Cambria County Sports Hall of Fame inductees on Saturday included (from left): Karyn McCready, Janae (Dunchack) McGuirk, Jessica (Brutz) Stoddard, John Strittmatter, Steve Carlson, Tim Rigby, Joe Majer Jr., who accepted for his late father Joe Majer Sr. (Courtesy photo)

JOHNSTOWN — John Strittmatter grew up on a dairy farm in Ebensburg and learned the importance of developing a strong work ethic at a very young age.

John and his younger brother, Jody, who both went on to outstanding high school and college wrestling careers, toiled on the farm with their hard-working father, John “Bud” Strittmatter, who showed his sons the value of putting forth a relentless and thorough commitment to each task at hand.

“My father got up every morning at 3:30 to tend the farm, even on Christmas Day,” John Strittmatter said. “Each day, there was work that had to be done.”

A lifelong farming occupation wasn’t in the cards for young John, but a successful wrestling career certainly was.

After an excellent high school career at Cambria Heights in which he won 83 career matches, as well as a District 6 and regional championship, Strittmatter went on capture the NCAA Division II championship at 133 pounds in 1999 as a senior at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown.

Married and the father of three, Strittmatter, along with his brother, have built one of the top youth wrestling clubs in the United States — the Young Guns Wrestling Club based in Ebensburg, where John is also employed as an assistant principal in the Central Cambria School District.

John Strittmatter was one of seven new individuals inducted into the Cambria County Sports Hall of Fame when ceremonies for the Hall’s 2026 class were held Saturday evening at the Frank J. Pasquerilla Conference Center.

John Strittmatter joined Jody, a 2006 inductee, in the Cambria County Hall, which began its induction ceremonies back in 1965 and, with the 23rd class honored Saturday, now totals 162 inductees.

Other inductees honored Saturday included: former Northern Cambria High School multi-sport standout Janae (Dunchack) McGuirk, who went on to track and field stardom at Dartmouth College; former Johnstown Jets hockey player and coach Steve Carlson, who had an acting role in the 1977 nationally-renowned hockey film “Slap Shot” and also played professional hockey in both the National Hockey League and the now defunct World Hockey Association; former long-time WJAC-TV sports television broadcaster and anchorman Tim Rigby; former Westmont Hilltop High School multi-sport athlete Karyn McCready, who went on to track and field stardom at Slippery Rock University; former Richland High School standout swimmer Jessica (Brutz) Stoddard, who went on to college stardom in the sport at both Michigan State and Clarion University, and the late former high school basketball coach Joe Majer Sr., who won a total of 607 games in 38 seasons at Johnstown Catholic (now Bishop McCort) High School and Conemaugh Township High School.

John Strittmatter expressed his gratitude toward numerous individuals who have helped make his success possible. Strittmatter thanked his parents for their selfless sacrifices, his coaches — including the late, legendary UPJ coach Pat Pecora — for their personal investment in his development, along with his wife, Stephanie, and countless members from his tight-knit family of origin.

“Anybody who has ever attended a sporting event involving the Strittmatters knows that the whole extended family showed up in support,” said John, a 1994 Cambria Heights graduate who recalled a treacherous trip to Fargo, N.D. for a tournament when he was a young wrestler.

“We drove out there, ran into a blizzard in Wisconsin that became the blizzard of all blizzards, the heat wasn’t working in our car, and it turned into a 19-hour trip one way,” Strittmatter said. “On the way back home, the car broke down in the state of Indiana, but our uncle Frank was there to take us home. That trip perfectly captures the commitment of our family toward supporting anybody who was competing in an athletic event.”

Now as a member of the Young Guns coaching staff for the past 18 years, John Strittmatter — who was in NCAA Division I powerhouse Penn State’s starting wrestling lineup as a true freshman before transferring to UPJ, where he achieved 112 career victories — gets the opportunity to pay forward the lessons that his coaches taught him.

“I’m humbled to be part of (the Cambria Hall) with names like Coach Pecora, (former Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker) Jack Ham, Bruce and Carleton Haselrig, and my brother,” John Strittmatter said.

Dunchack-McGuirk had a fabulous athletic career at Northern Cambria, where she starred in volleyball, basketball and track and field — a sport in which she won four consecutive state championships in the high jump event. She was also a leader on Northern Cambria’s 2009 state championship-winning girls volleyball team and was a key member of the school’s state runners-up basketball teams in both 2008 and 2010.

She went on to star in seven different track and field events on the collegiate level at Dartmouth, finishing first in the Ivy League Championship meet three straight years in the seven-event heptathlon.

“A lot of work and help went on for me behind the scenes with my family — my mom and my grandparents — as well as all of my coaches,” Dunchack-McGuirk said. “I don’t get here without them.”

Rigby, who enjoyed a stellar sports broadcast journalism career at WJAC-TV that began in 1981 and spanned nearly four decades until his retirement in 2020, said that he overcame an initial fear of public speaking after giving a speech at his church during his college days.

“Who would have thought that a guy who once hated public speaking would make a career of it,” was Rigby’s rhetorical comment during his acceptance speech.

Mixed emotions for Carlson

Steve Carlson exhibited his quick wit with several one-liners that amused the crowd during his acceptance speech, but the mood grew somber when he revealed his life-threatening cancer diagnosis back in 2021, and the unwavering love and support provided by his wife, Vicki, that enabled him to survive the ordeal.

“You are my rock, and I wouldn’t have this (induction trophy) if it wasn’t for you,” Carlson said, his voice breaking as he addressed his wife in the crowd. “I was baptized here in 2021, and shortly after that, I got stage 4 throat cancer. My wife drove me back and forth every day from here to Pittsburgh for treatments. She never gave up on me. My weight dropped to 138 pounds at one point. It was a trying time, but we got through it.”

Carlson — along with his brothers Jeff and Dave — portrayed the Hanson Brothers with legendary actor Paul Newman in the movie “Slap Shot,” which was filmed at the War Memorial Arena and throughout Johnstown in 1976.

Steve Carlson was a teammate of two all-time hockey greats — Wayne Gretzky with the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers, whom he roomed with for half a season, and Gordie Howe, who was 50 years old when Hanson and him were teammates with the old World Hockey Association’s New England Whalers.

“I taught him everything he knew,” Carlson deadpanned about the great Gretzky. “Gordie Howe told me during one game to just put the blade of my stick in front of the opposing team’s net and he fed me four passes that deflected off the blade of my stick and into the net. I scored four goals that day without shooting the puck.”

Stoddard, a PIAA swimming champion in the 50-meter freestyle event at Richland High School who now coaches the sport at Detroit’s Central Catholic High School, had words of gratitude for her family members, coaches and other supporters.

“I’ve realized that every meaningful thing that I’ve ever accomplished (was because) somebody invested in me and sacrificed for me,” said Stoddard, who was an eight-time District 6 high school champion in the 50-meter freestyle and the 100-meter freestyle events.

All of the seven inductees had similar sentiments, including McCready, a four-sport standout at Westmont Hilltop High School who became an NCAA Division II national champion in the javelin for the Slippery Rock University women’s track and field team in 2004.

“It’s truly an honor to be recognized with all of these other athletes,” McCready said. “But this is a shout out to my family, friends, coaches and teammates, because these achievements were never mine alone. Although I no longer live in Johnstown, I’m incredibly proud to be from this city. Westmont Hilltop was a great place to go to school, and I had a great childhood with wonderful family and friends.”

The late educator and coach Majer Sr.’s induction trophy was accepted by his son, Joe Majer Jr., who saluted his father’s integrity and emphasis on the people he taught and coached in his career.

“If my father were standing here today, he would not want tonight to be about his coaching records and his statistics. He would want tonight to be about the people — his family members, students, athletes and friends — that he so positively influenced,” Majer Jr. said. “That is how he would want his true legacy to be measured.”

Other honorees

Four current or former Bishop McCort Catholic High School wrestlers were honored as part of Saturday’s ceremonies. Incoming senior Melvin Miller, a Virginia Tech University commit and three-time PIAA Class 3A champion, earned a special recognition award from the Cambria Hall, and former McCort star Bo Bassett — also a three-time PIAA champion who went undefeated in his high school career and will be part of Virginia Tech’s 2026-27 wrestling team — earned a spot in the Hall’s inaugural World Champions Wing, along with his younger brother Keegan, a PIAA champion who was a men’s World Freestyle champion at 45 kilograms in the ages 17-and-under division last August in Athens, Greece. Another former McCort wrestler, Jax Forrest — a two-time PIAA champion who graduated from McCort early last December and went on to win an NCAA championship at 133 pounds last March as an Oklahoma State University freshman — was also inducted into the Hall’s World Championship wing, as was the West Suburban ages 12-and-under team that won the Little League Softball World Series championship last August.

Another special recognition award winner, Richland High School and Penn State University graduate Daniel Barefoot, represented Team USA on the men’s skeleton team during the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympic Games.

Longtime Johnstown Tribune-Democrat sports writer Mike Mastovich served as the emcee for Saturday’s event.