Draft:Moe Rubenstein
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Moe Rubenstein | |
|---|---|
| Born | Maurice Rubenstein March 16, 1905 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | February 3, 2001 (aged 95) Seminole, Florida, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Geneva College |
| Occupations | High school football, basketball and baseball coach, athletic director, teacher |
| Known for | Longtime coach and athletic director at Ambridge High School |
| Spouse | Sally Walters |
| Children | Arlene |
Maurice "Moe" Rubenstein (March 16, 1905 – February 3, 2001) was an American high school football, basketball and baseball coach, athletic director, and teacher at Ambridge High School in Ambridge, Pennsylvania. He stood five feet seven inches tall. He coached Ambridge football from 1929 through 1950. Sources vary on his exact record; the most commonly cited figures are 146–36–9, though his Pittsburgh Post-Gazette obituary reported 146–32–10, and the Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame lists 146 wins and 45 losses. His teams never had a losing season and lost as many as four games in only two seasons.[1][2]
He coached Ambridge basketball from 1929 through 1946 and compiled a record of 260–99–1 with six section titles. His baseball teams won two sectional championships.[1]
Rubenstein was inducted into the Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame alongside Aliquippa native and former NFL player and coach Mike Ditka. He was also inducted into the Pittsburgh Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, the Pennsylvania Scholastic Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame, and the Geneva College Athletics Hall of Fame. He received the Geneva College Distinguished Service Award. In 1977, Ambridge High School renamed its football stadium "Moe Rubenstein Stadium".[2]
Rubenstein is credited with helping over 400 high school athletes obtain college scholarships.[1]
He married Sally Walters on August 18, 1929. His wife later owned the Stork's Nest Children's Clothing Store on Merchant Avenue in Ambridge. They had one child, Arlene.[2]
Early life
[edit]Rubenstein was born on March 16, 1905, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Lazar and Annie Rubenstein. Lazar was an immigrant from the Ukrainian village of Pliskov and worked as a carpenter.[3] As one of the original settlers from Pliskov around 1900, Lazar Rubenstein invited fellow villagers to come to Pittsburgh, where they stayed in the Rubenstein home until they found housing elsewhere. As a result of the Rubensteins' efforts, Pittsburgh subsequently had a large colony of families who immigrated from Pliskov.[4]
Rubenstein grew up in the Hill District of Pittsburgh and attended the now-defunct Fifth Avenue High School. During his freshman year of high school, he decided to drop out and get a job. An athletic coach intervened and recruited Rubenstein for the sports teams.[5] He graduated from high school having won nine letters and was named All-City in three different sports: baseball, basketball, and football.[5]
Rubenstein attended Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, where he played baseball, basketball, and football.[6] Geneva College claims to have hosted the first college basketball game in the United States in 1893. In the years just before Rubenstein's enrollment, coach Alvin "Bo" McMillin and player Cal Hubbard, later inducted into both the Pro Football and Baseball Halls of Fame, had led Geneva to an upset victory over Harvard University in 1926. During his senior year, Rubenstein was captain of the basketball and baseball teams. He later joked that in football he played two positions: "end of the bench and guarding the water bucket".[7] He did not letter in football. He graduated from Geneva College in 1928.[6]
Coaching career
[edit]Upon graduation from college, Rubenstein was hired at Ambridge High School as head basketball coach and assistant football coach. He was named head football coach in 1929. His Geneva College classmate Nate Lippe had been hired the previous year as head football coach at neighboring Aliquippa High School. According to local accounts, a personal rivalry developed between the two, reportedly originating from a dispute over a romantic interest, which carried over onto the football field. The Ambridge-Aliquippa contest became one of the most intense high school football rivalries in Western Pennsylvania.[8]
Over the course of his career, Rubenstein's teams defeated Aliquippa sixteen times while losing only three. In his first season as head coach, the football team had a record of 6–2, its first winning season since 1923.[8] In his second season, the team went undefeated through eleven games, scoring 180 points while allowing none. The shutout streak continued into the following season as Ambridge won twenty consecutive games without allowing a point. From 1930 to 1933, Ambridge compiled a record of 41–3–3, including a 25-game winning streak with 16 consecutive shutouts.[1] The three losses in 1930 were games forfeited due to the team having played an overage player.[8]
Rubenstein coached football until 1950 with an overall record of 146–36–9. His football teams won a WPIAL title in 1932 and five Beaver County championships. He also coached basketball from 1929 to 1946, compiling a record of 260–99–1 with six section titles, and his baseball teams won two sectional championships.[1] He had a reputation as a strict disciplinarian who never used profanity and required that his players maintain good grades.[1] He was known to visit or telephone players' homes to confirm they were studying or in bed by 9:30 p.m. the night before games. He also drove through town after curfew on Thursday nights; any player seen out late did not start on Friday.[5] In 19 years of coaching basketball, he was never assessed a technical foul.[9]
Rubenstein once suspended the captain of his baseball team on the day of a section championship game because the player had not been in bed by 9:30 the previous night. He also suspended a football player before a rivalry game against Aliquippa for missing the weekly team dinner.[10]
According to former player George Corey, Rubenstein was known for a quiet coaching style and rarely raised his voice. Corey recalled that Rubenstein would respond to a missed play by saying, "Why do you do this to me, Georgie, why?" rather than yelling. Rubenstein also recruited actively throughout the community, approaching families of athletes he observed playing informally rather than relying solely on formal tryouts. He reportedly favored undersized players, believing they had greater motivation and speed.[1]
Rubenstein is credited with helping over 400 high school athletes obtain college scholarships, including players from neighboring schools. He contacted University of Alabama coach Paul "Bear" Bryant to recommend Beaver Falls High School quarterback Joe Namath, who went on to star at Alabama and for the NFL's New York Jets. Another notable recruitment involved Len Szafaryn, a student Rubenstein noticed in the high school marching band. Szafaryn's Polish-speaking parents initially refused to let their son play football. According to multiple accounts, Rubenstein spent three months learning Polish and returned to make his case in their language. Szafaryn became an All-American and played professionally for the Washington Redskins, Green Bay Packers, and Philadelphia Eagles.[1]
Several of Rubenstein's players had notable careers in football. John Michelosen, after playing quarterback at Ambridge, became the starting quarterback at the University of Pittsburgh from 1935 to 1937 under coach Jock Sutherland. He played on Pitt's national championship teams in 1936 and 1937 and started in the Panthers' 21–0 victory over Washington in the 1937 Rose Bowl. In 1948, Michelosen became head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers at age 32, making him the youngest NFL head coach in the league's modern era at the time. He coached the Steelers through 1951, compiling a 20–26–2 record, and then served as head football coach at the University of Pittsburgh from 1955 to 1965, compiling a 56–49–7 record. Michelosen was inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1970.[1]
According to Paul Hertneky's memoir Rust Belt Boy, Bear Bryant made regular visits to consult with Rubenstein, and Paul Brown, head coach of the Cleveland Browns, conferred with Rubenstein weekly during football season. Brown reportedly used Friday night Ambridge games to test plays before implementing them in professional games the following day.[11]
After retiring from coaching, Rubenstein continued to teach math and gym classes at Ambridge High School until 1964.[2]
Later life and honors
[edit]In 1967, Rubenstein moved to Hollywood, Florida, with his wife, Sally Walters Rubenstein. He enjoyed golfing and was a substitute teacher until his early 90s.[2]
He was inducted into the Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame, the Pittsburgh Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, the Pennsylvania Scholastic Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame, and the Geneva College Athletics Hall of Fame. He received the Geneva College Distinguished Service Award. In 1977, Ambridge High School renamed its football stadium "Moe Rubenstein Stadium". The stadium is located at 909 Duss Avenue in Ambridge and has a seating capacity of approximately 6,000. It continues to serve as the home field for the Ambridge Area Bridgers.[2]
Shortly before his death, Rubenstein moved to Seminole, Florida, and died on February 3, 2001.[2]
Legacy
[edit]Author Paul Hertneky, who grew up in Ambridge, described the community's Friday night football games at Rubenstein Stadium as a central social ritual in his memoir Rust Belt Boy: Stories of an American Childhood.[11]
Don Yannessa, who coached football at Ambridge from 2005 to 2008, served as a consultant for the 1983 film All the Right Moves starring Tom Cruise. The fictional school "Ampipe" in the film was based on Ambridge. Yannessa, who also coached at Aliquippa and Baldwin, retired with a career record of 249–137–7 and is a member of both the Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame and the Pennsylvania Scholastic Coaches Association Hall of Fame.[9]
Rubenstein's papers and memorabilia are preserved in the Moe Rubenstein Scrapbooks collection at the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives at the Senator John Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh. The collection was discussed in an article by Eric Lidji published in the journal Western Pennsylvania History in November 2023.[12]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h i Barrickman, Bob. "Rubenstein Set the Coaching Standard at Ambridge." The Times/Beaver Newspapers, September 2, 1999.
- ^ a b c d e f g Emert, Rich. "Maurice Rubenstein." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 6, 2001.
- ^ Birth record, Pittsburgh Department of Public Health. The record lists the father's first name as "Louis" and his occupation as carpenter. Other sources reference his name as Lazar; Louis was likely an Americanized form. The birth certificate also spells the surname as "Rubinstein."
- ^ Feldman, Jacob. The Jewish Experience in Western Pennsylvania: A History 1755–1945. Pittsburgh: The Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, 1986, p. 148.
- ^ a b c Webb, Nicole. "The Man, the Myth, the Legend." Essay, October 1997, p. 10.
- ^ a b Program for Ambridge Sports Hall of Fame, May 7, 1989.
- ^ "Moe Rubenstein." Beaver County Times, undated.
- ^ a b c Snyder, Ron. The History of Ambridge Football 1919–2017. Ron Snyder Publishing, 2017, p. 17.
- ^ a b Bires, Mike. "Moe Was a Legend." Beaver County Times, October 24, 2018.
- ^ Toland, Bill. Beaver County Times, February 6, 2001.
- ^ a b Hertneky, Paul. Rust Belt Boy: Stories of an American Childhood. Bauhan Publishing, 2016.
- ^ Lidji, Eric. Article discussing the Moe Rubenstein Scrapbooks collection. Western Pennsylvania History, November 2023.
Category:1905 births
Category:2001 deaths
Category:American baseball coaches
Category:High school athletic directors in the United States
Category:Sportspeople from Pittsburgh
Category:People from Ambridge, Pennsylvania
Category:Geneva College alumni
Category:Jewish American sports coaches