Mirror file photo In a photograph from August of 2012, Don Wagner shoots foul shots at the basketball court at Reservoir Park in Tyrone as his friends Jim Bigelow (far left) and Talmadge Cupp look on.

Those who remember Don Wagner said he was the best pure shooter they ever saw.

Wagner, nicknamed “Stag” after a character in an old Roy Rogers movie, was almost a legendary figure in Williamsburg High School athletic history.

Wagner, 87, died Jan. 16 in Hershey.

Wagner was the star of the 1956 Williamsburg High School team which won its first 27 games before losing to Jenkintown 79-66 in the PIAA Class C state finals.

He finished his senior year with 758 points — 27.1 points per game — and finished second in the state in scoring. He had a single game high of 55 points and finished his career with 1,202 points.

Photo by J.D. Cavrich 8/15/12 At the Reservoir Park basketball court. L-R Jim Bigelow and Talmadge Cupp watch Don Wagner shoot foul shots.

Don Appleman, a 1962 graduate and member of the Blair County Sports Hall of Fame, remembers watching Wagner play.

“He had the nicest picture perfect jump shot, he would take a couple of dribbles, go to the left and elevate and put the ball over his head. I never saw him have a shot blocked. He had a feather like touch, we all tried to model ourselves after him, no one could shoot like him,” Appleman said.

Wagner helped lay the foundation for the rich basketball tradition at Williamsburg.

“He and Dick Dibert and a handful of the older guys started the routine of playing year round, we saw that as a model that he started. He was one of the finest people, he was at the forefront of Williamsburg’s basketball tradition,’ Appleman said.

High school teammates Jim Hancuff and Galen Hall remember him well.

“He was an excellent shooter from the corner, he was an all around player, he was a team player and he was able to rebound. He was very easy to get along with,” Hancuff said.

“Stag” was an excellent basketball player and a great teammate. He was one of the premier shooters at that time and probably would still be today,” said Hall, a member of the Blair County Sports Hall of Fame’s inaugural class.

After high school Wagner received a basketball scholarship to Saint Francis College but decided not to stay in school.

He married his high school sweetheart Mary Good (who passed away in August), in 1959 and moved to Philadelphia where he worked and enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania. He came back to the area in 1965 to accept an accounting job at the Wesvaco paper mill in Tyrone. He completed his education and received a degree in accounting from Penn State in 1966. He retired in 2001 when the mill closed.

Although he never played in college, he played in numerous leagues throughout the area.

He played on a Westvaco team that won 110 out of 112 games in the old Tyrone YMCA Open League.

Wagner played competitive basketball into his late 70s. In 2012 he was a member of the Carlisle-based Penn Warriors which won the championship in the 70-74 age group at the Pennsylvania Senior Games and qualified for the national senior games in Cleveland. The team finished third in the 70-74 age group in the 2011 nationals in Houston.

Jim Bigelow and John Ramsey of Tyrone were among his teammates in the senior competition.

“He was a very talented basketball player when he was younger, middle age and old, he was always good. He was a fantastic shooter with a pull up jumper from 15-16 feet away from the basket, he was deadly with that shot,” Bigelow said.

“He was the best pure shooter I had ever seen. We had a lot of fun, he always had a smile. All of the years I played with him he was the best pure shooter I have ever played with. I have good memories, I had a great time playing with Donnie,” Ramsey said.

Rich Tate, a 1967 WHS graduate, remembers playing with and against Wagner in his older years.

“Even at this age, he still possessed a fine jump shot. Even more impressive, to me, was his ability to go up for an offensive rebound with one hand, balance the ball on his hand, and then flip his wrist and guide the ball into the basket. He never brought the ball down to go back up; he did this all in one fluid motion,” Tate said.

Friends will be received at the Richard Searer Funeral Home in Tyrone Saturday from 11 a.m. until noon.

Mirror Staff Writer Walt Frank is at 814-946-7467.