(triumphant music) - [Man] I think the pride we brought to Scranton and then Scranton Wilkes-Barre, for having the type of organization that we had, the type of players that we had, our accomplishments, told people throughout the country what kind of football was produced in Lackawanna and Luzerne County.

(triumphant music continues) (fans cheering) (soft piano music) - [Narrator] Scranton, Pennsylvania was once a booming industrial powerhouse where coal was king and the garment and textile industry was one of the largest in the United States.

Like many other blue collar cities in the 1970s and the 1980s, this once proud city had its struggles with financial distress, high unemployment and urban decline.

For many of its residents, this period was a very tough time.

There was a sense of hopelessness, and for some, a loss of community pride.

During this time, there was a group of young men who proudly represented the city that most people probably don't remember.

For them, it wasn't about fame and fortune, it was just about winning.

- Scranton Eagles.

Never heard of them.

- No, I have not ever heard of the Scranton Eagles football team.

- Scranton Eagles, never heard of them, no.

- The Scranton Eagles?

I can tell you all about them.

(players grunting) - [Announcer] For the goal, Scott Kennedy puts it up.

Complete to a slant in, Mark Lloyd.

- [Announcer 2] Running backs are Angelene Yanik for Scranton.

Back to pass goes Kennedy.

Then a big right by (indistinct) screen pass!

Complete to Yanik!

- [Announcer 3] Fumble, free football on the ground!

And Scranton picks up, it's Iacavazzi running along Veneer sideline.

- [Narrator] This is the story of Scranton Eagles football: the Forgotten Dynasty.

(triumphant music) (fan cheering) (tape scraping) (tape clattering) - I'm Butch Keller, I was the head coach of the Scranton Eagles from 1985 'til 1996.

- My name's Stan Kucharski, I played for the Lackawanna County Eagles in the early 70s.

Played with the Scranton Eagles.

Began my coaching career there as well in '83 into the early part of the 1990s.

- My name's Mike Rogan, I was a quarterback for the Lackawanna County Eagles from 1972-1974.

- My name is Charlie Rader, I played tight end for the Scranton Eagles from 1983-1985.

- I'm Paul Iacavazzi, I played defensive back for the Scranton Eagles from 1982-1987.

The roots of the Lackawanna County Eagles and Scranton Eagles, it all started from the Scranton Major Touch League.

That was in existence in, I believe it was 69 and 70 or 70 and 71.

Quite a few guys that played in the Scranton Major Touch League were the basis and the foundation of the Lackawanna County Eagles back in '71.

- Chick Rader, Jack Rogan and Cal Gene.

They made a large investment in it, and it couldn't happen at a better time for Scranton.

Mayor Peters was the mayor, and he jumped on our bandwagon and he was a big supporter.

Anything we needed.

And we were very fortunate because the Scranton Times were behind us.

Gar Kearney and Hal Marion did a hell of a job for us.

Gar Kearney was our PR guy.

And I'll tell you, he was fantastic.

So when you have the press behind you, and then you have the community behind you, and you have about 10,000 girls behind you, it makes things really happy.

The Lackawanna County Eagles, we had 39 players, all except one are from Lackawanna County.

When you had people like Stan Kucharski, Jack Rogan, the quarterback, some of the running backs we had, Butch Keller.

- A lot of us were coaches, college players, and we got together and started working out.

A lot of guys wanted to play.

It was a perfect setting for the area.

We had some great athletes who wanted to do more, still could do it, and then, so this was an opportunity, and we got together and we started playing.

And again, we had great leadership, and we had all kinds of people.

We had professional people, we had guys off the street, we had everything, and they all kind of jelled because of guys like Chick and stuff, being able to put them together.

- My dad, Chick Rader, he started the Lackawanna Eagles.

Everybody was really excited about that team coming to Scranton.

Because a lot of local kids that didn't really go to college or had dreams of playing in the NFL didn't really happen.

So, he wanted to make some dreams come true.

What impressed me the most, how my father got all these grown men, not getting paid a dime, to buy into what he was selling.

Because to be honest with you, some of these grown men were kind of scary.

(Charlie laughs) They were big and mean, and he got them to buy into his way of doing things.

And I thought that was unbelievable.

- All we heard about was a Tri-City Jets, Tri-City Jets, Tri-City Jets.

That year was magical.

Our first year was magical.

First time we played the Tri-City Jets, we were 30 point underdogs.

Played them at Memorial Stadium.

They called it Super Saturday; that's how they advertised it, as Super Saturday.

Big time.

We got there 5:00, the was at 8:00.

Stands were already filled, 5:00.

Came out pre-game, all the stands were filled and all you could see, the walkway.

At game time, we came out, they had to let people standing around the field.

- When we were playing in the 70s we were the biggest show in town.

I was coaching in New Jersey, so I had to drive into the game.

So I had my son and my wife at the time, and we were driving in and we come up to the Mulberry Street Bridge and you can't move, the cars are parked bumper to bumper.

The people were flooding into the stadium.

I jumped out of the car and grabbed my shoulder pads that were in the trunk, walked to the stadium to get dressed to play in that game.

And it's probably a sight that hasn't been repeated at Memorial Stadium ever again.

Of course, that was a great night.

I mean, we won that game.

It was fun.

- It was an incredible year.

We ended up winning the Empire League Championship.

We initiated with a fierce rivalry with Binghamton Jets, who had won the league the year or two before.

And everything started at that point in 1971, and it carried through to the Scranton Eagles.

But the roots of the Lackawanna County Eagles and the Scranton Eagles, it all started from the Scranton Major Touch League.

- The thing that a lot of people don't understand about the Eagles, that they weren't paid; coaches were.

And that caused a problem.

After three years, the guys wanted to get paid.

And then we went into a Seaboard League and they were upset about the so-called scale.

And when that happened, the team really broke up.

And we found out the best thing was we're come to be Eagles, if you want to play, we're going to try and give you as much as we can.

The uniforms and all that stuff to transportation, and that was the extent of monetary things other than the coaches.

- I got involved with the Scranton Eagles in 1982.

My brother, Jack and I were at Johnny Eagan's Bar Restaurant early 1982.

And after having a little fun and a few drinks, I said to Jack, "Why don't we start the Eagles up again?"

I said, "That's a great idea."

It seemed like in no time we were going to Empire Football League meetings in Albany, and before you know it we're admitted to the Empire Football League.

In 1982, Jimmy McNulty was a newly elected mayor of the city of Scranton.

Jimmy said, "I want to help you out, I'll do anything I can for you, fireworks after all the games, but there's only one stipulation; you've gotta change the name from the Lackawanna County Eagles to the Scranton Eagles."

So hence, the Scranton Eagle name.

(bright music) - [Narrator] In 1982, following a seven year hiatus, the newly reorganized Scranton Eagles were on their way to grid iron greatness.

But how did this band of brothers become the most dominant semi-pro team in the country?

It was much more than hard work and determination.

It was the Eagles Way.

- My name is Frank Santo, I was President Scranton Eagles from 1984 'til the early 90s.

- My name's Chris Coyne, I played defensive end and tight end for the Scranton Eagles from the years between 1986 and 1992.

- I'm John Kennedy, I played quarterback for the Scranton Eagles from 1983-2006.

- Al McElroy, offensive center.

I played for the Scranton Eagles between the years of 1982 and 1992.

- My name's Mike Brennan.

I was a linebacker for the Scranton Eagles throughout the 80s and half of the 90s.

- John Whitelavich, I coached and played for the Scranton Eagles in the 70s, 80s and 90s.

What we found out was, didn't matter who we played, we were the Eagles.

We made you play.

(players grunting) - [Announcer] Kennedy drops it over the middle.

Jerry Cap has it, and Cap at 6'7", he says, "You can't bring me down."

- We didn't have the best personnel, we didn't have the fastest people, but we played as a team.

And I think that's what really helped us to be successful and to win all those games.

- A lot of teams that we played against that had better athletes, but we were a better team, so when things would fall apart with us, we just knew, all right, relax, relax, we'll just keep giving the ball to Frank, the lineman will take care of it, we'll just grind it out on them.

Where you'd look across the field and see teams arguing with each other.

We would just go, "See, we got 'em."

- The one thing I remember all the time about the Eagles was they were together.

And everybody talked about Eagles and egos.

We'd always say, we're the Eagles, not the ego.

If you think you're too good to be here, don't come here 'cause you're just one of the bunch.

- Long, long before the infamous famous Bill Belichick came out with the "Patriot way" and the "do your job" line, Butch Keller, I'm sorry, but he phrased that line in the 80s 'cause he used to tell me all the time, "I'm not looking for one tackle out of you today, Quinny, just do your job."

That phrase rings true today, it's going to ring true forever.

And when I heard it years and years later with Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, well, hey, they might have stole that from Busch Keller.

- The first practice together with Chick and 40 or 50 ugly looking guys, we didn't know where it was going.

Chick said, speaking of quotes, chick said, "You're all here, me included, because you're selfish.

You want your name in the paper, you want your picture in the paper, you want to be a hero and all that.

Let's get that outta the way right now."

- My first day out of practice; never played with the team before, I only know a handful of guys playing.

We're running a simple power play.

Kick-out plan.

Paul snapped, I go to kick out the defensive end, who was a gentleman by the name of Mike Brennan.

Great guy.

Didn't know Mike from anyone back then.

Never met him.

I'm going to say at the time I was probably about 245 pounds, maybe 250, good size guy, Mike at his heaviest 215, 210 pounds, playing outside backer.

I went to kick out the defensive end, Mike, and he basically de-cleated me, hit me so hard, knocked my helmet sideways, put me on my back.

I got up so furious, grabbed him by the face mask, he grabbed me by the face mask and said, "Is that the way you're gonna block in a game, kid?"

I was the new guy.

I looked at him, I says, wow, this guy really means business here.

This is what this team's all about.

- We were sitting here at McDade Park, and it may have been about 40 years ago today when I first came down here.

There was a good number of guys here.

I had just gotten finished with college football and you know what those two and a half weeks are like before school starts.

So we come down here, we have a practice in the morning, and practice is over breaking up and Chick is talking to us and he says, "Okay, I'll see you at 2:00."

And we we're actually going to be doing doubles during those doubles.

There's a hill behind us with those steps, during the middle of each practice, that's when Chick liked to do the conditioning, he wanted you tired at practice.

And we'd run that hill over there a whole bunch of times.

I remember as a kid just doing it because your coach told you to do it.

I said, "I'm an adult now," and I'm thinking that guy's making me run this hill.

(whistle tweets) - I think one of the most important aspects of the Eagles team on the field coming together was that they came from every walk of life.

We had guys from this area, guys from out of the area who wanted to play with the Eagles.

I think that the success of the team and the way the organization was run was why people wanted to be Scranton Eagles.

- As a young kid coming in at 19 years old, coming from Burke, at that time, Burke football was higher than everything.

That was a big thing.

And being a star at that time and coming up here, I'm like, "Wow, they got some talent."

This is a legit football team.

I mean, you got guys benching 500 pounds, 6'3", 300 pounds.

I mean, it was legit people on legit teams we were playing.

- [Announcer] Fourth and one.

Play action, firing Michaels is in, touchdown!

- [Announcer 2] I tell you, it was a good ball.

Play action.

Michaels ran out and then came up under again, caught the ball, Kennedy threw a nice ball for the touchdown.

Makes it a little interesting here lately, - Being part of the Eagles for as many years as I did; one thing I did get to see is other organizations and how they were run compared to the way that we were built out from the beginning.

Our team was actually a business.

So there was a front office, there was ownership, and there were people that were held accountable to positions and coaching staff, support staff for game day.

When you showed up, you knew it was game day, there was a buzz.

It was no different really than the NFL other than the money.

- I never saw a team like the Scranton Eagles in any sport.

Nobody was better at what they did than we were.

From the coaching staff to every player, you weren't on the Scranton Eagles if you weren't a player.

People ask me, "Well, they're semi pros, what's the deal?

Why come they're not pros?

I say, "Well, the difference between the pros and us is maybe an inch, maybe a step, maybe a few pounds."

And then you think about the guys that went through our program; I was proud to be part of that excellence.

It was a great experience, it's a highlight of a lot of our lives.

Something I'll never forget.

(excited music) (tape scraping) (tape clattering) - My name is Donnie Jackson-Bay, I played running back for the Scranton Eagles from 1997-2002.

- I'm Frank Yanik, I was a running back with the Scranton Eagles from 1982-1989.

- I'm Ken Chase, I played defensive back, free safety for the Scranton Eagles between '82 and '91.

- Nick Parlanti, linebacker, fullback.

I played from '05-'07.

- This is Mark Arcure, number 42 of the Scranton Eagles.

Strong safety.

Playing from 1982-1991.

And then proud to become the head coach from 1996-2001.

- I'm Dave Baker, I played with the Lackawanna County Eagles in '72, '73, and '74.

I played with the Scranton Eagles in 1982 as a player/coach, and coached from '82 'til '95.

We tried to get as many local kids as we could to play and to go out and win as many games as we could so we could put Scranton on the map.

I was in New Mexico five years ago at a rodeo, and went over to a stand that was semi pro football, and they're sewing food, and I go over there and I started talking to them a little bit and I said, "Oh, I used to coach semi pro football."

And they said, "Where?"

I said, "Scranton, Pa." He said, "The Scranton Eagles?"

I mean, we were talking Santa Fe, New Mexico and they knew what we're doing.

And I talked with the guy for a few minutes, I walked away from that and I was like, oh my goodness.

You know, you didn't realize.

- Men become brothers in huddles.

You come to Scranton, it's a completely different world.

I mean, you've got guys that take their workouts seriously, take their off season, lifting seriously, and you have coaches that take things seriously.

We were playing in Ottawa and we were losing at halftime.

And I remember Butch stood up and he said, "You know something, I'm not even gonna draw anything up here.

I got one thing to say to you: we're losing to Canadians!"

- I couldn't wait to play.

I couldn't wait to come down on a Saturday night and win games.

And Frank Yanik used to say to me, "It's the best thing you can do on a Saturday night; beat some heads in and not get arrested."

But not beat up someone intentionally.

(George laughing) - When you're on the field and you're getting beat up with 10 other guys, I think the camaraderie is you don't want to disappoint your teammates, and I think that carries on with your family and life.

- The Scranton Eagles had a great, great bunch of guys.

I've said this to whoever I've talked to.

As a football coach, I've always believed that the most integral part of the team is the offensive line.

Was just fabulous.

- So in the very beginning, the group that I first started playing with, we had an offensive line that had been together probably six straight years.

Consisted of Charlie Savas, Ben Payavis, Al McElroy, Charlie Schultz, Kyle Krause was there also.

- Being an offensive lineman, in my opinion, it is the best position you could play on a football field.

It has got nothing to do with your ego, it's got nothing to do with anything else other than the team.

And phrase I like to steal and use is trust the guy to the right and left of you, protect the guys behind you and dominate the people in front of you.

That's kind of what it is to be an offensive lineman.

You're a protector.

Throughout your life, that's the way you're going to live your life; you're going to protect everybody around you 'cause that's what you've always done.

(player grunting) - It's nothing like those Scranton Eagles teams, because it was different.

From every team that I played for, I didn't have those relationships with other guys.

Not being from this area and the way I was raised, I couldn't ask for anything more.

- [Announcer] Second and one.

And they will pitch this one to the outside.

Jackson-Bay, still on his feet!

Donnie Jackson-Bay touchdown!

And the Scranton Eagles with an unbelievable comeback.

- It was just family.

Everyone just kind of did a lot of things together, which I thought was really cool.

And I know in college I always felt like it was kind of forced 'cause I felt like some people, if you didn't like someone you still had to be around that person.

After practice a or a game, these guys can go whichever way they want, but everyone always seemed to hang out and do things together.

It was kind of cool from that mindset of just being accepted with the guys, and obviously the performance came; we had a lot of team success, I had some individual success, and it was all around.

Probably one of the amazing experience that I had playing football, to be honest.

- I think I learned at a young age, I was 24 when I started, there were guys like John Kennedy and there were guys like George Romiti who were there for quite a few years.

When those two guys have been in the organization as long as they have and they kind of befriend you at your little wet behind the ears, 24-year-old, it's again, an honor to be able to hang out with the two of those guys.

But at the same time, I basically got to see how they handled playing the game and still maintained a life outside, a family life.

They had kids, they had wives and it was kind of almost a window into, well, if you want to do this in the future, this is kind of the way to do this.

- The personal relationships are forever lasting.

When I go back or look back to relationships with the LC Eagles; people like a Louis Costano, Joe Luciano, Lou Astalfi, Joe Smicheriko and Andy Davidson, and so many that even when you see them today, we give each other a big embrace and all of a sudden the stories start and we have that commonality, and it just helps us to get through situations that we deal with in life.

Football, to me has always been a life learning lesson.

There's so many elements of football that you apply to your daily life, especially in your job.

It's good to see these guys from time to time, and from time to time we do get together as a group or as individuals, and it's just good to see each other.

- We were family.

Everybody that we played with seems to have that bond.

Again, it wasn't anybody worrying about themselves, it was for the betterment of the team.

And lifelong friends.

It's amazing how everybody is still lifelong friends from a team that started almost 40 years ago.

(tape scraping) - Hi, I'm Tony Angeli, Scranton Eagles running back, 1987-1993.

- I'm Kevin Edwards, I played wide receiver for the Scranton Eagles from 1984-1992.

- My name's Carl Majer, played inside linebacker, Scranton Eagles from late 80s to 2000.

- My name is Joe Vernoski, I was with the Scranton Eagles front office from 1982-1990.

We had certain coaches that played on this team, and they knew what it was like to coach obviously, but they knew what it was like to play semi pro football.

- Chick Radar started off as a middle line backer, and Jack was a coach also, he was a starting quarterback, and Butch Keller was a fullback.

And they were all coaches.

It was kind of unusual that player-coaches.

In college you'd have a player-coach.

High school had a player-coach.

But Chick really knew the game of football.

He was outstanding.

He studied the game.

He was a field general.

He was a field general.

We never came into a game, any year I played with the Eagles that we weren't prepared.

- Part of Scranton Eagle story that made us great, especially in the late 80s, early 90s, we had the best coaching staff in the country.

Butch Keller was our head coach, taken over after Chick Rader started the team with the Lackawanna County Eagles in the 70s, and then started it back up again with John Rogan and Chick Rader in the early 80s.

When Butch took over and had his staff of John Whitelavich, that was the best line coach around, Stan Kucharski, the offensive coordinator, Dave Baker, the defensive coach.

We made adjustments and scouted teams better than anybody in America, and that's why we got the rings.

And that's what the Scranton Eagles were.

We were a community into ourselves and a brotherhood.

Even if you didn't love everybody, you got along on game day, we got it done.

Butch was always tough and he had that voice.

- You don't want to do it, we can go home.

You want to throw the ball, fine, if not we'll just line up and run off tackle.

- Butch wasn't the most sympathetic coach on the field as stuff happened.

Somebody'd get hurt and he'd yell, "We got another body, drag him outta there!"

He had certain sayings that the guys would always remember at practice.

"Line it up for sprints.

Lineman, linebackers, DBs, RBs, and the rest," is the way he used to call it.

When we weren't having a good practice, he would say, "We might as well wrap it up we're just killing the grass out here today."

- For long time I coached both teams.

I practiced at Honesdale 'til 5:30, I'd drive down here and we'd start at 7:00 or something like that, I'd get home like 10:00 or 11:00.

And I did that for a long time, many years, and I just loved it.

When I started at Honesdale, I was the only coach.

And my first real assistant was Whitey.

Whitey came out of college and he came there and we got things going, and then he moved on.

And then he came and played with the Eagles 'cause I was there.

And he had knee surgery at college, but he came and played guard and did so well, and we were such good friends.

And then we played together and then he became the line coach of the Eagles, which he was fantastic at.

And he's coached everywhere since.

And then Stanley, Stanley and I played against each other in high school, we played against each other in college, and then we played together.

And then we coached against each other.

Three days a week we would meet.

He's from Wallenpaupack, I was from Honesdale, we'd meet in Hamlin and drive down to Scranton.

And the week that we played each other was an exciting week.

If I won, I felt bad.

I wanted to win, but I felt bad.

And I think he was the same way.

But we were such good friends, and we're still friends today.

Dave Baker, same way.

Played, coached together, coached in high school together, and came to Eagles.

I said, "I have a good record with the Eagles," and it's because of the coaches.

I had fabulous coaches.

- John Whitelavich and I, we usually, if we drove to a game, we rode home together.

I can remember after a big win up in Syracuse one night, we went out and he had his Ford F-150 pickup, we get in it, we stopped at a pizza place, got a big tray of pizza.

We're driving down 81, just eating pizza.

Those are the things thinking, okay, what time are we getting home, what do your kids have to do tomorrow morning?

Yeah, well my kids are in Little League.

I got three of them go to go to Little League.

But that's what it was all about.

- Play with the Eagles, play with Coach Curry, who I thought was one of the best coaches, then I came out and met Butch Keller.

And he was just like a spin mirror of Coach Curry.

Well, a little nicer.

- It was an absolute pleasure and a privilege to play football for Butch Keller in high school and with the Scranton Eagles.

As a matter of fact, almost the totality of my football playing experience came with Butch Keller as head coach.

When I first played for him, he was a terrifying figure.

Basically, he held your fate in the palm of his hand and he wasn't afraid to let you know that.

I'm very happy to say that over the years, first of all, Butch was mellowed a great deal.

Butch is always there for you, on and off the field, from the time I first played from him 'til right now, all these years later.

Butch was a task master, but he was always fair.

You always knew where you stood with Butch.

You could go and ask him a question, he would give you a straight answer.

Whether you wanted to hear it or not, he would tell you the truth.

- Dave Baker, Butch and Whitey, they made us look like heroes at times.

They would go and scout and film the next team up the ladder.

They would walk in with a camera and film them.

People would say, "You can't do that."

He goes, "Well, that guy's filming, that guy's filming."

And the beta, that used to be the word, that's probably way outta touch now, but the information we got from those formations, all that kind of stuff, I'd go out and sniff out a screen pass only 'cause Bake told me about a 15 times.

Our coaches went the extra mile as much as all the guys.

- I learned a great deal from not only Butch Keller, Stanley Kucharski, Dave Baker, John Whitelavich.

But the thing about these guys and about all the guys on the team, we all had different careers.

We all had jobs.

We played for the love of the game and they coached for the love of the game.

So, I really respected the coaching staff, I respected my for the love of that game, and all of them gave their best.

I mean, we practiced three times a week, sometimes four times a week if we were playing a tough opponent.

And that took discipline because we worked full days, we came home, we had to be with our families and we devoted our time to our brothers on the Scranton Eagles, all for the love of of the game.

- We get together, we talk about glory days, we talk about a single game, we talk about a single catch, a single stack, a single tackle.

When we look back now 30, 35 years ago, the guys that taught us the game taught us a lot more about the game.

Taught us even life lessons back then that we took for granted, that now somehow translate into our lives today.

(soft music) - [Narrator] With a record setting 10 Empire Football League and five National Championships between 1982 and 1999, the Scranton Eagles were among the best semi-pro football teams ever to play in the nation.

- I heard Butch Keller say this several times, and it was after we won our first National Championship, he would say, "We're here for one purpose, and that ain't to play football, we're here to win the National Championship from day one."

And if with that was in our mind, then that was our end goal.

So we want to win it, we want to get every practice, we want to win every game, we want to win the league, but our goal is to win the National Championship.

- Biggest game was our first national title game against Racine in '84.

And coming out, and coming out from underneath the stands and Frank Yanik and I being next to each other, one side of the stadium, north side, was full.

And Frank goes, "Oh my god, look at all the people here."

And I happened to glance back over my left shoulder, see the other side of the stadium that was also full.

Played a great team, and winning that game, I never saw a happier bunch of guys.

Just to see that come to a culmination of winning a National Championship was my fondest memory of being a Scranton Eagle.

- In 1984, before we played a semi national championship round against Chambersburg Cardinals, my father went in for a hip replacement.

Unfortunately, he passed away.

And then I was contemplating whether to play against Chambersburg or not play that game.

I ended up playing, we beat them, we scored at the end of the game, it was 21-14.

I ran for 130 yards.

My teammates carried me off the field.

We won the National Championship.

And the feeling of knowing you beat the best team in the country gives you a lot of self-satisfaction.

- The year is '84.

And we won it.

We were just lucky to win the Empire Football Championship, we ended up winning the National Championship.

So everybody that was involved gave everything they had all the time 100%.

On our end, nobody saw what we did.

But 10:00 at night, I'm closing the dealership and now in comes Butch and Andy and the rest of them, and we have a meeting 'til 1:00 in the morning.

And this was often.

Getting the games ready, the buses, all those things that were necessary.

We got the support of the media.

They really supported us.

That's how everybody knew about us.

We were on every TV station.

The Scranton Times, they sent a reporter, covered every game.

We were the talk of the whole football season.

They did what they could to help us.

- Scott Walsh, again from the Scranton Times Tribune, and Scott, we had talked a little bit here prior to going on the air here tonight, and this could be a totally different game than the first one.

- If Newburgh wins here tonight, both they and the Eagles will wind up 9-1 in the regular season.

It may very well just come down to a coin flip.

So, whoever calls heads or tails and is right could be the regular season champion.

Because the Eagles were so good, some of the games were blowouts.

It was tough covering some of those games because you knew going in it wasn't were the Eagles going to win, it was by how much?

End of the first quarter they'd be up 35-0, and it's like, well, how do you write this story or how do you find something interesting about this game?

Some of the games against some of the better teams in the league, that's ones you look forward to.

Against Albany, against Newburgh.

'Cause you knew those were going to be good games.

You knew they were going to be games where the Eagles could wind up losing.

They were good teams, and those were the teams that were gunning for the Eagles.

The Eagles had the target on their back in the Empire Football League.

They wanted to be the Eagles, they wanted to beat the Eagles.

They were the games you looked forward to.

Even though the team was a semi-pro team, I always thought they acted in a very professional manner, and I always tried to cover them in a professional matter, the way maybe an NFL writer would cover the Eagles or the Jets.

People wanted to hear about the team's success.

There were a lot of interesting stories.

Obviously a lot of guys, a lot of characters on the team.

A lot of interesting background, stories and things, so there were stories there to tell.

That's kind of the way I always try to approach it.

Try to find those interesting stories.

Write about guys that were in the community, that were just the regular guys that they lived in the local neighborhoods and they just happened to play football on Saturday nights for the Scranton Eagles.

(fans cheering) - My personal favorite on the field memory was the EFL Championship game against Albany.

We had a terrific rivalry with the Metro Maulers as well.

We had some great games here and at their place.

The game went to double overtime.

We were twice down by 14 points, once in the fourth quarter, and came all the way back to force overtime and eventually win the game.

And John Kennedy threw the game winning touchdown pass to me.

I was interfered with on a play, knocked to the ground and actually caught the ball while I was on the ground.

Got back up and ran for the end zone.

Anybody who knows the stadium that Albany used to play in, the lines on the field were not at all clear.

And I wasn't even sure that I had gotten to the end zone.

There were guys trying to chase me down from behind, so I ran completely outta the end zone, onto the track beyond the track and just kept going until I was sure that I was in the end zone.

And that was the game winning touchdown, and we beat the Metro Mauler for the EFL Championship game in overtime.

But that's absolutely my favorite Eagles memory.

- The success of the Scranton Eagles, it was actually a storied time.

When I had joined, the previous season, they had went 17-0.

So, coming into that year, the expectation was to keep that streak alive.

- I really believe that our greatest teams of all were probably 1989 and around then.

And that '89 team, and the reason is because the dominant defense who play on all aspects of the game, great special teams, but that's where our passing game really came into play and really were proficient and explosive.

We could go line up toe to toe with anybody and run two tight ends, power I and just pound the heck out of the ball.

And as Butch Keller used to say, "That was Eagle ball.

You know where it's coming and you're not gonna stop us."

And then Stan Kucharski's passing offense took over and we were able to spread it out and really go to the shotgun.

We ran four receiver sets against some teams and we threw the heck out the ball each from though we were a predominantly running team.

I think when I added up the stats in 1989, we were 70% run, and I still threw for 3,500 yards and 35 touchdowns.

So, that was a pretty explosive offense we had that year.

That was probably, I think, the best overall team the Eagles ever had, but it was close 'cause there were a lot of good teams.

- And then when you came into the 80s with the teams, and we start playing and it fan base started growing a little bit, a little bit and people were saying, "Well, are the Scranton Eagles good enough to play," not anymore Is it Binghamton or Syracuse or Chambersburg, "are they good enough to play Chicago and beat them?"

(upbeat music) - When we went out to Ohio to play the National Championship we came out there and we were a ragtag group.

We had our shirts tied up, our uniforms were good, but they weren't the best.

And this team comes out looking like the Seattle Seahawks.

They were a million dollar look.

And I'm thinking, "Yo, here's our ragtag bunch of guys."

And they came out, and our guys had little wide eyes and all of a sudden the other team started talking.

"Chi Town.

We're gonna show you Chi Town football in Chicago.

We're gonna show you how to do it."

And I looked at our guys warming up and all of a sudden their eyes popped up.

"Oh, street fight!"

And that's what turned around the team unity.

And we destroyed them.

And if they didn't start talking and get our unity together again, it might've been a different thing.

But that's how the Eagles were.

You didn't mess with one, you mess with all of them.

- [Announcer] It looks like a hockey game broke out.

There's a flag on the play.

- I was very fortunate to be on and play on several championship teams.

Quarterback for seven Empire League Titles and four National Championships and I was on the team for the fifth.

So, I was around for all the championship days, and it included some disappointments.

From '87-'89, we had a 40 game winning streak.

- So, I was standing on sidelines in that right corner of the end zone.

And that kid caught that pass to break our streak.

He could of thrown that pass 1,000 times and he wouldn't have caught that, but he did.

That sticks in my mind.

We did the best we could and we kept it going for a long time.

And then the guys that followed me, they worked hard.

Dave Lunger worked hard at it.

He was a real true Eagle.

- My dad was David Lunger.

I believe it was early 90s that he got involved with the Scranton Eagles, and eventually was the president and general manager of the Scranton Eagles.

He was so proud of the players and the team and all of the work that was put into it.

When my dad got ill and was in the hospital, and I remember John Kennedy came over to the hospital to read him his induction into the semi-pro football Hall of Fame and how much it meant to him and how much he was proud of that.

And when he passed away, I got involved.

Kind of took over, little by little, some of the things my dad might have been doing until I was general manager and trying to fill my dad's shoes.

It becomes this wonderful family that you don't want to let down and you want to see succeed.

Football and the Scranton Eagles was really, truly everything to him.

(soft music) (tape scraping) (tape clattering) - What I found amazing about playing with the Eagles; you had players who were trained to get to the NFL, players who were in the NFL and trying to get back.

- I had aspirations of playing in the NFL after graduating from Bloomsburg.

Unfortunately, it didn't pan out the way I wanted.

I got cut up in Green Bay, I had a second surgery on my knee.

I went to Atlanta as a defensive back and got cut there after two days of practice.

And then I finally signed with the Baltimore Colts, and that was my best opportunity.

It just didn't work out.

I learned a lot about the business side of football in that experience with me.

I was a favorite of the coaches, but not of the personnel department because I came in and I actually outplayed some of their top draft picks.

- The pro experiences, I was in camp, I didn't really actually make a team, but I was in camp the first year, was I think '81.

Like I said, '81 with Buffalo Bills.

I got in, was there for three weeks.

They drafted 25 guys who take it as a job.

I took it more as just a game.

Where they actually had a shot, those guys had shots at it.

My thing was just, it might happen.

So, you just kind of went along with it and tried to ride it out as long as you could.

- When I was in high school, that's all you heard about.

Frank "The Tank" Yanik.

And this guy that's just barreling people over.

- [Announcer] Kennedy gives off the Yanik.

Yanik 45, Yanik 50, Yanik all the way to the 43 yard line!

- [Bill] Saw his name in Sport Magazine from an interview with Herschel Walker talking about being his best blocking back that he ever had at the time.

- If you really look at football as a game, and guys that love the game and not have an opportunity if they don't go to the NFL or to USFL or maybe even the Arena League, I think it gives them an opportunity to play one more time.

'Cause there's a lot of guys out there that can make the pros, they just need an opportunity and a stage to do it.

Because of the Eagles, I ended up getting a contract in the USFL with the New Jersey Generals.

And I had an opportunity to block for Herschel Walker, and I'll be honest with you, our 1984 National Championship team could have played with anybody, I thought, in that league.

That's how good I thought our team was.

I mean, don't get me wrong, they had some great athletes of course, but it wasn't what I thought it should have been.

But it was interesting and I'm glad I had an opportunity to do it.

(upbeat music) - In 1987, the NFL went on strike.

And the owners decided that they were just not going to close up shop and not have any games, they were going to recruit players and they were going to keep the season rolling.

Well, that weekend I had a phone call, it was on a Friday evening and I thought it was one of my buddies, Frank Yanik.

And here it was a gentleman saying, "Hello, I am so-and-so from Buffalo Bills.

Is Jack Bravyak there?"

I go, "Speaking," and I said, "Who put you up to this, Frank?"

And I hung up on the guy.

(phone ringing) He called back and he said, "Please, don't hang up."

I said, "Okay, what's this about?"

He said, "We're looking for some offensive lineman."

I said, "I play defense, that's what I excel at."

I said, "However, I do have a friend of mine that he played with us for the last five years, Jeff Sodrosky, he's from the Dallas area, he played offensive tackle."

He asked what his number was, he called him up.

Jeffrey called me back and the gentleman said, "Okay, both of yous come on up here, be here by 5:00 at Orchard Park Sunday evening.

At that point we got our $1,000 signing bonus, which we were pretty impressed with that.

I never thought that would happen where I could actually get paid to play football.

I would wear my Scranton Eagle T-shirt wherever I went and different people would make comments about it.

"What's a Scranton Eagle?"

"What's this?

What's that?"

I'll never forget to this day, we're walking through the lobby and they had a group of players sitting there and they were kind of cocky and they were in their own little group, and their ringleader looked at me and said, "Bravyak, what's a Scranton Eagle?

And I said, "A semi-pro team out of Scranton."

From that point on, 'cause he was being a wise guy to everybody, he never, I guess maybe he respected me a little, whatever, but I just mind my own business and that's what I did.

- [Announcer] Buffalo Bills football.

♪ W-B-E-N ♪ - WBEN out of Buffalo was looking for someone to talk to.

Now here's the first question he asked me: "So, Jack Bravyak, how are you?"

I said, "Good, how are you doing?"

He said, "What's it like crossing a picket line?"

I go, "Excuse me?"

He said, "What's it like?

Can you fill us in?

What's it like crossing a picket line of the Buffalo Bills?"

I said, "Yeah, there's not a problem."

To be frank with you, I said, "We have guys, the one guy played with Kansas City, the other guy was with Denver and the other guy played with the 49ers, roommate or my nose tackle," I said, "he had the bench press record of 550 pounds."

I said, "So, your point of crossing a picket line, we're the same size.

We might even be bigger, I don't know, and we don't really care.

So, I'm trying to look out for me, Jack Bravyak."

I said, "So if I want to come and play football and do this and they're going to give me a hard time at that picket line, I'm there.

Hey, what do you got?"

- I, myself and some of the other guys tried to get as many guys that hadn't had college experience that came from high schools to try to get him into college and play.

We had Carl Majer from Berwick.

He played for us for a couple years.

The next thing you know, he's not around.

You turn on the TV in a Saturday afternoon, there's 100,000 people at Penn State, and he's walking out as a middle linebacker at Temple playing against Penn State.

- What's the odds of me going back to college?

So I went down to see Coach Curry.

He's like, "Did you sign any contracts?

Did you have an agent?"

I said, "No, I had nothing."

We never got paid in semi-pro.

So basically what happened, long story short, ended up looking at the schools that were recruiting me: Temple, Syracuse, Tennessee and West Virginia.

And I went to the schools and watched them play their spring practice, and I'm like, "These linebackers, I get beat out, no problem."

So called up Temple; long story short, walked on as a true freshman as 23 years old and made the team, made the starting team, was leading the team in tackles and was doing great.

And all of a sudden after the Penn State game, had a great game there, and they came to me and said, "How did Carl Majer play?

He was paid to play football with the Scranton Eagles."

I'm like, "No, we went through this."

So, it was a big story.

The Eagles were a big part of it.

Butch Keller had to come down, coach Curry had to come down.

NCAA did a big investigation.

Long story short, they hit me with an NCAA violation with, if you play any organized sports after the age of 20, you get that year taken.

So, basically I had a wife, I had kids, I had a house payment, I had a full scholarship coming.

Coach Berndt just got fired that week, so I'm out in the wind.

So, that's basically my Temple story, but I wouldn't change it for anything.

And that's what led me and we came back and played here again with the Eagles.

(dramatic music) - [Narrator] On the field, the Scranton Eagles were all business.

Off the field, well, not so much.

The stories you're about to hear are true.

Although some names may have been changed to protect the innocent.

- So, people always ask me, "What was it like to play for the Scranton Eagles?"

And I said, "It was organized chaos, at best sometimes."

People say, "Well, that never happened."

I could tell you sitting here, it happened.

If they said it happened, it happened.

Now the events surrounding it may have been a little bit skewed in some people's mind or we left out things on purpose, but it did happen.

- The bus ride stories back in the 70s was like "Slap Shot" with Paul Newman.

Things that went on in that bus, I didn't want to talk about.

It was insane.

- I'm sitting next to one of the offensive guards who had the Otis Sistrunk look.

He was bald head then he had the thing that came down here and came down around.

And I looked at him and I said, "Where'd you play college ball?"

'Cause everybody I knew had played college ball.

And he said, "I played the big house."

And I said, "Oh, Michigan?

Awesome!"

"Attica, man!

Attica."

I'm like, "All righty!

Can I get another seat somewhere?"

- We did not always have the greatest reputation with buses as far as what happens during and afterwards.

- Most of the bus rides were three to seven hours.

- We stopped in Bampton at the strip joint.

And we, to make a long story short, we were escorted to the border by New York State Police.

You can let your imagination run wild there.

- Coming home from Syracuse with 24 cases of beer on the bus for 48 guys, and we have to pull over in Binghamton to get more.

- We had a few beers on the way back.

Well, I was the ringleader with the boombox.

We had a couple of traditions, and one of the traditions was our rookie chug in which a veteran would call out a rookie name, make him stand up.

We told the rookies in advance, do not wear expensive shirts because you won't have it on at the end of the trip.

We would tear the shirt off the rookies back, make headbands out of it, and everyone put a headband on and we would make the rookie chug a beer.

Whatever he didn't chug in the first attempt, he would dump over the top of his head.

There was a documentary about the old Pottstown Firebirds way back, and how they would go to away games, and when they would open the door of the bus, the beer cans would come rolling out and so would about three players.

So, it was basically almost the same thing.

- The bus rides were basically our on the road party box going home.

Like it or hate it, everybody remembers the Eagle bus rides.

- It was all in fun.

As my grandson says, nobody got hurt and we all came out alive.

- [Cheerleaders] Keep it up!

Keep it up!

Keep the super spirit up!

Say keep it up!

- Cheerleaders for the Scranton Eagles were notorious for actually partying just as hard as some of the guys at the time.

They did a lot of stuff for us, they built up the crowds and stuff.

But again, when it came time, the Scranton Eagles, it was all business on the field.

But as a guy from Canada said to me, he says, "Win or lose, hit the booze."

And the cheerleaders were part of all of it.

And like we know, the grand story, it's beer buses and broken dreams, the life of a Minor League football player.

So, you got all of it.

Whether it was cheerleaders, whether it was partying.

And we all hung out.

- We were never treated anything but great by the guys, which in today's time, a shocker because we were all friends and they treated us well.

I loved watching them, I loved cheering for them.

Everybody was good to us.

The management was good to us, the players were good to us, the fans were good to us.

So at the time, I started dating one of the players, Mark Lloyd, he was one of the leading receivers, and it was phenomenal to see him.

It's weird to say the word, but he was absolutely beautiful when I was up in the stands seeing him because he'd be out ahead of everybody with the green grass and the lines and the beautiful uniforms that the Eagles had, the bright red, white and blue.

He was a beautiful thing to see when he caught a ball and ran.

- Kathy was a cheerleader.

As a group, we all hung out together, so that's how I met her.

We set up a date, 1984, continued to see each other.

31 years later, still not married.

We decided that we were going to tie the knot and did it in Las Vegas.

If I wouldn't have met her, I don't know where I would've been.

Probably would've been living under a bridge in Buffalo somewhere hanging out, maybe living with my brother or sister somewhere.

Just not having anything happen.

I think football was a thing that just came around.

Like I said, I think it was fate.

(soft music) - My early days with the Scranton Eagles were actually very interesting.

I had a short stint before I went to college, and then when I was in college, I was actually studying to be a priest in a seminary and I went to the University of Scranton and I was living at St. Pius X Seminary, and that was my first full year with the Scranton Eagles.

And it was a really interesting experience because I was basically sneaking out of the seminary to go to Eagles football practice.

The Rector of the seminary and my senior, Eugene Clark, God rest his soul, great man, had no idea that I was going to football practice every night.

It's a really interesting story how the jig was finally up because we were up Binghamton one weekend playing a great.

The Jets were one of our best rivals, and we had a phenomenal game with the Jets that particular weekend.

We actually lost, a heartbreaking loss.

And I came back very late to the seminary, I got it back in time for evening prayer and morning prayer.

Everything that I was supposed to be at, I was at.

I got called into the Rector's office that afternoon, and there were a bunch of priests sitting around and smiling at me and I knew I was in trouble for something, but I couldn't figure out exactly what I was in trouble for.

And Monsignor Clark, who was very Canadian and ended every sentence with "eh" picked up the Scranton paper from that morning.

And John Kennedy's name and my name were in the headline.

And he said, "Mr. Edwards, is there something you'd like to tell me, eh?"

And the jig was up, I had to explain to him that I was sneaking out to play semi-pro football with the Eagles.

Fortunately, Monsignor Clark, he was kind of a man's man and he loved the idea of one of his seminarians playing football, so after doing a little bit of penance, I was allowed to continue playing with the Eagles.

- You're keying on this running back, his name is Jefferson.

He led the league the year before in rushing yards.

And I said, "All right," so we watch film on him and everything.

So, pregame, I'm watching him, and I realized that he didn't have pads on.

And he was a moose.

And I said to myself, "My god, what did I got myself into?"

But the bottom line was we hit head on, (indistinct) we hit head on.

At the same time, Bob Craig came from the side and hit me in the side of the head.

Knocked me out cold.

Knocked me out cold.

Charlie King stuffed ammonia up my nose to try to wake me up.

And finally I woke up, went to the sidelines was out about three plays, went back into the game.

And after the game, Jefferson came over to me and he says, "I didn't want you to get up."

He said, "I didn't want you to die," but he said, "I didn't want you to get up."

And I took that as the ultimate compliment.

And I have these memories to today.

Four concussions later, knee surgery, back, this, that.

It's all worth it.

(tape scraping) (tape clattering) - Nobody knew about concussions.

Well, you got your bell rung.

Take it easy.

"I'm okay, I'm okay."

Nowadays, a kid gets banged up, "Oh, I got to go to the doctor."

Or they mention something to anybody, oh, you're out.

You're concussed, you're out.

You never show pain on the field.

If you're hurt, you get up, you grunt in a huddle.

You don't show them that you're hurt.

Nowadays, oh, I got to get out, I got to do this and stuff.

And they're right, but that's how fossilized I am.

You play.

I've been hit in the head a zillion times.

That's part of it.

- It's funny 'cause when I came out of college, I had a suspension helmet.

So when I came down here with the Eagles in '82, I took a lot of static from a lot of guys that just went, "I can't believe you're playing with a suspension helmet."

Everybody else had pack fives, I think they were, and then air helmets were a big deal.

But then again, those were guys that were getting hit, taking hits: the linemen, the running backs.

Our running back, Frank Yanik, they said he had a cement head.

But I'm sure he got beat up a lot.

And there was a lot of games he probably wouldn't have been able to finish 'cause they would've taken him out.

- How many times did he have negative yards?

That was from hitting his forehead on somebody else's.

- [Announcer] Kennedy back to pass, no screen this time.

He sets up.

He's throwing long over to the sideline.

Going to be incomplete.

- [Announcer 2] Yanik got dumped on the far side here by Kelly.

(player booms) And he's down and hurt.

- [Announcer] Yeah.

Their premier running back, Frank Yanik, the former New Jersey General is down there on the field, shaken up on the play.

- You play the game hard.

You wonder about CTE a lot because sometimes you forget certain things.

Back then, we didn't have the helmets we have now.

And it can take its toll.

- It takes a toll on your body all these years later.

I retired from semi-pro at 46, believe it or not.

I was probably one of the oldest guys in the league at the time.

I felt like a Superman.

It was amazing.

I was in tip-top shape in my 40s, and some guys aren't.

All these years later is what it, which is now, kind of paying for it.

Your body gets beat up pretty good.

I probably had over 20 concussions.

Crack collarbone, sternum, shoulders, hips, knees, ankles.

Back in '96 through 2007, there really wasn't a concussion protocol back then, and if you got your bell rung or you got blacked out from a side swipe from the player, you didn't think nothing of it, you just shrugged it off.

Smelling salts and boom, you went right back in.

And back then you didn't really think about.

And you think about it now; all the concussions I had throughout the years, it does weigh on me.

What's going to happen when I get older.

Hearing issues, sinus issues, sleeping issues from playing the sport.

People ask me, "Would you do it again?"

And I say, "No, never."

But I would.

- I was maybe five or six years into my career with the Eagles and I caught a touchdown pass in the far end zone here, and I just got my head knocked off when I caught it.

(fans cheering) (player bangs) I'm not quite sure what happened after that because the next thing I remember was about a quarter and a half later.

I was standing on the sidelines carrying on what I thought was a very rational, cogent conversation with Mark Lloyd, one of my fellow receivers.

And I was standing there talking, but apparently what I thought was coming out in my mind was not what was coming out of my mouth.

Apparently I was just speaking Martian gibberish.

And Lloyd, he went and grabbed one of the trainers on the sideline and said, "Dude, you're talking gibberish."

And they gave me one of the ammonia tablets to try to clear my head.

And I remember vividly, this is the first memory I have of that afternoon: breaking the ammonia tablet and handing it back to the guy and saying, "It doesn't work."

And Lloyd going, "oh my god, yes it does!"

And I was not allowed to play for the rest of that day.

- Injuries are a part of the game.

I'm kind of an orthopedic nightmare right now.

As far as myself and CTE, there are times when I've forgotten something or misplaced something and I wonder, is it that or is it just part of the aging process?

I think my temperament changes sometimes, I get a little bluer than I think I should.

There's an old joke about if you lose your car keys, that's okay.

If you forget what they're for, you better go get some help.

And I haven't forgotten what they're for yet.

I have a hard time watching pro football and all the stimulus on the screen, all the statistics running across in the trailer, I couldn't keep up with them.

See the score, see the time, and what did that last trailer say?

And I honestly think maybe I'm not as sharp as I used to be, but is it from getting banged?

I've had my share of hits.

Some friends ask me how many concussions I've had.

How many do I know about?

Probably two.

How many do I have?

I have no idea.

I don't know how many went undiagnosed.

If you think your uncle, your neighbor, somebody's suffering from that, get them to some help.

The sooner the better.

But it is for real.

- I've seen differences in walking into a room, going to get something and then realize, hmm, what did I come in the room for?

Now does that have to necessarily do with how many times I've been whacked in the head?

There's stuff in the news today where we're talking about all this CTE and everything, it is kind of alarming, it does scare you a little bit that maybe it'll affect you down the line.

Other than that, it's just the physical stuff.

The body's beat up.

I mean, I played football since I'm five, six years old all the way through with maybe a year or two in between where I took off between levels.

So, I put myself through a lot of heartache, a lot of pain.

- It's a reality.

I'm happy to still be here.

I've had more surgeries than I would like to enumerate.

I've got more titanium in my body.

And a lot of people say, "Well, that's from football."

And to be honest with you, I don't agree with them.

I was very conditioned oriented when I was an athlete, both in high school, college and when I was playing at any level.

And I think that any arthritis that I've had, any surgeries that I've needed, just a culmination of being an athlete for a real long period of time.

- I've been blessed.

I've really been blessed.

I mean, I started every game, from midget football through high school, from the Eagles to Temple and then Arena Football, and then I was down with the XFL.

If you look at my helmet, I'd go through two face masks every year.

I've never had a concussion.

I gave a lot of concussions.

There's definitely proof that concussion symptoms are out there, and guys have died from it, went crazy from it.

It's a proven fact.

It's a scary thing, but as for me, I've been lucky.

- [Narrator] A legacy is defined as the long lasting impact that particular events and actions that took place in the past.

One of the most important lessons learned from Scranton Eagles football is that nothing lasts forever.

(upbeat music) (indistinct) (all cheering) - I think the legacy of the Scranton Eagles is slightly unheralded.

A lot of people today don't realize what they had years ago in the area, especially in those mid to late 80s and into the early 90s teams.

Taking nothing away from the Lackawanna County Eagles because they had their own legacy.

We're talking about two completely different legacies, I think.

That the area really could have grasped it a little more and understood what we had, even though we did have a very tight knit group of followers and they were there religiously at every game.

If we could have expanded it a little more, and god knows we tried.

The brand of football that was in the area at the time was taken for granted back then.

The group of guys that came up playing those days, they all know it.

They all know it.

There's not many teams, if any, that could have beaten those teams.

- Our fan base wasn't large, and I could never put my thumb on why that was.

Because I thought it was good family entertainment, it was priced right.

I just think there was too many other distractions for people not to come.

But the fans that we did have were the most dedicated fans and were there for all the biggest moments that the Scranton Eagles had.

- I don't know if it was because it was in the middle of the summer when we started our season, but as the season progressed and as we started winning our games as we traditionally did and playoffs would come up, we'd start getting more and more people in the stands.

When we transitioned to Lackawanna County Stadium, PNC Field right now, I'll never forget the first night we played, and we gave away tickets.

And I never saw so many people.

As a matter of fact, they had a delay the start of the game because Interstate 81 was backed up for almost a mile going in both directions.

But it was a great feeling.

And I wish that we had more attendance like that because the Scranton Eagles were great for the northeastern PA area, great for the notoriety that we got across the country.

We would actually go into to cities like Albany, New York and Syracuse and we'd have thousands of fans, only because the Scranton Eagles were coming to town and we were a premier powerhouse in semi-professional football in the country.

It was a little unfortunate though when we would come back to Scranton and some of the attendance would be 1,000 people.

- The Minor League Baseball team came, the Red Barons came, and then the Penguins came, and little by little, more things started happening, and that's when people had more options, and that's when they started going to those other options.

The great players that played with the team, they started getting older.

And I don't think that interest was there amongst some of the younger players the way it was in the 80s and in the 90s.

You didn't have people saying, "When I get older, I'm done with high school, done with college, I want to go play for the Eagles."

And I think that kind of led to the interest waning a little bit too.

- From a business standpoint, it was not successful.

From an athletic standpoint, nothing can compare to it.

Nothing.

I saw things and I vicariously enjoyed every game.

I mean, I felt like I was out there myself.

Nothing is forever.

None of us.

Nothing.

And I don't think it could ever happen again here because of everything else around us.

500 TV stations, this, that.

It's hard.

- When I left the Eagles, it was a very, very tough decision.

'Cause I put a lot of time in and enjoyed it so much.

But I can remember the day I made up my mind; we were at Newburgh.

- [Announcer] And as time winds down here at (indistinct) Stadium, the final score on (indistinct) scoreboard- (melancholy piano music) - And we had just lost and the game was over and I went out and I was the only one there.

And I'm thinking, "Yo, I got all this stuff here."

In the old days we had five guys doing this, five guys doing that.

I had all these coaches, all these things and it was just gone.

I said, "Well, it's probably time for me to get out of here because people are losing interest.

They need some new blood here."

- The Eagle's place in sports here in northeastern Pennsylvania, I think they certainly have a place.

Are they at the top of the list?

No.

But I think there's certainly, you have to talk about them as far as sports history here in the area.

- Well, it's something that hasn't been repeated, and I don't think it ever will.

You can't repeat something that went as well as both sets of Eagles.

The early Eagles and the latter Eagles.

You hope that that would duplicate itself, but it never does.

- I think in today's society and what it took for us as a 12 month determination and togetherness and not worrying about ourselves, but the betterment of the team, I don't think it could be replicated again.

- The Scranton Eagles, Lackawanna County, the Scranton Wilkes-Barre Eagles, they kind of went away.

But now I think it's evolving back where local games, you're looking at high school football, how huge it's got.

Not only Division 1 college football, but even Division 2 and Division 3, they have the playoff system.

I think that it could come back here with the right ownership and the right coaching staff and develop into something again.

- If I ever won the lottery, the first thing I'd be doing is trying to find out how to get an Eagle group going again.

And try and find guys, and it would be fun trying to find guys with tryouts and stuff who had the same mentality of what we had.

And that would be so much fun.

The problem is we couldn't play anybody around.

We'd have to go looking.

But it would be fun to do.

- Having the pride of being an Eagle and the championships and the foundation that we built, I think that sticks with everybody.

It's just the self pride, a pride for the area to say I was a part of that.

- What I loved about being involved with the Eagles was how proud the players were to represent Lackawanna County and the city of Scranton was just outstanding.

- I think what you do learn from playing with the Eagles and have played for the Eagles is that how many people do remember how good we were?

- As we got older and we get together now, we talk about how much we appreciate the people back there, the fans of Scranton.

I mean, I still run into people and they say, "I remember you when you played with the Eagles."

I look at them and I say, "My god, have a good memory, 'cause I can't remember that."

- When I said I was playing with Scranton Eagles, I thought I was playing for the Philadelphia Eagles.

People were like, "Oh my god, you're playing with Scranton Eagles!"

It was such a cool thing at that time.

Once you were here, you were a Scranton, so it was just like you were Scranton Eagle.

And I think that meant a lot.

I feel like that's my adopted home and everyone around the area, people embraced the team.

So it was really cool to be a part of that.

- As much as I look back and I tell my wife, I had to be crazy to do this and do it for so long, I would do it again because I found out later on in life or later on in my career, it wasn't so much the love of the game, although to play this football you have to love the game, I fell in love with winning.

- Would I do it over again?

I sure would.

I wouldn't change anything.

- We all stuck together, and it's a great experience and I wouldn't change it for nothing.

- I met some of my best friends that played for the Eagles and the organization that were involved, the coaching staff and people who were involved, even the ownership.

I think what I miss most about playing with the Eagles, because as you get older, as you well know, people go their own directions and you lose that camaraderie, so it's always good to see the guys again.

- [Narrator] It's been decades since the Scranton Eagles last took the field.

But for some people in Northeastern Pennsylvania, the legacy of the players and organization still remain, while for others, memories are in the distant past.

In the end, what brought this group of young men together wasn't about fame and fortune, it was just about winning.

(light music) (dramatic music) (TV fuzzing)