In this third column, we are looking at the Northampton High School 1931 Amptennian and the artwork of one of the editors, a gridiron legend in the Lehigh Valley, Yes, it was Albert A. Erdosy, longtime coach of the Northampton High School Konkrete Kids.

Both Mr. Oberly and this writer were students of Mr. Erdosy in his health and physical education classes. He was an excellent, no-nonsense teacher. When Larry and I looked at this 1931 book, we were just amazed at his art abilities.

Young Erdosy resided on Newport Avenue in Northampton. His father, Anthony, was a tailor, a skill rarely found in our present-day communities. Al graduated from Northampton High School in 1931 during the bleak days of the Great Depression.

He was the quarterback on the 1930-31 Konkrete Kids football team. The team compiled a record of six wins and three losses. For our Coplay, Whitehall and Catasauqua readers: On a sunny fall afternoon, the Konkrete Kids defeated the Coplay Wildcats in a hard-fought fourth-quarter win 7 to 6. They defeated a scrappy Whitehall team 34-0. Northampton lost the big one in the last game of the season, played at Allentown High School stadium. Our neighbors, the Catasauqua Rough Riders, beat the Konkrete Kids before one of the largest crowds ever to witness the traditional Turkey Day classic. The score was Catasauqua 19, Northampton 0.

Mr. Al Rundle was the Konkrete Kids coach. He coached football, basketball and baseball.

In the yearbook, Albert Erdosy is described as a gentleman, sincere and friendly.

As an artist, just look at the Amptennian!

The theme of the yearbook was Japanese literature, so Al’s artwork represented Japanese culture. In 1929, a college professor from Japan visited Northampton High School. The professor said, “My visit to your school in the fall of 1929 being the very first one that I had paid to any school in America has left a deep impression upon me that will remain with me for life. I am greatly interested to learn from your letter that your senior class has chosen Japanese literature as a theme for the 1931 yearbook, and we deem it a high honor.”

Mr. Erdosy would graduate from Muhlenberg College and be hired as a teacher, assistant football coach and later head coach at Northampton High School. Al would start coaching under Elwood “Woody” Ludwig, a University of Pennsylvania graduate who would coach Northampton’s most famous football team, the 1937 “Wonder Team.”

One of Al’s longtime assistants was another football great, Mr. Pete Schneider, who started on the “Wonder Team” and played for Muhlenberg College and the Bethlehem Bulldogs.

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Our next column will display Al’s art talent.