Today students who attend Apollo-Ridge High School may not realize that the school has not always been around, nor has Apollo's mascot always been the Vikings. From 1931 to 1969, Apollo High School was actually in the town of Apollo. They had a strong football program, going to the playoffs several times. Apollo High also had an intense rivalry with that high school just across the river, Vandergrift High School. Like Vandergrift High, Apollo had a pre-game celebration called the "Snake Dance." The Snake Dance consisted of a line of students that would meander in and out of stores in Apollo. Apparently, one time the dancing "snake" even went to Vandergrift for the annual event called the "Turkey Game." The Turkey Game was the big game between Vandergrift and the Apollo Tigers (which was Apollo's mascot for 38 years.)

The Apollo Area Historical Society has preserved memorabilia from Apollo High in its museum on Second Street in Apollo in the historic Women's Christian Temperance Union building. According to members Alan Morgan and Jan Lackey, the Apollo High School is one of the museum's most popular exhibits with visitors. The exhibit, among other things, features school photos, Apollo Tiger jackets, and a football from the playoffs. You can see these Apollo High School exhibits, and also exhibits featuring Apollo's connection with the space program and Apollo's Nellie Bly (one of America's first woman investigative journalists.) This month's Our Local Heritage online video program visits the museum in Apollo, where Jan and Alan were kind enough to show us these three interesting exhibits. Plus, the end of the program features a nice way to remember the Tigers and other items from Apollo's history. I think you'll like it. See it at in the video

Apollo 17 Etched Glass

And Now, The Rest Of The Story: Some more random morsels of our local heritage:

Seldom Seen In These Parts - The school was situated on a hillside between Braeburn.and Edgecliff. Built sometime just after 1867 and known as the ‘Braeburn School’, it had an unusual nickname. Because of its location on the hillside where it was tucked away out of sight, residents of the area called it the “Seldom Seen School.” That’s what several generations called the school for decades. The Seldom Seen School was replaced twice by new facilities and then a cafeteria and restrooms were added in 1954. The Braeburn School was closed in the very late 1960s. Students then began to attend Bon-Air School and are now a part of the Burrell School District.

Apollo II Heat Shield Sample

Commander Supreme - Helped plan D-Day's air invasion. Supervised free elections in Nicaragua. Advised the Governor General of the Philippines. This incredible man commanded the 82nd Airborne Division--then an experimental concept in the military. The general also commanded the U. S. Forces in the Mediterranean theater, then the Caribbean theater, then the 8th U.S. Army in South Korea, then all the United Nations forces in Korea. This gentleman who lived in Western PA is recognized as the pivotal person who sculpted U.S. forces in Korea during the 50s from a failure to a success. He replaced Eisenhower as the Supreme Allied Commander, Europe (SACEUR)--at that time one of the most powerful military positions in the history of the world--and has been compared to Stonewall Jackson, Omar Bradley and George Patton. He was also known as a "deeply religious person," carrying a prayer book around with him everywhere. When in the field, he always wore a grenade on the shoulder of his jacket. And General Matthew Ridgway, who died in 1993, called Fox Chapel his home. A historical marker stands in front of Fox Chapel High School today, commemorating his life.

Paying Up - Pennsylvania had a law shortly after the Revolution that townships should pay for the education of kids whose parents were too poor to pay for it. However, for the most part everyone pretty much ignored the law, and so, teachers often went unpaid. Things changed in 1825 when a teacher in Buffalo Township (today's Freeport/Sarver area) went to court to make the Township pay him for teaching children whose parents could not pay. Despite a lot of people getting upset, the court ordered that the teacher should be paid--the whopping sum of $104.

Nellie Bly Exhibit

Standing The Test Of Time - Ezekiel Miller made his way in 1794 to the area where Bull Creek splits into two branches (not far from today's Tarentum on the other side of 28.) He was one of the first white settlers to come into the area, and possibly unknown to him, Ezekiel had chosen to make a home not far from an Indian village. It was a time when there were still skirmishes with Indians in the area over the land--the Allegheny River had, only a few years before, been the Western-most border of the U. S., and the dividing line between Indian Country and America. The day came when he barely escaped an Indian attack, probably in 1795. Life was hard enough on the frontier for any man, but it was even harder on this man. Turns out Ezekiel had a problem walking (he is alternately described in records as 'lame' or 'crippled') and so kept a horse nearby, thereby being able to quickly escape the day of the attack. He came back in 1796, and apparently had his family with him. He remained in the area and was instrumental in beginning Bull Creek Presbyterian Church. He eventually became an elder in the church, and his sons and sons' sons also rose up to be elders in the church, for over 100 years. Apparently the faith that brought a physically challenged Ezekiel and his family back to the site of the Indian attack, stood the test of a century. And today, Millerstown is named for him.

That'd Be Unusual Today Even - Bell Township, which had its own high school in 1943 (two decades before Kiski Area), had a little problem. The football team had no coach. Most of Bell's men were away fighting in World War Two, and there wasn't a man around who could coach the team. The principal had a decision to make: cancel the season, or find an unusual solution. He didn't want to cancel the games, so when an unusual solution disguised as a girls' Phys. Ed. Teacher, the principal knew the season was saved. He talked the girls' gym teacher into it, the season was saved, but the team lost every game. It didn't matter the team made newspapers all over America because of its' unique solution: a lady football coach.

Apollo Tigers Exhibit

Times They Are A-Changin’ - Leechburg went through some interesting transformations in the last three decades of the 1800s, about the time the oil, gas and steel industries were starting to bom. Railroads were beginning and the canal, which brought business (including boat-building) to Leechburg, was closing. In the 1870s, the town hit the big time: Canal and Market Streets became some of the first streets to be paved! This was important… could you imagine how impassable the streets would have been in rainstorms similar to what we’ve had recently? By 1885, you could walk those paved streets at night and see your way around, courtesy of the gas streetlights that had just been installed. In 1888, you could breathe a sigh of relief, knowing traffic had been slowed down, making those paved streets safer, because… the first speed limit was passed! Horses and those darn new-fangled motorized vehicles would no longer threaten the proper lady and genteel man when they crossed the street. (Facts courtesy of The Lookout, which is the Leechburg Museum and Historical Society newsletter)

That’s Show Biz – It was one of eight theatres that existed in New Kensington. The Imperial Theatre was located on Fifth Avenue. Built at some point in the early 20s according to Theatres of New Kensington (a website located at http://www.dryrose.com/new_ken_theatres/index.php), the theatre operated under that name until just before World War Two. The theatre’s name changed then to what is perhaps its better-known designation, the Ritz Theatre. The Ritz later closed in the early 50s and the location ceased being a theatre. Various stores and businesses have occupied it since, but today, the Imperial/Ritz Theatre is back to entertaining people as the New Ken Bingo Hall.

Lilac Link - He was a major property-owner in the mid-1800s, in what is today called Oakmont. His son began ferrying people across the Allegheny River. The road to that ferry crossing became a main road in the area. A bridge was later built in 1912 at a cost of $306,000 in dollars of that day. By 1972, a proposal was made to build another bridge to take some of the load off the Oakmont bridge and route it via Harmarville and Plum, but it remained just that: a proposal. Interestingly enough, the state representative who made the proposal later passed away and Pennsylvania’s lawmakers renamed the bridge after him… apparently unknownst to Oakmont citizens. Mysteriously, days after being officially put on the bridge, plaques with the new name just vanished. Evaporated. Poof. Gone. Today, bigger plaques adorn the lavender bridge (a lilac color due to the particular paint-mixing process) and they bear the name that the bridge has always been known by. It also bears the name of the original property owner and the ferry owner: the Hulton Bridge.

Threshing Day - Harvest time on a Plum farm during the first 20 years of the 1900s was a little bit different than it is today. Mary McCracken in Plum's history book, "Where Wild Plum Trees Grew", told of "Threshing Day"--the day when wheat and oats were harvested at summer's end. Around 10 or 12 men, all neighbors or neighbors' farm hands, came to work on that day. If they came the night before, they often slept inside the barn on sacks of straw. Breakfast was supplied the next morning, as was lunch and dinner. A bench with a few water basins, buckets of water, soap and towels was set up for the workers to wash up before eating. And the dinner? It was usually a 20 lb. rib roast, mashed potatoes, green beans and other homegrown veggies. Dessert was homemade pies and cakes. It must have been good stuff… Mrs. McCracken remembered what she ate on those days, even 80 years later!

Busy Guy - A turn-of-the-century article hailed him as "one of the most scientific, practical and successful civil engineers of this State, and he lived in Saltsburg in the late 1800s. Robert H. Wilson was one of many enterprising Saltsburg residents who found ways to be successful in the decades after the town's salt boom went belly up. A civil engineer, Wilson worked on several significant engineering projects in Indiana County. His firm, Wilson & Smith (with offices were in Washington, PA and Saltsburg), grew by leaps and bounds and his work was in demand all over Western PA. He was the chief engineer for several companies, heading up surveying and developing many gas and coalfields. His firm did a lot of municipal and civil work, including paving, sewage and water systems. Wilson also served as the Armstrong County Surveyor and as a trustee of Elder's Ridge Academy. And that was all by the time he was 40. Busy guy, huh?

A President, Tanning, the British and Skates - Most kids in our area may think of roller-skating when they hear its name. Most people, adults included, would not recognize it by the name it had from 1870 to 1887. During that time it was named for a leather goods company, the Acme Tanning Company, and was called Acmetonia (which today is the name of a community nearby.) And most definitely, no one would recognize it by the first name people called it, before 1870: Lincoln Development. The town adopted its current name in 1887; an early family, the Armstrongs, happened to have family roots in this British region. Getting its initial growth from the railroad that ran next to it, today Alle-Kiski residents know it as Cheswick, PA.