Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Legends of the Fall, Chapter 3


During the same era when Monessen High School had Eric Crabtree and Bill Malinchak and Beaver Falls boasted Joe Namath, a pair of all-time greats at Wash High led the Prexies to sparkling records under coach Dave Johnston.

In 1961, Wash High's Bob Stock earned second-team Associated Press All-State honors. The other Prexies legend is this week's focus for Legends of the Fall.

Ted Vactor

An outstanding two-way back at Washington, Vactor played in the 1962 Big 33 game before he went to Nebraska. From 1963-65, Vactor played for head coach Bob Deveaney's nationally ranked Cornhuskers.

Vactor was a standout running back at Nebraska and he also played cornerback as well. He was All-Big Eight Conference first team in 1965 and played in two Orange Bowls (1964 and 1966) and a Cotton Bowl (1965).

After a one-year stint with Virginia in the Atlantic Coast Football League, Vactor signed with the Washington Redskins as a free agent in 1969. Vactor was mostly a back-up defensive back and a special teams ace during his six seasons in the NFL.

He played for the Washington Redskins from 1970-74 and the Chicago Bears in 1975. Vactor played in the 1973 Super Bowl, which Washington lost to Miami.

Vactor is a member of the Washington-Greene Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of fame and an inductee into the Nebraska Hall of Fame.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This Wash High team also included Bobby Riggle, he played college ball at Penn State and then went on to play in the NFL for the Atlant Falcons for 2 years.

mike_kovak said...

It's amazing the talent on some of those teams from the 1950s and 1960s.