Published: July 20, 2008 12:07 am            

Stars feted at banquet

Family values and the importance of solid hometown roots were the common themes throughout Saturday night’s Cambria County Sports Hall of Fame banquet at the Pasquerilla Conference Center.

The Hall inducted nine members during the 15th banquet held since 1965.

Dr. James Bradley, the veteran team physician of the Pittsburgh Steelers, joined his sister Patty Bradley-Marino, a former Villanova track All-American who nearly qualified for the 1984 Olympic Games. The Bradley family tree in the Hall also includes their brother Tom, the long-time Penn State assistant coach and 1998 inductee who attended Saturday. All three siblings graduated from Bishop McCort High School.

“I want to tell you what a privilege it is to have grown up in this town,” said James Bradley, the Steelers physician since 1991. “This is a place where you shake someone’s hand and you mean it. You say, ‘I’m going to do that,’ and you do it. Your word is everything. If you go back on your word in Johnstown, it’s a tremendous black mark against you. Unfortunately that’s not the way it is everywhere. There is a moral grounding here, where integrity and honesty are the norm.”

Also inducted were: Bill Crooks (University of Miami golfer and Sunnehanna Amateur participant); Johnstown graduate Ed Denk (University of Cincinnati/Boston Patriots football player); Ebensburg’s Mike Holtz (Major League Baseball reliever); Richland grad Stephanie Istvan (Duke University volleyball); Johnstown Catholic graduate Ron Nathanic (Seton Hall national championship basketball player); Johnstown graduate Tom Vargo (Penn State football player); and Mindy Young-Gagliardi (UPJ Kodak All-American women’s basketball player).

All of the inductees thanked their family and credited their upbringing in the area.

“To say I come from a sports-oriented family is an understatement,” Bradley-Marino said. “To say if you can’t beat them, join them. ... That’s how it was in my house. We had seven kids. I spent all my evenings and weekends watching my brothers play sports and my sister Kitty. We didn’t have a blade of grass in our backyard. Our backyard was a basketball court.”

A Central Cambria graduate, Holtz played 13 professional baseball seasons, including eight in the major leagues.

“My upbringing from my parents and my grandparents taught me about hard work,” said Holtz, who overcame career-threatening Tommy John surgery while at Clemson and advanced from Class Double-A to the majors midway through 1996. “My first big-league game, I pitched against Ken Griffey Jr. (in Seattle) with the bases loaded. From that point forward, I knew the hard work paid off.

“The experiences I had in my career, I’ll never forget. But if it weren’t for my family around me, I would have never made it. This area, Cambria County, has hard workers. I’m very proud of this area. A lot of people ask me, ‘Why would you go back there to live?’ I said, ‘Why wouldn’t I?’ I’ve lived in Boston, California, Florida, Arizona, Japan, everywhere. There is nothing like this place right here, no better place to raise your children.”

        

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