Gaydos rode football to success in medical field
Many Fayette County athletes used athletics to further their education. One of those athletes was former German Township High School football and wrestling standout Joel Gaydos.
Gaydos was a two-year varsity letterman in football for the Uhlans in the late 1950s. He was on squads that posted records of 5-4 in 1958 and 1-8 in 1959. Gaydos was there for the changing of the old guard when longtime German coach Lou Rozzi stepped down after the 1958 campaign and was replaced by John Katusa.
无毛视频淚 started playing football in eighth grade and I got varsity letters my last two years in high school,无毛视频� Gaydos recalled. 无毛视频淎fter coach Rozzi resigned, my senior year was a bad year. Looking back I remember two things about that 1959 season. Katusa came in and was filled with energy and he brought in a lot of new things. He brought in the lonely end that they used at Army, and Lou Rozzi无毛视频檚 teams were really focused on basics. We did a lot of very good line blocking and hard running. We didn无毛视频檛 do a lot of passing. Katusa brought in a lot of things quickly and tried to implement it and it was a little too fast.
无毛视频淭he other thing I remember about that season was that in August and September it was very hot and very dry. My recollection is that a lot of the other teams in the area backed off on hard hitting and long practices. We never backed off and we did two-a-day practices. There were injuries and people were hurting and I think when we entered the season we were hurting and once we got into the losing mode it was a difficult situation to come out of.无毛视频�
Gaydos was listed at 5-foot-9 and 180 pounds.
无毛视频淚 was actually a little taller than that,无毛视频� Gaydos said. 无毛视频淚 used to go about 185 to 190 pounds. At various times in my two varsity years I played every place on the line on offense and defense. I played middle guard occasionally, but I did not play center on offense.无毛视频�
A highlight for Gaydos was catching a touchdown pass his senior year in a 33-14 loss to Uniontown.
无毛视频淚 did and if I remember correctly the reporter in the Uniontown newspaper pointed out that I had beaten the second team defender from Uniontown on the play,无毛视频� Gaydos pointed out.
German无毛视频檚 big rival back in the day was Masontown.
无毛视频淭hat was a great rivalry,无毛视频� Gaydos opined. 无毛视频淚 think in my mind it was Masontown and also Uniontown. I remember in 1958 we did beat Uniontown 12-6 and we also beat Masontown that season 40-6. That team had some great players like Bill Rutland, Murnis Banner and Sam Sims.无毛视频�
Gaydos in 1959 was named as a Fayette-A-Con All-Star and was honorable mention All-County.
无毛视频淲e had a lot of talent in Fayette County,无毛视频� Gaydos stated. 无毛视频淎s someone coming up through German and playing, I certainly respected those players.无毛视频�
Gaydos also was a three-year varsity letterwinner in wrestling on some very good Uhlan wrestling teams.
无毛视频淐oach Ray Rifenberg was a fantastic wrestling coach,无毛视频� Gaydos offered. 无毛视频淗e had a lot of good wrestlers. At German in both football and wrestling I found myself constantly struggling just to keep my place on the team.
无毛视频淚n wrestling we had the Check brothers and one of the Vidovich boys and Joe Simon and Lefty Radosevich. I wrestled at the beginning of high school at 133 and 138 and then 154 and did most of my wrestling at 165. We were very competitive.无毛视频�
When Gaydos graduated from German in 1960 he received an appointment to West Point.
无毛视频淐oming out of German Township and going to college I had football offers from Richmond and from Penn and I got the appointment to West Point,无毛视频� Gaydos said, 无毛视频渂ut the appointment to West Point was not tied to playing football. I did well in the classroom in high school and I was senior class president at German.无毛视频�
Gaydos decided after a brief period to leave West Point.
无毛视频淚 was bothered by some things happening up there,无毛视频� Gaydos said. 无毛视频淭hings worked out well with wrestling and I made the wrestling squad. One thing that bothered me a lot was the use of food in hazing and denying food. I lost a lot of weight and when I went out for football they told me I was too light. They said you have to lose more weight and you can play 150-pound football. I didn无毛视频檛 want to lose more weight.
无毛视频淭hat caused me to think about a lot of other things that I had considered and had set aside and one was medicine. I decided to make a change and coach Katusa found out about it and contacted coach Merrick at Richmond and I got a scholarship. I was at West Point in July and left shortly after the academic year started and it was before the year started at Richmond. I came into Richmond in 1960 as a freshman.无毛视频�
Gaydos played freshman football with the Spiders in 1960. He was red-shirted in 1961 and he left Richmond before the 1962 season. There were six Fayette County players at Richmond at that time: Gerald Lofstead and John Vittone from Masontown, John Sheranek and Pat Britt from Uniontown and Gaydos无毛视频� former German teammate Joe Stromick.无毛视频�
无毛视频淭hat was because of assistant coach Hal Hunter who recruited Western Pennsylvania very well,无毛视频� Gaydos said.
无毛视频淩ichmond treated me very well,无毛视频� Gaydos stated. 无毛视频淚t was a good academic school. It was a good experience.无毛视频�
When Gaydos left Richmond he went to Medical School at West Virginia University. He graduated from WVU Medical School in 1968. In 1967 he was awarded the prestigious Edward J. Van Liere award for best paper on original research.
无毛视频淎fter WVU I went into the Army and worked at Walter Reed Hospital as a surgical intern,无毛视频� Gaydos explained. 无毛视频淚 stayed in the Army until 1997 and retired as a Colonel.
无毛视频淲hile I was in the Army I worked for the Department of Defense and in the late 1990s there were scares with infectious diseases and they started a program on emerging infectious diseases run out of Walter Reed. I went to work for that program in 1997 and stayed with them until 2015 and then went to Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland as an occupational medicine physician until I retired in 2020.无毛视频�
Gaydos, 79, resides in Gettysburg with his wife of 56 years Charlotte. They have four grown children, two boys and two girls, and 15 grandchildren.
Gaydos enjoyed the trip down memory lane.
无毛视频淚 enjoyed talking about a great period in Fayette County sports history,无毛视频� Gaydos stated.
George Von Benko无毛视频檚 无毛视频淢emory Lane无毛视频� column appears in the Sunday 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.