A Lifetime of Sports Around the Country
I met Pat Atwell for the first time in the summer of 1977- probably. Pat was a teenager and still in high school. He was playing for the Andover team in the Alle-Catt weekend baseball league.
I had played a few years for Allegany, but I think we established a team in Eldred beginning in '77. Sometimes going back 45 years leaves a little doubt, but regardless, my team took a trip over to Andover on a Sunday afternoon.
Andover is 40 miles from Eldred, but with the exception of Olean, Allegany, Portville and a few others, most of the western New York teams, especially the small towns, seemed hours away. I'm sure the New York State guys felt the same way about some of their excursions into Pennsylvania.
Some of us used to joke that many of the N.Y. state small towns were actually the same one. They just moved it each weekend. Scio, Friendship, Fillmore, Belfast, Belmont, etc. all seemed the same to a lot of guys who weren't exactly wide-ranging travelers at that time in their lives.
1978-1979 Allegany Class D South All Star team. Left to right: Bob Ingalls (Bolivar), Pat Atwell, Shawn Sexton (Bolivar), Duane Brubaker (Whitesville), Bill Allen (Whitesville) and Dan Marion (Scio).
Ingalls and Atwell were all stars for the second year. All players were seniors except Marion was a junior.
I had seen Pat's name in the Olean Times Herald several times and he had done quite well in his early Alle-Catt games.
I said that I probably met Pat, but I doubt that we officially exchanged greetings. I recall that he was definitely a fine-looking athlete at 6'3, 175-180 pounds. He was a right-right guy with a good arm and had already had some solid mound performances in the A-C.
Pat didn't pitch against us that day. He might have picked up a hit or two and we could have had a brief conversation at second base or said, "nice game" at the end of the day.
That was the first and only time I played against a guy who has been one of my best friends for 35 years.
This wasn't one of Pat's best little league games although he did come up with a couple of hits.Below: I never saw Glenn Law play, but I know he was an outstanding athlete. He dominated Andover in this outing as Pat got one of his team's three hits. As always, although this piece focuses on Pat, I like to include as many names of good athletes as possible. It's a big area and there certainly were a lot of good plays in both New York and Pennsylvania.
I like this clipping because I met Pat's father, Carl, several times through the years. I know he umpired many high school games in the area and even helped Pat establish a long pipeline for some local kids to find their way to Quincy University in Illinois to play for head coach Pat Atwell. Pat took over the head coaching duties in the '92 season.
High school soccer. I didn't know Pat played soccer in high school although when he was hired at Quincy U it was a a part-time soccer and part-time baseball coach. Pat's love and coaching strengths undoubtedly were baseball, but his personality and ability to work hard made him an excellent recruiter and that's where his soccer talent shown. Although, as these clippings show, he did put some balls in the back of the net.25 goals is a pretty good season. Actually, it's a pretty good career for many.
Pat helped lead Andover to a tournament title.
This clipping came from December 21, 1976. It's very early in the season. Pat made the list as an underclassman at 14.6 and I noticed quite a few names I knew for various reasons: Rich Weise (Allegany), Gary Outman (Northern Potter), Brett Metzger (Coudersport) and Mark Saglimben (Allegany)
A split against Angelica and Bolivar. Pat had 25 rebounds against Bolivar.
Allegany Class D All Stars. Mike Winterhalter and Pat Atwell were the two all stars who collected their third all star selection for the '77-'78 season. Both players were named baseball, basketball and soccer all stars. Pat is in the middle of the back row. He was a junior, shortstop and pitcher. He had an 8-0 record with a 0.61 ERA and 105 strikeouts in 56 innings. He hit .684.
Other players on the baseball all star team were Steve Robbins, Scott Elder, Bruce Stambaugh, Mike Fleming, Don Winchell, Rex Vosburg, Ken Glass, Dan Marion, Joe Nelson, Dave Spinks and Ed Hoffman.
Belmont, Andover, Whitesville, Scio and Belfast all had two players on the team
Andover competed in the Allegany Class D league. When I asked Pat about this 45 point night versus over Belmont, he told me it was a "short court." It made me remember a few teams I played against in the North Tier League whose courts were smaller-so small that I think there was a restraining line in front of the out of bounds area under each basket and two backcourt lines. It's hard to describe unless you played on the courts.
I think Oswayo Valley and maybe, Austin had those type of set ups. I think we had one of the larger courts at O-E. It was an adjustment for any club if you made the playoffs and some of the games were played on college courts.
Pat picked up five hits in these two games and a pitching win.As stated in the clipping, players could jump to Babe Ruth play as soon as their high school season. Few local Pennsylvania schools played high school baseball in the mid-late 70's.
NOTE: Picture and names are listed above.
I thought this only happened in Barry Bonds' record-breaking season and Joe Maddon might have tried it once- walking a player intentionally with the bases loaded. The strategy worked as Alfred-Almond pulled out a 5-4 win when the hitter after Atwell made the third out.
1979- Atwell at .774 after nine games.
Alle-Catt Baseball with Olean and Crosby getting ready to meet as both squads are undefeated. Pat started for Andover and the newcomer shutout Emporium. That game probably erased any thoughts of just a small town kid who was facing the veteran guys now.
1983- The end of the season playoffs saw Emporium win 9-7 over Evans. Other league teams did not fair so well. Austin and Delevan-Arcade lost one while Bolivar and Shinglehouse dropped both games to be eliminated. Pat Atwell, now playing for Bolivar (Andover had dropped their team) lost his game to Alden 6-2 and hit a homer in game two in the loss to Gowanda.
The Shinglehouse Stars are the only remaining Alle-Catt team with an undefeated record, 6-0. Bill Clarke, Terry Johnson and Bob Chaffee had big weekend games.
Pat shut out Bradford, 6-0- 1983.
Bolivar upset Emporium, 5-2 and ended Emporium's 25 game winning streak. Atwell struck out 10. Crosby beat Emporium the next day, 5-2 behind homers by Ed Swanson and Jeff Bricker. Crosby and Salamanca lead the league with undefeated records. 1982
Linescore of Bolivar over Friendship with Jack Emrick and Atwell pitching a 3-2 win. Jeff Shall beats the Shinglehouse Stars. Mike Threehouse hits two homers for Olean.
Bolivar stays close to Bradners with an 8-1 win over the Olean squad. Atwell struck out 13. 1983
Linesores- Bradners over Austin and Bolivar beats O-E, 8-3.
Pat homers in win over O-E.
1984- Pat was one of the best hitters in Olean fast pitch through the years. He played league ball with Big Ron's and also plenty of tournament games with their traveling team. I played fast pitch, but left the area shortly before Pat returned.
Pat attended Salem University in West Virginia and returned back home to coach several years of men and women's basketball at Alfred State. I think that's when he first caught my eye as a potential partner in coaching, maybe somewhere down the line.
Pat eventually returned back to Salem in 1987 to coach and teach, but the university was going through a lot of changes and some of his responsibilities had lessened. That's when we began to discuss joining forces.
I began coaching at Quincy University baseball in January 1989. After a winning season in year two, we were on a pace to improve a program by leaps and bounds. Pat came aboard in year three and that's exactly what QU baseball needed.
Pat made the move from West Virginia to Illinois and it was great timing for everyone. We coached together in 1992 and when I left to join the scouting ranks, Pat took over the program. Well, he did more than that.
Pat's ten-year baseball coaching record was 288-200. Quincy joined the Great Lakes Conference in '94-95 and that was a giant boost to the program. The Quincy Gems joined the CICL, Central Illinois Collegiate League. and the QU baseball stadium undertook some major renovations that greatly improved the playing surface, the entire baseball atmosphere and certainly boosted recruiting.
Pat was named the athletic director at QU in 2000 combining with his baseball coaching duties
It's been well-documented the Pat had two players make the big leagues under his tenure. This is a symbol of Josh Kinney's jersey hanging on the QU Wall of Fame. Kinney, a Port Allegany native, was a pitcher at QU and eventually won a world series ring with the St. Louis Cardinals.
Josh Rabe was a power-hitting outfielder for the Hawks who played in the major leagues for the Twins. Rabe later came back to his home area and took over the role of head baseball coach at Quincy. The Mendon, Illinois native broke Atwell's record for wins and is currently the athletic director at QU.
Pat and his wife, Lisa, moved to Springfield, Missouri when Pat accepted the A.D. position at Drury University. He was there for seven seasons before returning to the Quincy area, accepting the athletic director spot at Culver-Stockton College, just across the river in Missouri.
I didn't plan it this way, but it is ironic that this story about Pat comes out a day after his Bills picked up a giant win yesterday. Pat's been a Bills' fan since I've known him. There probably was a time when he was one of the few out here in the Midwest, but I think the Buffalo popularity has stretched in to many new areas. Pat and his son Eric traveled to Kansas City this fall to see the Bills' win over the Chiefs.
I don't see Pat much anymore, but we get in at least two calls every year. There's always some new items, especially noting where some of our ex-players are. We had a great bunch of guys and Pat and Rabe just pushed the programs to new levels. We had to make some moves, but we still have a big interest in what happens in our hometowns.
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