‘Rough & Ungentlemanly Tactics’
Bret Moore is all smiles as he proudly displays his new book, “Rough & Ungentlemanly Tactics: A History of Sports in Greene County, Pennsylvania,” which is now available for purchase.
A close-up of the cover for Bret Moore’s new and recently published book, “Rough & Ungentlemanly Tactics: A History of Sports in Greene County, Pennsylvania.”
Bret Moore has always loved sports.
The lifelong Greene County native has had sports ingrained in him since he was a young child. His father, the late Jim Moore, was a well-known and respected journalist who covered sports for various newspapers, and deeply cherished Greene County sports history.
From the time he was knee high all the way to adulthood, Bret saw and experienced his father’s passion and enthusiasm for local sports.
With such a strong background in local sports history knowledge – and his experience playing and coaching a multitude of sports – he published “Rough & Ungentlemanly Tactics: A History of Sports in Greene County, Pennsylvania.”
The book covers local sports from 1860 through 1960. He considers it the first volume, and plans to release a second covering sports from 1961 to the present.
Filled with stories, facts and photos detailing a century of local sports, the book begins with information about teams and individual players in the 19th century in sports like cricket and base ball (the term was two words then). It is divided by decade, sport and school, and is way more than just a collection of data.
“The fascinating back stories and historical perspective are the things that make it interesting for more than just sports buffs,” he said.
Bret spent roughly a year researching local sports history at the Cornerstone Genealogical Society and the Greene County Historical Society, and was able to use yearbooks from every county school as well as the archives of newspapers like the Democrat Messenger and the Waynesburg Republican.
One of the most jarring stories he discovered was of the 1928 Mather Mine baseball team, whose members left their shift early one day to get to a game. An hour later, the mine exploded, killing 196 of their co-workers.
On a lighter side, Bret also uncovered a story about the first Waynesburg College basketball team traveling by horse-drawn sleigh Morgantown to take on West Virginia University in 1904. The team lost badly because the players were not prepared for the “glass-like floor,” and to make matters worse, the next morning the snow had melted and the team had to walk home.
“Local sports have always served as a communal glue,” he said. “People love to sit around and talk about who was the best pitcher, running back or wrestler the area produced. The problem is, most people have only a limited time frame as a reference. Eventually, time washes away all those shared experiences.
“Someday, the accomplishments of Cary Kolat, Coleman Scott and Derek Bochna, for example, will be as obscure as the sports heroes of the 1920s,” he said. “I wanted to preserve all of the accomplishments of the great athletes of the county, as well as the role sports played in our cultural heritage.
The retired McGuffey High School English teacher said local sports give small towns a sense of identity when they might otherwise be overlooked by the larger society.
“It was really interesting to see how sports was such an escape from the tough work of the mine or the farm for so many people here,” he said. “Before television, local sports provided one of the few sources of entertainment. Waynesburg College and W&J baseball games drew bigger crowds than the Pirates in the early part of the 20th century.”
As for the book’s unique title, Bret said “Rough & Ungentlemanly Tactics” was a phrase used in a 1915 newspaper account describing the style of play used by Washington & Jefferson’s football team.
“Penn State, West Virginia University and Waynesburg College threatened to discontinue scheduling W&J because of the on-and-off field attacks suffered by the Jaymen’s opponents and their fans,” he said. “Games were often ended prematurely because of fights, and postgame riots happened on more than one occasion.
“We often romanticize the sports of yesteryear and fall victim to a ‘Golden Age Fallacy’ … as a teacher, I always tried to convey to my students the figures of the past were not really that different from us,” he continued.
“Human nature is relatively constant despite our tendency to deny or or glorify our past. The graciousness of sportsmanship and the ugly side of our competitiveness have been a part of our duality since we started playing games.
“I thought the newspaper’s captured this dual concept perfectly in its euphemistically genteel description of our darker nature.”
The book is available for purchase at The Locker Room, The Perfect Arrangement and Lily Bee’s, Giant Eagle, McCracken Pharmacy, Waynesburg Milling, The Hartley Inn and Pioneer Grocery. It is also available for purchase online at www.drfanwear.com/sportshistory/.
Proceeds from its sales will go to the Cornerstone Genealogical Society and the Greene County Historical Society.
“They serve a truly important purpose in our community and deserve all of the support they can get,” Bret said.