‘Deuce’ is gone but not forgotten
One of the big changes in the sports world over the years is the lack of characters that used to be present in western Pennsylvania. We lost another of those memorable characters with the passing of Lawrence 无毛视频淒euce无毛视频� Skurcenski, of North Braddock.
Skurcenski died Tuesday night August 18 at ManorCare Health Services in Monroeville of complications from a stroke suffered weeks ago. Mr. Skurcenski was 73.
Deuce was one of a kind and that is an understatement. As a teenager in the 1950s, he started keeping statistics at high school games as a hobby and was still doing it as recently as a few months ago. He kept stats at more than 11,000 basketball games at various levels and 3,000 football games. Skurcenski scribbled stats on a yellow legal pad. He kept the stats mostly for himself, but also did it many years for media members. He also used to be the official scorer at the WPIAL basketball championships and some PIAA playoff games.
无毛视频淚 don无毛视频檛 go to that many games, and I get paid to do this!,无毛视频� West Virginia basketball coach Bob Huggins once remarked about Skurcenski无毛视频檚 prolific attendance at basketball games.
无毛视频淚 met Deuce though the Dapper Dan Roundball Classic,无毛视频� Roundball Classic founder Sonny Vaccaro stated. 无毛视频淗e was from Braddock and I was from Trafford. I无毛视频檒l never forget the day he met me at the Pitt Field House at a WPIAL basketball game. He came up and started talking, over the years and in my lifetime there were so many characters from Pittsburgh that are indelibly etched in my mind. Deuce was extraordinary in the sense that when you looked at all the different people, who were different in a lot of ways, but had a love for the game. Usually basketball was the common denominator in all those people.
无毛视频淵ou look at Deuce and he had a specific situation in keeping the score and going to the games. It was his lifelong dream. I don无毛视频檛 know if he knew it when he started his life, but I think he actually had a goal. He didn无毛视频檛 make money I don无毛视频檛 think, I don无毛视频檛 think he got paid especially in the 无毛视频�70无毛视频檚无毛视频� when I first started running into him at. But he kept those box scores and he was so beautiful when you无毛视频檇 see him. He was extraordinary because you knew what the conversation was going to be. He was very through in what he was telling you. It was a joy. I think people in Pittsburgh that didn无毛视频檛 have a chance to meet those kind of people especially Deuce were left out in a sense. They were pure. They were like the last honest people on earth. I never thought they had an agenda, I never thought there was anything bad. There was no motivation other than the fact that they loved the purity of the game and the significance that they carried. Deuce to me was just a beautiful human being. And that无毛视频檚 what Pittsburgh was for these people who were a little bit different. They were characters, but characters in a wonderful way.无毛视频�
Skurcenski spoke his own unique language. Games were 无毛视频渇rays.无毛视频� High-scoring games were 无毛视频渟moking frays.无毛视频� Officials were 无毛视频渮ebras.无毛视频�
无毛视频淚f you didn无毛视频檛 know Deuce and were around him, you无毛视频檇 wonder about the guy,无毛视频� said Bill Priatko, a former Steeler and an athletic director for years in the WPIAL. He also was a good friend of Mr. Skurcenski. 无毛视频淏ut, if you knew him, you knew what he was all about. There will never be another Deuce.无毛视频�
Deuce holds a special place in Fayette County sports lore. He became infamous for a scoring error in a 1988 PIAA second-round playoff game between Uniontown and Farrell. He gave two points to No. 30 for Farrell (Carletis Williams) instead of No. 30 for Uniontown (Dana Vaughns), so instead of the score being tied 20-20, Farrell had a 22-18 lead.
At halftime, officials Jim Julian and Walt Szala discussed the mistake with WPIAL executive director Charles 无毛视频淎ce无毛视频� Heberling, who was working the game as a site manager.
Although the officials knew the score was wrong, media members knew the score was wrong and fans knew the score was wrong, Heberling told the officials the score had to stand because he believed the rules stated the error needed to be corrected by the first dead ball.
Heberling was wrong about that, too, because the score could have been changed at any point in the game.
So the incorrect score stood, Uniontown lost in two overtimes, and Skurcenski drew the wrath of Uniontown fans that night. Upset Uniontown coach Lash Nesser never coached another game. Nesser, a legendary coach who won over 600 games at St. John无毛视频檚 High School and Uniontown, died of a heart attack later in 1988.
无毛视频淭he uniform numbers were all even numbers and that started the whole thing,无毛视频� Vaughns said. 无毛视频淲e were nervous for Coach Lash Nesser, he was upset, but he couldn无毛视频檛 do anything for his boys because his hands were tied.无毛视频�
Skurcenski, went to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette offices after the 1988 game, like he always did on basketball nights. He looked ready to cry.
He said what he remembered most about that game was 无毛视频渢he fact that I had to get escorted out of the danger that was in the Field House.无毛视频�
Deuce finally came to Uniontown 14 years later in December of 2002. He was the official score keeper for Woodland Hills basketball and kept the score book as Woodland Hills lost to Uniontown, 86-47.
At the time he had this to say about the trip to Uniontown.
无毛视频淚 wasn无毛视频檛 really worried about it. Uniontown is a great community for high school hoops. It无毛视频檚 one of those old school places with great traditions, like they无毛视频檝e got at Beaver Falls, Aliquippa, Duquesne, Valley and Farrell, where everybody in the town really gets behind their team.
无毛视频淚 heard some mumbling up in the stands, different people saying, 无毛视频楾here无毛视频檚 the guy who did us wrong at the Pitt Field House that one year.无毛视频� But I knew they were just trying to be funny. I无毛视频檓 glad I went up there. It无毛视频檚 a great place to catch a ball game.无毛视频�
The Pittsburgh basketball characters are gone: Radio Rich, Tony Tato, Mossie Murphy, Tiger Paul and now Deuce. Gone but not forgotten!
George Von Benko无毛视频檚 无毛视频淢emory Lane无毛视频� column appears in the Monday editions of the 无毛视频-Standard. He also hosts a sports talk show on WMBS-AM radio from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.