MAROON PLAYER, 97, DIES

HAUPTLY THE LAST OF NFL TEAM

By: Stephen J. Pytak

    He was the last to play professional football in Schuylkill County.
     Joseph A. Hauptly, the last surviving player of the Pottsville Maroons,
died Thursday at the age of 97.
     "That would be an official end of an era," said historian Mark T. Major
of the Schuylkill County Historical Society.
     The Maroons rose to prominence in 1925 when they defeated the
Chicago Cardinals 21-7 at Comiskey Park on Dec. 6 for the National
Football League championship.
     Two weeks later, the title was taken away after the Maroons defeated
the Notre Dame All- Stars 9-7 at Philadelphia's Shibe Park.  It was alleged
the team invaded the territory of the Frankford Yellowjackets.  As a result,
the NFL title went to Chicago.
     In 1929, the Maroons franchise was sold and the players were left only
with memories.
     While Hauptly was not on the championship squad, some day he was a
strong force in keeping the Maroons' memory alive.
     "As far as his efforts to get the championship restored to the Pottsville
Maroons, he did was was necessary to satisfy the injustice.  He was always
willing to help in any efforts for this cause," said Russ F. Zacko, Pottsville,
chairman of the Pottsville Maroons Memorial Committee.
     William G. Dimmerling Jr., 87, Pottsville, was a water boy for the
Maroons in 1924.  He said he knew Hauptly even before that.
     Dimmerling said that Hauptly played with the Yorkville Yanks, a local
baseball team.
     "They called him 'Bubbles'.  I don't know why," Dimmerling said with
a laugh Friday night.  Dimmerling was the mascot for the Yorkville Yanks.
     "He was a catcher," Dimmerling said.  "It was, let's see. . . I was only a
kid 12 years old.  That was way back in the '20's."
     The two were good friends.
     "He was a good player and reliable," Dimmerling said of Hauptly, founder
of Hauptly Insurance Agency in Pottsville.
     Dimmerling remembered how the Maroons practiced at a field called
Dolens Park on the city's west end of Pottsville, in the 1800 block of West
End and Markey streets.
     When it rained, Dimmerling said his father, William G., and his uncle,
George, would let the team practice at a hotel they owned at 18th and
Market Streets.
     "We had a big dance hall and a basketball court.  We used to go over there
and that's where we used to practice, he said.
     Since his family owned the hotel, Dimmerling said he was allowed in.
There, players would team him how to kick.

Pottsville Republican- Sept. 23, 2000