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Their numbers include Hall of Famers, a Heisman Trophy winner, record setters and barrier breakers. They all share one thing - born here, they grew up on the gridirons of the region. Shaped by a football culture centered on competitive excellence, they spent their Friday nights in front of their hometown community crowds, honing the skills that would lead them elsewhere. All of them eventually made it to the pros. They forged a legacy dating to the 1940s, when this region first began to be noted as a birthplace of greatness, the cradle of quarterbacks.

Even the Pro Football Hall of Fame is unsure about who first coined the term “cradle of quarterbacks,” but no scholar of football history can argue that it is not accurate. When the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum opened last year, we had identified 37 professional quarterbacks who played their high school ball here. Since opening, that number has swelled to over four dozen.

You know the names of some of those local legends - George Blanda, Johnny Unitas, Joe Namath, Dan Marino, Joe Montana, Jim Kelly, Marc Bulger, Charlie Batch, Gus Ferotte, Gradkowski..........

And earlier....

Others might be new to you - Willie Thrower of New Kensington, the first black quarterback in the modern NFL. He broke the color barrier at quarterback in the Big Ten, playing for Michigan State, then in the NFL when he took the field for the Chicago Bears on October 18, 1953. Or Johnny Lujack, the Heisman Trophy winner in 1947 who built his reputation playing for the Irish of Notre Dame then played in the pros from 1948-51, also for the Bears.