Shoaf played at Brownsville, Wabash
Former Brownsville High School football standout Gil Shoaf was a giant during the era of football that he played in and, oddly enough, he wound up playing his college football for a team called the 无毛视频淟ittle Giants.无毛视频�
Shoaf was a massive lineman at 6-5 and 300 pounds.
无毛视频淚 was pretty big for the day,无毛视频� Shoaf joked. 无毛视频淚 was big, but I didn无毛视频檛 move like the guys can today.无毛视频�
He was a part of some competitive teams at Brownsville on teams that posted records of 3-4-2 in 1950, 6-4 in 1951 and 5-5 in 1952.
无毛视频淚 really started getting significant playing time my junior year,无毛视频� Shoaf stated. 无毛视频淚 played a little bit as a sophomore. I played tackle on offense and middle guard on defense.无毛视频�
Brownsville was a part of the Big Six and played some tough teams like Donora and Charleroi, but Redstone was always the main rival.
无毛视频淭hey were knock-down, drag-out affairs,无毛视频� Shoaf recalled. 无毛视频淲e had a long winning streak against Redstone dating back before me and coming up through my years, but we ran into a buzz saw by the name of Bobby Locke, he was an outstanding football player at Redstone, he was an outstanding athlete. They beat us when Locke played.无毛视频�
Shoaf was very aware of Brownsville无毛视频檚 great football tradition and his family was a big part of that legacy.
无毛视频淢y folks and my family were friends with the Sutton family,无毛视频� Shoaf said. 无毛视频淢y brother Jim and my brother Joe played at Brownsville before me. Jim played college ball at Iowa.无毛视频�
Shoaf played for Warner Fritsch during his playing days at Brownsville.
无毛视频淚 had a good relationship with Fritsch,无毛视频� Shoaf said. 无毛视频淗e was more with the lineman than he was with the running backs, but he was the head coach and was in charge of everything. We had a guy named Charlie Slick who was a good assistant coach, he was a hard worker and Fritsch was the same way.
无毛视频淲e had some talented players like Ace Grooms, who was a year ahead of me. He was a good all-around athlete, he was very talented.无毛视频�
Shoaf was named second-team Class AA by the Uniontown Evening Standard in 1952.
Track was another sport that Shoaf participated in at Brownville, his events were the shot put and the discus.
无毛视频淚 did not have much success in track,无毛视频� Shoaf offered. 无毛视频淭o be honest with you, I was just trying to use it as a method of keeping in shape.无毛视频�
When Shoaf graduated from Brownsville in 1952 there were some schools interested in giving him a football scholarship.
无毛视频淚 had a couple of offers from Pitt, I was going to visit Tennessee and Miami (Fla.),无毛视频� Shoaf explained. 无毛视频淢y senior year in high school was the year that they dropped the two-platoon system in college football. When you went to college you had to play both ways. My teammate at Brownsville, Tom Marchando, had several scholarship offers, but when they made the rule that you had to play both ways, they thought that Tom was too small and I was too big.
无毛视频淭om and I talked it over and we were both losing scholarship offers. We had a contact from Wabash College, his name was Owen Huntsman and he recruited Pennsylvania, he and his wife graduated from Thiel College. He was a great salesman. Tom and I both decided to go to Wabash College.无毛视频�
Shoaf was a part of some solid teams for the Wabash Little Giants. They were 6-2-1 in 1953, 7-1-1 in 1954, the loss was to Ohio Wesleyan 28-14 and the tie was with Bradley 7-7. In 1955, Wabash finished with a record of 5-3-1 and they were 6-2-1 in 1956.
无毛视频淥ur record while we were in school, we averaged 6-2-1,无毛视频� Shoaf said. 无毛视频淲e had some talent and as a matter of fact our starting line had nine players from Western Pennsylvania. Our head coach was Garland Frazier, he was kind of low key, he wasn无毛视频檛 as domineering as some coaches are. He wanted the most he get out of you, but he was quiet. He demanded that you play ball and get the job done.无毛视频�
Shoaf was named Honorable Mention Little All-America in 1956.
Wabash started a wrestling program in 1956-67 and Shoaf, who didn无毛视频檛 wrestle in high school, was part of a team that went 6-3 in its first season.
无毛视频淲e held our own,无毛视频� Shoaf stated. 无毛视频淚t was a starting program where we learned, Tom Marchando and I both wrestled and we learned from kids that came to our program from high school programs. I won most of my matches and did fairly well.无毛视频�
Shoaf is glad that he made the decision to go to Wabash.
无毛视频淢archando and I went to Wabash with the idea that we were going to get an education and we did,无毛视频� Shoaf said.
The Philadelphia Eagles drafted Shoaf in the 11th round of the 1957 NFL draft.
无毛视频淚 got drafted and went to training camp in Hershey,无毛视频� Shoaf recalled. 无毛视频淚 got hurt, I had a bad knee prior to going to Wabash and when I got to the pros I hurt the knee and that was the end of my pro football career.无毛视频�
Shoaf went to work in northwest Indiana in the steel business. He then worked for the Simmons mattress company for four years. He then went to work for the Paul J. Smith sporting goods company. He took over the company after Smith died. He broke away and formed his own sporting goods company and owned the company for 20 years. He retired in 2000.
His wife, Patricia, passed away four years ago. Shoaf, 79, resides in Schererville, Ind. He has two daughters, Dawn and Candice. Dawn has three adopted children and Candice has two adopted children.
Shoaf was inducted into the Wabash College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1988.