After being nudged into law, Noble takes center stage
The unintended life of John Noble is a study on finding your way and your niches, and excelling at each one.
Noble, 70, was an athletic force at Dubois High School in football and wrestling.
He became a football player and – despite his protestations – a wrestler at Washington & Jefferson College from 1974 to 1978.
Noble graduated from W&J, went to law school and has ultimately settled in as a mediator.
He worked many years for the law firm of Meyer, Darragh, Buckler, Bebenek and Eck, who at the time employed 85 lawyers. Noble opened the initial Greensburg office of the firm.
While many know him from his singing and acting ability and his dedication to the arts, particularly in Westmoreland County, and bringing “The Night of the Stars” to young, budding actors and singers annually each spring at The Palace Theater in the heart of Greensburg, Noble is a loyal W&J alum.
To hear Noble tell it, his life has been one unintended happening after another. Yet, he sits as one of the most accomplished people one could find.
Truly, he’s a one of one.
“I met John Noble for the first time on the campus at W&J,” said Ed Morascyzk. “In 1975, I was a senior and a captain of the wrestling team. I knew our wrestling team had the potential to have a great year. I heard that there were two guys on the football team who were wrestlers. One, I knew very well, Ted Cuneo, who wrestled for Greensburg Central Catholic in the (former) Catholic League with my brother and I. Then, I found out from our wrestling coach, Jim White, about a guy on the football team from Dubois. He was a freshman.
“I was happy to go and introduce myself to him at practice. I walked down to the stadium and waded through all the football players, and I found John Noble. I introduced myself: ‘I understand you’re John Noble. My name is Ed Morascyzk. I’m a captain of the wrestling team.’ He immediately looked at me and he said: ‘I’m not wrestling.’ I replied, ‘You haven’t heard my pitch.’ To which he said: ‘I’m not wrestling.’ That was the beginning of our relationship.
“John, who was an outstanding football player and wrestler, decided that he would wrestle and it truly was the start of a friendship that now spans 50 years.”
Noble said his disdain for wrestling developed at Dubois because of weight. He didn’t want to lose anymore.
“They made me lose too much weight (at Dubois),” Noble lamented. “I played football at 180 pounds and the first match I was at 145. I was done. Everybody was thinking I was going to be this and that in high school. I was recruited by Lehigh and blah, blah, blah. I got mononucleosis. I got so sick my senior year was a bust. I wasn’t going to wrestle anymore. My two buddies who I wrestled with all my life placed third and fourth that year in states. I’m sitting home with mono.
“A friend of mine was a football player. He was an all-state, first-team center. He said he visited W&J. I had never heard of it. He encouraged me to check it out. I was so done with wrestling. I wasn’t even thinking of college. I didn’t visit any colleges. So, I drove (to W&J). I ran into a guy. He didn’t know where he wanted to go. I didn’t know where I wanted to go. And I said, ‘I’ll go here if you do.’ That’s how unintended it was. So, I’m a freshman on the football team. Coach White’s the defensive coach. Who knew his 167- and 177-pounders graduated?”
Thus, the meeting with Eddie Mo, as Noble called him.
“Eddie Mo approaches me at a party one night on campus,” Noble explains. “He shows up with big sideburns and big hair and a big Fu Manchu. ‘Excuse me, are you John Noble?’ he asks. ‘Yeah,’ I said. He comes back with: ‘I’m the captain of the W&J’s wrestling team.’ The first thing I ever said to Ed was, ‘I’m not wrestling.’ I looked at him and said ‘I’m not working out for three hours a day. He said ‘that’s interesting. We only practice an hour a day.’
“He talked me into it. Of course, I ended up being the starting 177-pounder. I had a good season.”
Noble won two bouts in the national tournament. In those days, only the top six in each weight class were dubbed All-Americans. Modern rules recognize the top eight in each weight class.
“I was almost all American, right? That’s my whole life story – almost,” Noble said. “So, we’re riding home on the bus and I’m telling the guys that this had been great, but I was just going to play football next year.
“The word gets up to (White), who was driving the bus. By the time we get halfway home, he announces that I’m the co-captain with Angelo Morascyzk for next year’s team.”
That’s the law
Morascyzk and Noble became best friends and it has carried through their lifetimes.
Wrestling wasn’t the only thing Morascyzk influenced Noble about.
He suggested to Noble about going to law school. By the time Noble graduated from W&J, Morascyzk had completed law school.
“I had no plans to go to law school,” Noble said. “I went to (Duquesne University) night school on Ed’s suggestion. And when I went to Pittsburgh the first week to go to law school, I had no place to live. One of my wrestling teammates said I could stay with him while I looked for an apartment. He dated a girl who knew a guy who was at Duquesne. She introduced me to him. I got a room. He worked downtown and was a fourth-year law student. He said to me, ‘Nobes, I think you should apply for a job at Meyer, Darragh, Buckler, Bebenek & Eck. You’d be a good fit there.’ I never heard of it. I showed up. I’m the 13th guy they interview. And the (interviewer) says, ‘What are your goals in law, Mr. Noble?’ I said, ‘I have no idea. That’s why I’m here.’ They all laughed. I got the job.”
Years later, he becomes a mediator and excels. Noble has completed more than 6,000 mediations since 2003.
“He has probably one of the best reputations as a mediator throughout the state,” said judge Gary Caruso, who also has moved to mediation. “He has many of his mediations take place in the eastern part of the state. And they are for bigger cases – medical malpractice, which is one of his specialties. He’s very well respected, able to get a lot done.
“I think he brings a lot of his theatrical background to his abilities as a mediator – things that he’s learned in the theater such as his ability to communicate with people effectively.”
Center stage
Westmoreland Night of the Stars is held at the Palace Theatre and is presented by Westmoreland Performing Arts and hosted by Noble, who didn’t start his acting career until his mid-30s.
It showcases top high school and middle school musical talent from Westmoreland and surrounding counties. The celebration features special performances, a senior salute, and 10-minute snippets of musicals performed by individual schools that spring.
It’s known as Noble’s baby.
In a recent centennial video for The Palace Theater, Noble appears saying: “I don’t know where I came up with it, but I just thought Westmoreland Night the Stars was the right (title). It’s a big deal for the kids to perform at their high schools but to come to The Palace Theater for The Night of the Stars, where all other participating schools (are sitting) in the audience and cheering each other on. It’s a pep rally. It’s a non-competitive night of celebration. I could have never done the Night of the Stars without a venue, without (the) unique, majestic Palace Theater.”
Noble is such a hybrid mix of athletics and arts that one year he singled out and complimented a young male actor/athlete in 2022 for attending the Judge John J. Driscoll Outstanding Achievement Award for scholar-athletes, missing practice for Night of Stars, but still performing when his school was on stage for Night of the Stars the next night.
“Music and sports; my kind of guy,” Noble said, singling the young man out.
Ironically, that young man graduated from W&J in the spring.
Antolena Damico, a junior member of W&J’s women’s golf team is a Night of the Stars veteran and has performed with Noble on stage.
“He’s such a great guy,” Damico said. “When I committed to W&J, I had no idea he went there and that was crazy because I’ve known him since I was 11-years-old. I met him at the Night of the Stars when I was practicing for my musical. We connected immediately. He loves being on stage.”
“He was always a role model for me. He invited me to sing with him at the Westmoreland Arts and Heritage Festival, and he’s part of the reason I love music so much. He just says to sing from your heart. I’ll honestly never forget it.”
Since 1997, Noble has raised more than $400,000 in cash awards and theatre scholarships to Westmoreland high school, middle school, and home-schooled musical programs through his “Westmoreland Night of the Stars” performed annually at the Palace Theatre.
Since 2015, Noble has performed his “Almost Sinatra” routine – more than 80 times – throughout western Pennsylvania, including venues such as the Twin Lakes Arts & Heritage Festival, Apple Hill Playhouse, South Hill’s Bella Serra, Treasure Lake and DuBois Country Clubs, the Palace Theatre, among others.
He has also provided/donated the entertainment for various fund-raising events including the Penn Highlands Regional Hospital Foundation, DuBois YMCA, and various Westmoreland County Church and Italian Festivals, local high schools and theatre organizations.
Noble, who has participated in about 170 theatrical productions, recently interrupted a get-a-way respite with W&J teammates and graduates to return to W&J’s campus to help celebrate a recent inductee to the College’s athletic Hall of Fame. The new inductee was his “little brother” in a W&J fraternity and wrestling teammate.
“John is a great guy a great friend who loves supporting the community, loves supporting community performers, and is really a benefit to everyone who encounters him. He is generous to a fault while still playing a heck of a Scrooge on-stage,” said Tony Marino, artistic director Westmoreland Performing Arts.
Added Caruso: “He’s very passionate about the arts. I know just because the relationship he had with my two kids and then the Night of the Stars, which that’s his baby. He’s a real practical guy, honest and trustworthy.”
John Sacco writes a column for the Observer-Reporter about local sports history.