Red Raider History

To the Red Raider Hall of Fame

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He was the centerpiece of the Miracle Men! A little guy, nothing out of the ordinary in Uniontown Red Raider basketball history, who would eventually lead all college scorers! Charles "Chuck" Hyatt stands among the greats of game. He stands in a place where hundreds of thousands of people can take note of his accomplishments every year. It was with beaming pride that I recently joined those people and now offer my salute to the very first single player inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts!

Boston! What a place to...

By Al Owens
   If asked, and I doubt if I ever will be, what I did for my summer vacation, I’d simply say, “I went to Boston!” The grin I’d display, would give away my feelings about the experience.
   Boston! What a place to start a nation! There is history on nearly every corner. Within a few hundred yards of each other, you can find Revolutionary War history, Civil War history and of course baseball history.
   From the place where a freed slave’s (Crispus Attucks) death began the war to win America’s independence from England, to that ominous green wall that stands so defiantly against the will of even the greatest homerun hitters inside Fenway Park – Boston, Massachusetts is one proud, glistening conversation piece! What a place to start a democracy!
   Yet, I’m certainly no employee of the Boston Visitor’s Bureau. I’m from Uniontown, Pennsylvania! That place where history is soon forgotten. A place where hardly anything seems to glisten very long. Where the only conversation pieces seem to have something to do with a yet another new statue built to honor George C. Marshall. Oh! Don’t get me started.

Eddie Black!

I’m going to make a quick left turn here. I’ve got better things to discuss. Like, wearing one of my 2002 Uniontown Red Raider basketball shirts my first day in Boston. I’d been in town one night. I’d decided to walk down to the lobby of the hotel. I was about to return to my room, when I was confronted by a finger. A finger that looked hostile at first. It was pointed directly at the word Uniontown on the front my jersey. But fortunately for me, that finger was attached to a man who said, “I’m from Uniontown too!” Ah! The pure joy of finding another person who loves their hometown as much as I do. Eddie Black (1966 graduate of South Union High School) followed me to my room and engaged me in an afternoon of seeking mutual friends, 600 miles from home! Boston’s glorious history had to wait that day! Uniontown’s recent history became our conversation piece. Boston! What a place to start a friendship!

I Deserved More than a "D"!

But there’s more. By week’s end, there had to be a trip to Springfield, Massachusetts. Springfield is a place not far from Boston that seems to curiously possess very little history, except for one thing. It is the place where the game of basketball was invented. (My 9^th grade term paper titled,

“What We Should Know About Basketball” provides the research material for the proceeding paragraphs! But don’t trust it too much. I only earned a “D” for my work!)
A certain Dr. James Naismith decided to give the kids down at the Springfield YMCA a little recreation. (Remember, this was the 19^th century. Recreation came cheap) The Dr. constructed a pole, topped by a peach basketball, that was supposed to be the final resting place for a flying ball fashioned out of leather. There were no shoe deals, no press conferences, and no police blotters full of peach basketeers. Just a game, memorialized in Springfield’s only real landmark – The Basketball Hall of Fame! A place that deserves that exclamation mark. Maybe two of them.

Shots Heard 'Round the World

There, where video screens constantly show all manner of “shots heard ‘round the

world”, I conducted one deliberate search. To find our Uniontown, Pennsylvania connection. And there, in the very first section devoted to honoring each Hall of Fame inductee, I found that connection. Charles “Chuck” Hyatt. Uniontown’s, Pennsylvania’s first real sport’s hero was right there. His picture and his story right there. The Very First Player Selected to enter the Hall of Fame in 1959. He and his college coach, Dr. H Clifford Carlson (University of Pittsburgh, two national championships and considered one of the first scholars of the game of basketball) share the very exhibit!
    Chuck Hyatt, leader of the first state basketball championship, in fact the very first championship of any kind at our School of Champions, standing with the likes of Magic Johnson, Jerry Lucas, Larry Bird, Oscar Robertson, Wilt Chamberlain and Isaiah Thomas! Those men had to wait their turn. Charley Hyatt never had to wait. He was the first!
   There I stood proudly, exalting in the memory of a man who had walked the same high school halls I’d walked, but who scaled heights in which I’d only dreamed!
    It is so important to me that my hometown is honored on this platform. It is so maddening that my hometown doesn’t honor itself the same way. Not on Charley Hyatt’s account. Hardly on anybody else’s. We have to leave that to the people who understand real history in the state of Massachusetts!

The End

Hyatt Facts!

While it is assumed Charley Hyatt was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, he was not. He was born February 18th, 1908 in Syracuse, New York. He moved to Uniontown later and graduated from Uniontown High School in 1925.
Hyatt was named an All-American three years in a row at The University of Pittsburgh. (1928-1930)
In his last year at Pitt, Hyatt shared the his All-American honors with John Wooden, the legendary coach and player, and the man for whom the College National Championship trophy is named.
Hyatt was named an AAU All-American 8 times.
Not only was Hyatt a great college and AAU basketball player, he was a coach. He coached his Phillips 66 Oilers to a National AAU Championship in 1940!
Hyatt's induction into the Naismith (Basketball) Hall of Fame is made even more significant because it is the only Hall of Fame of the three most popular US sports (Football, Baseball and Basketball) to include college athletes and coaches. Cooperstown and Canton induct only professional athletes.

POSTSCRIPT

Red Raider Nation has achieved a milestone of sorts. We have contacted the Naismith Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts and made a request, and they've responded!
After months of requesting that the Hall change the listing for Red Raider legend Charles Hyatt to correctly credit his high school as being Uniontown High School, instead of Uniontown CENTRAL high school -- on Saturday March 10th 2002, they graciously obliged.

See the correct Hyatt listing HERE