Three Beaver County stars enter Pittsburgh Basketball Hall of Fame
PITTSBURGH – The Pittsburgh Basketball Club, founded in 1994, organizes, directs and promotes youth basketball throughout the tri-state area.
In 2011, the PBC decided to establish a Hall of Fame to acknowledge the rich basketball tradition of western Pennsylvania.
Contributing to that rich hoops history over the years have been players and coaches from Beaver County.
So when the PBC holds its annual Hall of Fame Brunch on Feb. 4, it should come as no surprise that three Beaver County legends will be among the honorees.
They are:
· Cal Sheffield, a 1960 New Brighton High School graduate who played college basketball at Pitt.
· Frank Kaufman, a 1967 Ambridge grad who played collegiately at Purdue.
· Lance Jeter, a 2006 Beaver Falls grad who was the No. 1 star in the greatest WPIAL championship game ever played.
“That’s basketball royalty right there,” said Pittsburgh Basketball Club director John Giammarco.
Cal Sheffield
A 6-foot guard as a New Brighton senior, Sheffield led the WPIAL in scoring by averaging 28 points per game. He was such a talent that he earned All-WPIAL and all-state honors.
He also attracted recruiting interest from many NCAA Division I programs.
Ultimately, he chose Pitt for a variety of reasons including the fact that coach Bob Timmons was putting together a recruiting class made up of some of the best players in the WPIAL.
“I could have gone anywhere in the country,” Sheffield said. “I had 50 or 60 offers. But it boiled down to Pitt because Pitt was bringing in Brian Generalovich from Farrell, Dave Sauer from Avonworth and Paul Kreiger from Uniontown, guys who were fairly successful in high school.
“We formed the nucleus and pretty much played together our sophomore, junior and senior years at Pitt.”
Sheffield, Generalovich, Sauer and Kreiger were all three-year starters for the Panthers (in those days, freshmen were ineligible). They played on teams that went 12-11, 19-6 and 17-8 with an appearance in the NCAA Tournament in 1963 and a berth in the National Invitational Tournament in ’64.
Sheffield led Pitt in scoring as a sophomore at 16.3 ppg and then again as a senior at 18.5 ppg.
He averaged 15.3 ppg in his career and finished with 1,115 points. He’s currently tied for 34th place on Pitt’s all-time scoring chart. Had freshmen been eligible when Sheffield played college ball, and had there been a three-point shot at the time, there’s no telling how many more points Sheffield would have scored.
When asked about his career at Pitt, Sheffield said simply “It was quite an experience.”
Sheffield, who’s 80 years old, is in his 53rd year as a funeral director in New Brighton. He was inducted into the Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame in 1980.
“It’s quite an honor,” he said of his upcoming induction into the Pittsburgh Basketball Club Hall of Fame. “From humble beginnings in New Brighton.
“After all these years, to be thought of as one of the better players from western Pennsylvania, to be ranked among them, that means a lot to me, especially when you think of all the great players who’ve played over the years.”
Sheffield will be the third New Brighton grad to enter the PBC Hall of Fame. The others are 1989 grad Chris Pipkin and 1991 grad Gabe Jackson.
Frank Kaufman
It’s rare when a high school athlete celebrates two state championships in the same year but that’s what Kaufman did in 1967.
As a 6-foot-8 senior forward, he was a key member of Ambridge’s undefeated (27-0) state championship basketball team. He was also the state champ at the PIAA Track & Field Championships in ’67 when he set a meet record with a leap of 6 feet, 9½ inches.
But despite his success in the high jump ― he was a three-time WPIAL champ and a Scholastic Coach Magazine All-American ― Kaufman will forever be known most for his role on Ambridge’s legendary basketball team.
It was a team that featured three players who went on to play major college basketball. Kaufman went to Purdue. Dick DeVenzio, a senior point guard, went to Duke. Dennis Wuycik, a 6-6 junior forward, would go to North Carolina.
That Ambridge team, along with Midland’s 1965 unbeaten state championship team, have long been regarded as the best two teams in Beaver County history.
“That was a great group of guys,” said Kaufman, 73, who was inducted into the Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame in 2001.
“I don’t know if we realized it at the time, but we were so blessed to be part of something special at Ambridge that people are still talking about today.”
In the state semifinals, Ambridge beat highly-regarded and unbeaten Schenley, 68-50. In that game, Kaufman grabbed 21 rebounds and scored 15 points.
In the state championship game at the Farm Show Arena in Harrisburg, the Bridgers beat unbeaten Chester, 93-61. Wuycik, DeVenzio and Kaufman scored 29, 21 and 18 points, respectively.
During his injury-shortened career at Purdue ― due to a knee injury, he only played in one game as a senior ― Kaufman played in 39 games with one start. He played on a guard-oriented team that featured All-American Rick Mount.
When Kaufman was a sophomore, the Boilermakers led the country in scoring at 92.5 points per game.
“My role on that team was to play defense, rebound and set picks for our guards. I was happy to do that,” said Kaufman, who averaged 2.8 points per game during his college career.
In 1969, Purdue opened the season with a game at UCLA, which had a star 7-foot-2 center in Lew Alcindor, who would later change his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar when he played pro basketball.
So in Kaufman’s first game at Purdue, he spent time playing against one of the greatest centers to ever play.
Purdue then ended its season against UCLA in the national championship game, which was Alcindor’s last college game. The Bruins won that game, 92-72.
“I’m especially honored to get into the (PBC) Hall of Fame because Denny and Dick are already in there,” said Kaufman, who spent 38 and a half years as director of student life at the Community College of Allegheny County-Boyce campus in Monroeville.
“It’s nice to join those two guys as well as so many other wonderful players.”
Other Ambridge graduates in the PBC Hall of Fame are 1971 grad Mark Jula and 1982 grad Kim Tirik.
Lance Jeter
Great players make great plays in the most defining moments. That's exactly what Lance Jeter did in the 2005 WPIAL 2A championship game. That's the classic at Duquesne's Palumbo Center that's considered the greatest game in WPIAL history.
In the rubber match against section rival Aliquippa, Beaver Falls won 79-78 in a triple-overtime thriller.
Before a sellout crowd, Jeter, a 6-3 junior guard, willed the Tigers to victory with a 37-point performance that included a long three-pointer at the buzzer at the end of regulation and a long three-pointer at the buzzer of the third OT that gave the Tigers the title.
Jeter only took 16 shots in the game but still scored 37 points.
“Yes, I am reminded of that game every so often,” said Jeter, who’s now living In Rochester.
“It’s considered the greatest game in WPIAL history. But for us, it was almost like a normal game because we played in so many big games including big games against Aliquippa. More than anything, I just wanted to win.”
Two weeks after his heroics at the Palumbo Center, Beaver Falls would beat Aliquippa, which had won WPIAL titles in 2003 and '04, in the state semifinals. The Tigers then moved on to Hershey, where it won the state championship by beating York Catholic. During Jeter's senior season, when he averaged 20.2 ppg, Beaver Falls lost in the state final.
Jeter finished his high school career with 2,243 points, which is 13th best in WPIAL history. In his four years as a starter, Beaver Falls compiled a 102-19 record.
After high school, Jeter attended the University of Cincinnati on a football scholarship (he played wide receiver). But he quickly changed his mind and switched back to basketball.
He spent two years at Polk State College in Florida where he earned junior college All-American honors and had his No. 34 jersey number retired. He then transferred to Nebraska where he averaged 9.6 ppg for two seasons with the Cornhuskers.
Jeter then spent eight years playing in Europe. He played for teams in Holland, France, Germany, Poland and Lithuania, and played at a high level. He was twice named the Dutch Basketball League Most Valuable Player.
“I had a good run,” Jeter said of his career overseas. “I’ve been to a few places. I got to play in different countries. I got to experience MVPs and multiple championships. I got to meet some great people.”
In regards to his upcoming induction into the PBC Hall of Fame, Jeter said “I’m honored, humbled and grateful. I’ve never been the type of guy who wants the attention focused on himself but it’s an honor. My mother is in that Hall of Fame. So it’s a blessing to join her.”
Yes, Jeter’s mother, Joy Jeter, was inducted into the women’s wing of the PBC Hall of Fame in 2021.
Other Tigers in the PBC Hall of Fame are Ron Rowan (Beaver Falls class of 1981), Oscar Jackson (1971), Ken Wagoner (1972), Dwight Collins (1980) and Alvin Gibson (1977).
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Pittsburgh Basketball Hall of Fame honors three Beaver County men
