John Topper
Following graduation in 1961 from Hyndman High School, John Topper Jr. was accepted at his mother’s and maternal uncle’s alma mater, Susquehanna University. He had played and lettered in the two sports (basketball and baseball) that Hyndman offered at that time, but he had always wanted to play football. He got the opportunity after talking to the second-year head coach of the Crusaders and former New York Giant running back Jim Garrett.
Little did the former Hornet athlete know that Coach Garrett was in the process of building a small college powerhouse.
“Remember the old adage ‘Ignorance is bliss’?” Topper said of his early football experience. “I was so excited to wear a real helmet and pads that I really didn’t grasp that I was basically a live tackling dummy at practice every day my freshman year.
“By my sophomore year, I was switched from receiver to the line, and I had a good spring practice that year. By the time my junior year kicked in, I’d moved up the depth chart to second-team offense and was a ‘wedgebuster’ on special teams. I was a starter at right guard my senior year until I blew out my knee.”
Susquehanna went on to become the small college powerhouse that Garrett envisioned, and Sports Illustrated did a feature on the Orange and Maroon following the 1963 season.
“I consider myself very fortunate to have had the opportunity to play alongside some truly great athletes including several professional draft picks,” Topper said.
Those drafted in the NFL included: Donnie Green (Oakland Raiders), Larry Kerstetter (New York Titans), Larry Edman (Chicago Bears), and John Vignone (New York Giants and Houston Astros in baseball).
Topper’s linemate Bill Muir became a well-known and highly-touted assistant coach with the Orlando Panthers of the Continental Football League, several college teams, and many NFL teams. He worked with Bill Parcels and followed Parcells with every team that he coached. He won a Super Bowl while coaching the Tampa Bay Buccaneers under head coach Jon Gruden.
Garrett, who was a teammate at New York with Tom Landry, worked with the Dallas Cowboys and helped build the Cowboys’ teams of the 1970s. He was the catalyst in the formation of the NFL Scouting Combine, which helps evaluate college football players for NFL teams. His son Jason is the current head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
“This was a lot of hot-and-heavy company for a skinny kid from a little school that hadn’t fielded a football team since the 1930’s,” Topper added. “Looking back on all this, I now realize what ‘rare air’ this all was. My good fortune to be around great coaches and storied sports programs didn’t stop with my college career.”
He got a job teaching and coaching at Governor Livingston High School in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, where he was the assistant line coach and JV football coach under another well-known coach, Jack Bicknell. The team made the state finals that year. Bicknell became a long-time coach at Boston College, and his son was an assistant coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers for a short time.
Topper returned to Bedford County in 1966 and filled a teaching and coaching vacancy left when Paul Claycomb went to Westmont to take over the Hilltoppers’ wrestling program. Topper became an assistant under two Bedford County Sports Hall of Fame coaches in Dean McGee in football and Ed Clark in wrestling.
“I got to sit beside Ed Clark at the state final between Bedford’s Sam Beegle and Upper Darby’s Andy Matter,” Topper said. “Beegle had pretty much pinned his way to the final, but after that loss to Matter, Sam stumbled back to the corner and said ‘that guy turned me everywhere but loose.’”
Matter went on to be a two-time NCAA champion at Penn State.
Some of Topper’s highlights as a coach include being an assistant football coach at Bedford in 1979 for the Bisons’ first undefeated season since 1945, and as a junior high wrestling coach, winning the Clearfield tournament with coach Joel Swope.
“Every one of our kids that made the finals won that night,” Topper stated.
“Needless to say, any Bedford wrestling fan, coach, announcer, and teammate would be hard-pressed to find a bigger thrill than when
Gregg Koontz pinned Matt Suhey at regionals at the Altoona Field House. That was truly an unforgettable moment.”
Topper hung up his whistle after the 1986 season. He did return as an assistant volunteer coach at Bedford under head coach Max Shoemaker for a couple seasons, but after his son Jesse’s final season, he did not return to the sidelines. Topper considers Shoemaker to be “one of my finest former players ever.”
Topper was the athletic director at Hyndman for a year and was an assistant junior high baseball coach at Hyndman for a couple years, working with another Bedford County Sports Hall of Fame Mike Keel.
After he retired from public school teaching, Topper taught various history courses at Allegany College of Maryland, first at the Everett campus and then at the Cumberland campus.
His interests are not only sports related. His love of music, the Bible, rodeo, storytelling, and history, particularly the old west, are not only a part of who he is, but helped him become a legend in this area for all of his accomplishments, skills, and interests.
However, he remains connected to local high school athletics, especially wrestling and football, through broadcasting on WAYC-FM.
“I’m still enjoying it, having done it now for about 25 years,” he laughed. “I started with Bill Edwards, who took over when the great
George Sciranko passed away, and I continued to serve as the color man with my long-time broadcasting partner Sam Shuss.”
He was recently inducted in the Bedford Area School District’s “Hall of Excellence” as a distinguished faculty member from 1966-2000. “John’s mark on his students, his athletes, his friends, and his community will always be strong,” Shuss said. “John loves so many things, and people love to hear John talk about his interests. He is emotional and fiery, and he loves the physicality of sports. “He is truly one of the great ambassadors of Bedford County athletics.”
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Following graduation in 1961 from Hyndman High School, John Topper Jr. was accepted at his mother’s and maternal uncle’s alma mater, Susquehanna University. He had played and lettered in the two sports (basketball and baseball) that Hyndman offered at that time, but he had always wanted to play football. He got the opportunity after talking to the second-year head coach of the Crusaders and former New York Giant running back Jim Garrett.
Little did the former Hornet athlete know that Coach Garrett was in the process of building a small college powerhouse.
“Remember the old adage ‘Ignorance is bliss’?” Topper said of his early football experience. “I was so excited to wear a real helmet and pads that I really didn’t grasp that I was basically a live tackling dummy at practice every day my freshman year.
“By my sophomore year, I was switched from receiver to the line, and I had a good spring practice that year. By the time my junior year kicked in, I’d moved up the depth chart to second-team offense and was a ‘wedgebuster’ on special teams. I was a starter at right guard my senior year until I blew out my knee.”
Susquehanna went on to become the small college powerhouse that Garrett envisioned, and Sports Illustrated did a feature on the Orange and Maroon following the 1963 season.
“I consider myself very fortunate to have had the opportunity to play alongside some truly great athletes including several professional draft picks,” Topper said.
Those drafted in the NFL included: Donnie Green (Oakland Raiders), Larry Kerstetter (New York Titans), Larry Edman (Chicago Bears), and John Vignone (New York Giants and Houston Astros in baseball).
Topper’s linemate Bill Muir became a well-known and highly-touted assistant coach with the Orlando Panthers of the Continental Football League, several college teams, and many NFL teams. He worked with Bill Parcels and followed Parcells with every team that he coached. He won a Super Bowl while coaching the Tampa Bay Buccaneers under head coach Jon Gruden.
Garrett, who was a teammate at New York with Tom Landry, worked with the Dallas Cowboys and helped build the Cowboys’ teams of the 1970s. He was the catalyst in the formation of the NFL Scouting Combine, which helps evaluate college football players for NFL teams. His son Jason is the current head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
“This was a lot of hot-and-heavy company for a skinny kid from a little school that hadn’t fielded a football team since the 1930’s,” Topper added. “Looking back on all this, I now realize what ‘rare air’ this all was. My good fortune to be around great coaches and storied sports programs didn’t stop with my college career.”
He got a job teaching and coaching at Governor Livingston High School in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, where he was the assistant line coach and JV football coach under another well-known coach, Jack Bicknell. The team made the state finals that year. Bicknell became a long-time coach at Boston College, and his son was an assistant coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers for a short time.
Topper returned to Bedford County in 1966 and filled a teaching and coaching vacancy left when Paul Claycomb went to Westmont to take over the Hilltoppers’ wrestling program. Topper became an assistant under two Bedford County Sports Hall of Fame coaches in Dean McGee in football and Ed Clark in wrestling.
“I got to sit beside Ed Clark at the state final between Bedford’s Sam Beegle and Upper Darby’s Andy Matter,” Topper said. “Beegle had pretty much pinned his way to the final, but after that loss to Matter, Sam stumbled back to the corner and said ‘that guy turned me everywhere but loose.’”
Matter went on to be a two-time NCAA champion at Penn State.
Some of Topper’s highlights as a coach include being an assistant football coach at Bedford in 1979 for the Bisons’ first undefeated season since 1945, and as a junior high wrestling coach, winning the Clearfield tournament with coach Joel Swope.
“Every one of our kids that made the finals won that night,” Topper stated.
“Needless to say, any Bedford wrestling fan, coach, announcer, and teammate would be hard-pressed to find a bigger thrill than when
Gregg Koontz pinned Matt Suhey at regionals at the Altoona Field House. That was truly an unforgettable moment.”
Topper hung up his whistle after the 1986 season. He did return as an assistant volunteer coach at Bedford under head coach Max Shoemaker for a couple seasons, but after his son Jesse’s final season, he did not return to the sidelines. Topper considers Shoemaker to be “one of my finest former players ever.”
Topper was the athletic director at Hyndman for a year and was an assistant junior high baseball coach at Hyndman for a couple years, working with another Bedford County Sports Hall of Fame Mike Keel.
After he retired from public school teaching, Topper taught various history courses at Allegany College of Maryland, first at the Everett campus and then at the Cumberland campus.
His interests are not only sports related. His love of music, the Bible, rodeo, storytelling, and history, particularly the old west, are not only a part of who he is, but helped him become a legend in this area for all of his accomplishments, skills, and interests.
However, he remains connected to local high school athletics, especially wrestling and football, through broadcasting on WAYC-FM.
“I’m still enjoying it, having done it now for about 25 years,” he laughed. “I started with Bill Edwards, who took over when the great
George Sciranko passed away, and I continued to serve as the color man with my long-time broadcasting partner Sam Shuss.”
He was recently inducted in the Bedford Area School District’s “Hall of Excellence” as a distinguished faculty member from 1966-2000. “John’s mark on his students, his athletes, his friends, and his community will always be strong,” Shuss said. “John loves so many things, and people love to hear John talk about his interests. He is emotional and fiery, and he loves the physicality of sports. “He is truly one of the great ambassadors of Bedford County athletics.”
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Class of 2019
Bedford County Sports Hall of Fame
Bedford County, Pennsylvania
Bedford County, Pennsylvania