Perhaps the story that sums up William (Bill) Mushrush, Sr. is one that happened in high school.
Mushrush – who passed away on Friday, August 10, 2018, after spending a half-century in his adopted hometown of Canonsburg, Pa., Washington County – was born and raised in the tiny Jefferson County town of Corsica, Pa., in the late 1930s, 1940s, and early 1950s.
Mushrush loved football and wanted to play badly. The only problem? Corsica is in the Clarion-Limestone School District, and the school didn’t start a football team until the early 1970s.
But, that didn’t stop Mushrush from fulfilling his dream of playing high school football, according to his son Bill Jr. Mushrush had five additional children including Lorrie Hager (Donny), Linda Hinderliter (Jim Jr.), Jennifer Mushrush (Tony DePaoli), Greta Fahey (Shawn), and Amanda Lofty (Christopher).
“He grew up in Corsica and wanted to play football,” Bill Jr. told exploreClarion.
“Corsica was in the C-L School District. They didn’t have football. So, my dad hitchhiked to school at Clarion every day, so he could play football. He was pretty good, I guess.”
Mushrush Sr. was pretty good indeed twice earning Little 7 (the precursor to the Little 12 and the KSAC, which is now part of the new District 9 Football League) Honorable Mention All-Conference honors at the end in 1951 and 1952 for the Bobcats.
He was then off to the United States Marines where he fought in the Korean War before returning to his hometown area and making the football team at Clarion State College where he played on the final team coached by the legendary Waldo S. Tippin in 1956. That was something that was actually new information to his son.
“We knew he played football, and that he was good at it,” Bill Jr. said. “He talked about playing in high school with great pride but he didn’t talk about playing at Clarion (State College) or get into a lot of detail about it.”
Bill Mushrush behind the controls of the new closed-circuit TV station in 1963 or 1964. Photo from the 1963-64 Sequelle (Clarion State College) Yearbook
While Bill Sr. played on at least the 1956 and 1958 Clarion State College football teams according to the school’s yearbook, the Sequelle, his greatest contribution at the school is one that still lives today – he was instrumental in forming the TV station on campus.
A picture of him in the 1964 Sequelle was captioned as him being the operator of “Clarion’s closed-circuit TV station” which the yearbook said was instituted for the 1963-64 school year.
“After the Marines, he was instrumental in bringing this new technology to Clarion State College,” Bill Jr. said. “He was one of the guys who did that. That was his job. He was employed by the college as a communications specialist. That (TV) tech didn’t exist at Clarion and he helped bring it there.”
Bill Sr’s. love for TV didn’t go away when he moved to Canonsburg with his beloved second wife, Patti, who passed away in January 2017.
“He was a freelance photographer for WTAE-TV and then WPXI-TV,” Bill Jr. said. “He lived in Canonsburg and instead of WTAE or WPXI sending a (video) photographer down there when news happened, they would call my dad. He covered any news in Washington, in Washington County. He would then satellite them to the TV station. He listened to the scanner and found his own stories. He knew everybody there. The TV stations would call and say ‘Bill go shoot this or Bill go shoot that.’ He probably shot three or four short stories a week.”
According to Bill Jr. family was always important to Bill Sr.
“He loved his family more than anything,” Bill Jr. said. “It was the most important thing to him.”
“In retirement, it was the most important thing to him next to fishing,” Bill Jr. added with a laugh.
Clipping submitted by Jim Shultz.
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