bruce
Larry Comadena
James "Jo Jo" Reed
Walter Sickles
Dennis Steiner
Rudy Suzich

Clark coached under Ed Hogan at Rostraver High School and served as an assistant at Belle Vernon Area High School under legendary coaches Jim Russell, Dick Fields and Gary Dongilli. Among the teams he worked with were Belle Vernon Area's 1995 WPIAL Class AAA championship team (12-2) and Rostraver High School's 1962 WPIAL Class A co-championship squad.

A testament to "old school toughness," Bruce was the starting offensive center and defensive middle linebacker at Bellmar High School and helped the 1960 squad achieve the first undefeated football season in school history. His dominant play earned Bruce a football scholarship to Pratt (Kan.) Junior College. He then worked 41 years before retiring from Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel.

Comadena was a two-way starting end and star basketball player who graduated from Belle Vernon Area High School in 1970. He continued his academic and basketball careers at Sheridan (Wyo.) Junior College and was the two-year starting center at Utah State University. Comadena, who played scholastic football under Russell and Fields, has been a teacher for more than 25 years at Logan High School in Utah, where he is an assistant football coach and also the head boys' basketball coach.

A 1949 graduate of Vernon High School, Reed was a two-year starting center for the Bulldogs and played on the 1946 undefeated team. He served in the U.S. Air Force for four years during the Korean War.

Sickles graduated from Rostraver High School in 1952 and was a three-sport star. He was the football team's captain his senior year and also starred in baseball and basketball. Sickles continued his academic and athletic pursuits at then California State College, where he was a standout baseball player for baseball coach Andy Sepsi. Also capitalizing on his studies, Sickles went on to a distinguished career in education that included an 11-year stint as a high school superintendent in Alachua and Hillsborough counties of Florida.

Steiner was a three-year starting offensive guard and linebacker who graduated from Rostraver High School in 1963. He started on the 1962 WPIAL co-championship team, where fellow 2006 inductee Clark served as an assistant coach. After serving four years in the U.S. Navy, Steiner was a mill worker for 17 years.

Suzich, currently the loss-control director for Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. in San Francisco, was a two-way starting end who graduated from Belle Vernon Area High School in 1977. He played scholastic football under Fields and Petrucci. After playing as a starting outside linebacker at Indiana State University (Terre Haute, Ind.), Suzich had tryouts with three National Football League teams--Dallas Cowboys, St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Bears. A football teammate at Indiana State was former Pittsburgh Steelers offensive lineman and current Steelers radio color analyst Tunch Ilkin.