Greensburg Athletic Association
Aside from Fiscus, the Greensburg Athletic Association included several of the era's top players, such as: Charlie Atherton, George Barclay, Ross Fiscus, Jack Gass, Arthur McFarland, Charles Rinehart, Isaac Seneca and Adam Martin Wyant.
[2][3] Meanwhile, Isaac Seneca became the first Native-American to earn All-American honors and Adam Martin Wyant was the first professional football player to become a United States Congressman.
A group of college students, which of whom returned home to Greensburg for Thanksgiving vacation, played for the team for a game against an unknown Pittsburgh club to close out the season.
While Fiscus did play for Greensburg as an amateur in 1893, he was actively recruited by several other teams as professionalism in football began to take hold.
A week later, a game against the Jeannette Athletic Club, ended at halftime due to disagreement between the two teams.
The disagreement regarded the tough play of Greensburg's Lawson Fiscus, who was accused of kicking or stepping on the face of one of the Jeannette players, during the game.
Greensburg finished a highly successful season with a record of 6-1-1 and led to an increased interest in football throughout Western Pennsylvania.
The Latrobe team had an impressive squad led by John Brallier who became the first football player to admit to being a paid professional.
Soon afterward, Fiscus and two former Penn State University players, Charlie Atherton (who was also the team's coach) and Fred Robison, turned down an offer promising each of them $125 a month to play for the upstart Duquesne Country and Athletic Club, located in Pittsburgh.
They were induced to stay with Greensburg when "interested parties" in that city raised some extra money to guarantee to the players.
During a game against a squad from Beaver Falls, Greensburg's Tom Donohoe ran 44 yards with an intercepted pass.
Greensburg did recover from their road trip to post a 10–0 win over Latrobe on Thanksgiving Day to end the season 6-1-1.
[1] However, as early as 1898, the team featured Christy Mathewson, a future baseball hall of famer and former fullback from Bucknell University, in their line-up.
[1] At the end of the season, against their club's wishes, Greensburg's Charles Rinehart and George Barclay played in the first pro football all-star game for the 1898 Western Pennsylvania All-Star football team, against the Duquesne Country and Athletic Club, on December 3, 1898.
[9] After an apparent decline in financial resources and interest, professional football in Greensburg and Latrobe underwent a one-year hiatus in 1899.
Some efforts were made to reorganize a team around a core of local members of the 1898 squad, which would have to be shored up by obtaining some Latrobe players.
[10] Greensburg began the season 2-1-1, before losing 6–5 to the Homestead Library & Athletic Club, a Pittsburgh-area team financed heavily by the Carnegie Steel Company.
The game also featured a match-up between two of the era's star players: Homestead's Art Poe and Greensburg's Isaac Seneca.
During the game a fight between Seneca and the Latrobe quarterback, named Kennedy, led to a riot between the opposing fans and players.
This riot prompted the Westmoreland County Sheriff's Office to devise a heighten security plan for the return game in Latrobe.
On October 31, the Greensburg team, still injury-plagued, suffered a fourth consecutive loss, 24–0, to Duquesne Country and Athletic Club at Exposition Park.
To make matters even worse, the club's scheduled next-to-last game was cancelled due to inclement weather.
However, the worst occurred when Latrobe, who always drew large crowds when they played Greensburg, withdrew from a scheduled Thanksgiving Day game.
[1] Although there were probably others, several members of the 1895 squad who were known to have been paid to play football were Fiscus, guard-quarterback Adam Wyant of Bucknell and the University of Chicago, and fullback Charles Atherton and halfback Fred Robison, both of Penn State.
Wyant was cited by his coach at Chicago, Amos Alonzo Stagg, as “one of the best men that ever donned the canvas jacket” (then part of the uniform).
