Recently during the "Konkrete Kontroversy," I was inundated with memories of the past from numerous local and out-of-state residents.

My good friend Mr. Michael Schneider visited me to share some Konkrete history. He was a great athlete, teacher and excellent athletic director at the Cement School. Many area fans remember his father, Pete Schneider, a legendary member of Northampton's 1937 "Wonder Team" and star football player at Muhlenberg College. I am proud to say he was this writer's teacher.

And let's not forget the other family members who were local fan favorites: Pete Jr., U.S. Naval Academy; Jimmy, a great basketball player; and Brian, a superb baseball player – all excellent men.

Mike helped trace Konkrete Kid origins back to 1924 but since then, we have done a bit better. We now can date them back to 1922.

The German spelling 'Konkret' reflects the German heritage of the employees and the cement industry which supported many families in the area.

Mike gave me a rare 1922 issue of Northampton High School's "Black & Orange," a publication dated Nov. 15, 1922. It states, "The first big league basketball game will be played with Catasauqua on Dec. 15. The game is surely to be a hummer, for the old rivalry between Catty and the Konkrete Kids has never died out."

Here's where the Pennsylvania German heritage is very obvious – the regulars were Joseph Smith, Sterling Miller, Arthur Young and Paul Thomas. Some juniors were named: Snyder, Zimmerman, Mensinger, Beers, Wieand and Wolfgang.

The name Wolfgang is especially interesting to me. Paul Wolfgang was my wife's late uncle. His father moved to Northampton from coal country, as he did not desire to work in the mines. He became an excellent carpenter, working on the construction of the iconic Hess Brother's building in Allentown. He then became a carpenter at the Atlas Portland Cement Company in Northampton.

Mike also found an old news clipping from the "Morning Call" newspaper, published on a Sunday in 1925. The headline: "Northampton High loses to Iron Men." Do my readers recall when Catasauqua was a center of America's iron industry? The Catasauqua football field was named Thomas Field after David Thomas, Welsh ironmaster who was called "The Father of Catasauqua."

The lineup had Paul Wolfgang at right tackle along with Stoflett, Sieger, Miller, Kunkle and Dutton. Some Catty boys included Campbell, Witt, Porter, Walker, Clauser and Dougherty. The Iron Men won the game, 22 to 6. The Call writer, in his brief column (one paragraph), identified Northampton as the "Konkrete Kids."

I especially enjoyed the editor's description of the United States in Nov. 1922.

"We were probably never more prosperous than at the present time. We were in the War [World War I], but no foreign enemy invaded our country, destroyed our cities and laid waste to our lands. Our institutions of education are filled, our hospitals, sanitariums and homes for the poor are well taken care of. And may we, like the Pilgrim fathers, never forget to fall on our knees and give thanks for those blessings."

And that was the feeling in the "Black & Orange" Nov. 15, 1922.

Thank you, Mike, for sharing this with all my readers. My usual thank you to Larry Oberly for the photographs.

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We will visit Mt. Carmel in two weeks, with the owner of a landmark Northampton business.