Joe Hanlon
- Post by: mcalibrary
- January 11, 2024
- Comments off
INDUCTEE
9.8 yards per carry – Those kinds of numbers are usually thought of with the names Doviak, Diminick, and Hynoski. However, Joe Hanlon, Kulpmont High’s super back, did it way back in 1950. According to statistics provided by the News-Dispatch following the 1950 season, Hanlon carried the pigskin 68 times for 667 yards in pacing Robert Magalski’s Kulpmont eleven to a fine 9-2 record. He would also score 12 TD’s and an extra point for 73 markers – good enough for the 6th best season ever in the Wildcats 34 year history. Joe’s 85 career points ranks 5th all-time at Kulpmont. Hanlon, along with Ralph Nard (84) and Jack Buchinski (60) would pace Kulpmont in scoring 381 points that season, the highest in school history. Joe would score in 8 of the 11 games in 1950 and would have 4 – two-touchdown games.
In addition, Hanlon, who was the Wildcats leading breakaway threat, would also pass for 300 yards and 4 touchdowns. When not throwing, Joe managed to catch 8 balls for 77 yards and 2 scores, 10 and 21 yard passes from Lasehndock. As if that wasn’t enough, Hanlon would punt 19 times for 859 yards – that’s a 45.2 yard average.
Following the season, Hanlon was elected to play in the First Annul Dream Game – pitting stars from Mount Carmel, Mount Carmel Catholic and Kulpmont against the stars of Shamokin, Selinsgrove, Sunbury, Trevorton and Mifflinburg. Hanlon was chosen as the captain for coach Mike Terry’s team and would lead them to a 44-15 victory. Hanlon would score on a 98 yard run after a botched snap on a punt.
Joe was also two-year letterman in basketball for the Wildcats. Joe established a new season mark with 327 points during the 1949-50 season. The lefthander would average 15.6 points per game in surpassing Sam Brazinski’s 316 point total in 1939.He would then help the Wildcats to the Championship of the Keystone League in 1951, and would be recognized as a first team forward on the All-Keystone Team
Hanlon was a three-year letterman in baseball at Kulpmont as a first baseman and later played first base with the Cocoa-Rockledge Club, a Washington Senators Affiliate.
Joe would eventually end up in the retail sector as a store controller for GEM, Inc out of Falls Church, Virginia, and eventually Harrisburg, until his retirement in 1986. Joe, and his wife Adele, are the proud parents of three daughters, Michele, Beth Ann, and Kathleen.