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(Editor's Note: Below is a letter to the editor that will be split into 2 parts due to the length. The second part will be printed in the Monday, July 1 edition.)
Paying tribute to local athlete Fred Stoicheff
To the Editor:
I would like to pay tribute to a local athlete who died in the past year whose high school achievements were tantamount to winning four state wrestling championships without being taken down, scoring 2,500 career points with a 35 ppg (points per game) average in basketball and having a career batting average of .700 in baseball/softball.
That person is my friend and Lewistown High School teammate, Fred Stoicheff, who died November 18, 2023 and who, if not the best athlete ever in Mifflin and Juniata Counties, would certainly be in the Top Five.
It cannot be emphasized enough that his statistics were achieved in the apex position of all sports i.e., a football tailback in the No. 1 state of high school football- Pennsylvania "Class A". Just ask Cael Sanderson if he is ever seen starting a Penn State tailback who couldn't have contended for a NCAA wrestling title with proper training early on.
At 6 feet, 170 pounds in high school, he oozed "fast twitch" and flexibility. He ran a 4.5 forty, +10 flat 100 and with two District 6 championships and medaled in the 1958 state track meet. Due to baseball, he did not practice track and only went to meets. Had he practiced, he could have run a 4.4 forty, 9.7 hundred, long jumped 23 feet and high jumped 6'5".
He lettered four years in baseball, league triple crowned his last two years and was courted by the majors. He led the league in stealing, never slid and was never thrown out.
He dabbled in basketball and as a sophomore was a 5'10" center on the undefeated JV team (Mountain League Champions) which beat the very same Altoona team that were state runners-up two years later. He did not play high school basketball after that year although he led the league in rebounds, by jumping high and quick.
Now, football is where Fred really made his mark on two of the best athletic teams ever in District 6 – the 1957 and 1958 Lewistown High School football teams – which he led to two straight, undefeated/untied seasons (19-0-0). There were no state championships then, but they would have been legitimate contenders.
He subbed on an 8-2 team as a sophomore but before the next season underwent a growth and speed spurt and went from 5'8", 4.9/10.8 to a 6 foot, 4.5/10.0 sprinter.
As a 15-year-old junior, he garnered third team all-state honors by rushing for 927 yards and 10 TDs on just 6.4 carries. His TDs came on runs of 52, 98, 62, 12, 25, 52, 30, 61, 15 and 78 yards for an average of 49 yards. (Note: The team only played nine games because of a flu epidemic otherwise, he would have been the county's first 1,000-yard rusher.)
As to be expected, he was a target 16-year-old senior, but didn't falter and led the team to another perfect 10-win season and was a unanimous 1st Team all stater (AP, UPI, "Big 33"). He rushed for 851 yards and 14 TDs on 72 carries for an average of 11.8 yards per carry and a TD every 5.1 carries with a TD catch and TD interception. He had 16 TDs on plays of 5, 13, 6, 27, 71, 37, 5, 19, 70, 70, 59, 89, 33, 15, 15 and 48 yards for an average of 36 yards per.
In two years (19 games), he rushed for 1778 yards and 24 TD's on just 136 carries for averages of 13 yards per carry, 5.7 carries per TD and 41 yards per TD.
His most outstanding individual performance was the 1958 Selinsgrove game when he rushed for 251 yards and 4 TDs on 6 carries on runs of 89, 70, 59 and 25 yards for averages of 42 yards per carry, 61 yards per TD and 1.5 carries per TD.
Harold Powell, Jr.
Mifflintown
Nicotine is an addictive killer
To the Editor:
I was a drug addict! No, I didn't use illegal drugs, such as cocaine, heroin or morphine. My drug of choice was nicotine that I became addicted to by smoking filtered Marlboro cigarettes beginning when I was in high school. I smoked them for too many years before I was finally able to quit.
My father smoked unfiltered Camel cigarettes for too many years. He started smoking when he was serving in the Army during World War II because they were "free" to U.S. soldiers from the tobacco companies (nice guys). If the enemy didn't kill them, the cigarettes would.
When he smoked them in the house when I was a child, I would get very painful earaches. He had a heart attack when he was 48. When I asked him to quit, he said he couldn't. He died at age 57, just two months shy of his 58th birthday. All seven of his non-smoking siblings (females) passed in their 80s.
His father, my grandfather, got his nicotine by chewing Red Man tobacco and using a spittoon. I almost vomited when I looked in it one time and ONE time only!
When I decided to quit smoking, I switched to cigars and a pipe, but that didn't work. When I finally quit, I had nightmares for at least two years that I was still smoking cigarettes. Quitting smoking was the hardest thing I have ever done.
My mother-in-law quit smoking Winston cigarettes about a month before she died at age 62. She used to say "I'll take them to my grave." She didn't! Lucky Strikes killed her brother at age 67 although he said he was going to live to be a hundred, and one of my aunts passed in her 40's from smoking.
The latest craze is "vaping" and my 19-year-old granddaughter and her 16-year-old brothers are users. Willie Nelson, the country singer, tried it and quit.
The tobacco companies are no different than illegal drug dealers. As long as they make their money, they couldn't care less who becomes addicted, or how it affects their health and their quality of life. I am glad that I quit smoking when I did. It was very hard to do.
David Faust
Selinsgrove