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Ed Flanagan was a standout center in the National Football League for 12 seasons from the mid-1960s to the late 1970s, including 10 years with the Detroit Lions.

He earned four Pro Bowl nominations as a member of the Lions, after a successful major college football career at Purdue University.

But Flanagan attributes most of the success he enjoyed in professional and collegiate football to the start he had playing football in Altoona.

“By the time I got to college, I had always been exposed to some pretty good fundamental football coming out of Altoona,’’ said Flanagan, 63, who is now living in Denver and is now part of the football coaching staff at Division II Fort Lewis College in Colorado. “That really helped me with my career.’’

Flanagan was a starting center during his days at Altoona Area High School under the late head coach Earl Strohm and the late line coach Ron Rickens, and played one year as a ninth-grade fullback at Keith Junior High School under the direction of John Branick.

One of Flanagan’s favorite boyhood memories surrounds the Keith-Roosevelt junior high football rivalry, which officially comes to an end with tonight’s 6 p.m. game between the schools at Mansion Park.

The football rivalry between Keith and Roosevelt began back in 1930, and Roosevelt leads the all-time series, 38-33 entering tonight’s finale. There have been nine ties.

“It was a great rivalry between Altoona’s two inter-city schools, and everybody looked forward to the game between Keith and Roosevelt,’’ said Flanagan, who served as an Arena Football League coach with the Arizona Rattlers before coaching in the Arena2 Football League with the Quad Cities (Ill.) squad.

Keith and Roosevelt will consolidate into the new Altoona Junior High School that is scheduled to open next fall, ending their long football series.

“I’m sorry to hear the rivalry is ending,’’ said Flanagan, a 1961 Altoona High graduate who played in the 1957 Keith-Roosevelt game that was won by Keith, 2-0 at the Keith Junior High School Athletic Field. “It was a fun rivalry. When I was attending Keith, I knew kids from my area who went to Roosevelt, and there was never any bitterness between the players from the two schools. It was a great game, and everybody enjoyed it.’’

Lifelong Altoona resident Mel Frye has a unique perspective on the Keith-Roosevelt series. Frye, 61, served as Roosevelt’s athletic director for a decade and the school’s football coach for four seasons.

But he attended Keith as a youngster, and played quarterback in the 1960 Keith-Roosevelt game, which ended in a 7-7 tie at the Keith Athletic Field.

“I think that over the years, everybody geared their season for the Keith-Roosevelt game — especially the kids in those two football programs,’’ said Frye, who played at Altoona High School in the early 1960s and earned a football scholarship to Penn State. “It never mattered what type of season either school’s team was having. You could throw the records out the window when they played each other, because the game was basically always up for grabs.

“The tradition between the two schools is so great, that, as a player or as a coach, you always geared for that particular game,’’ said Frye, who retired five years ago as a social studies teacher from the Altoona Area School District, after 35 years of service. “Every year, that Keith-Roosevelt game was the most important game on the schedule.’’

Tom Bradley, the director of public relations for the Altoona Area School District, was a seventh-grade student at Roosevelt in 1961 and fondly remembers walking across town to the Keith Athletic Field to watch the Roughriders pull out an exciting 21-19 victory.

“They dismissed students early from school that day who wanted to attend the game, and it was a special memory for me as a 12-year-old,’’ Bradley recalled. “That 1961 game was one of the greatest games I ever remember watching. Buddy Geis caught a pass near the end of that game that pulled out the win that year for Roosevelt.’’

Adding to the intensity of the Keith-Roosevelt rivalry was the fact that the Keith and Roosevelt players most often became football teammates at Altoona High School.

“Obviously, when we got to high school and started playing together, the bragging rights [from the Keith-Roosevelt] game came into play,’’ said Doug Rosenberry, a standout football lineman and wrestler at Altoona High School in the late 1980s who played Division I-AA college football at Harvard. “Every year when we were playing high school football, the guys on the Altoona team talked about that Keith-Roosevelt game they played [with or against each other] in junior high school.’’

Rosenberry attended Keith, and participated as an offensive tackle as a ninth-grader in the 1984 Keith-Roosevelt game, which Keith won, 24-0 on what was then a grass surface at Mansion Park.

“It’s always been a very emotional rivalry, and there’s always been a huge buildup to the game,’’ said Rosenberry, a 1988 Altoona High grad who now teaches English at Altoona High. “When I was at Keith, we didn’t know many of the players who played at Roosevelt. Now, the kids who attend the two schools are much more familiar with each other.’’

Though Rosenberry recognizes the need for a new consolidated junior high school building in the Altoona Area School District, he’s sorry to see the Keith-Roosevelt football rivarly coming to an end.

So is Mike Adams, a 1987 Roosevelt and 1990 Altoona High alum who is currently Altoona’s head varsity boys’ track coach. Adams — who now also serves as a member of the Mountain Lions’ varsity football coaching staff — played in the 1986 Keith-Roosevelt game, which was won by Keith, 13-6. Roosevelt was later awarded a forfeit win due to Keith using an ineligible player.

“I think it’s a great community football game, and I’m absolutely sorry to see it end,’’ Adams said of the Keith-Roosevelt rivalry. “I think there will be a lot of people in attendance at [tonight’s] last game. It’s the end of an era, and that’s kind of sad. Hopefully things will move forward in a positive direction.’’

 

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