Bill Contz went from one Valley to another

Belle Vernon’s Bill Contz went from the Mon Valley to Happy Valley. He then ascended to the summit of football’s Mt. Everest, playing at the peak of the sport in the NFL.

When asked for a career highlight, he simply said, “I’ve been privileged to be on some great Belle Vernon teams, so I guess a highlight would be my good fortune in playing alongside some guys that were competitive and didn’t like to lose.”

He praised his BVA coaches, too.

“I don’t know where that fire comes from. I think part of it has to do with the coaching,” Contz said.

There was a local legend, basketball coach Don Asmonga.

“Just the success he had prior to my high school career,” Contz said. “He had great success in his high school and college career, and the same way with Jeff Petrucci. They set a standard for the success I was a part of.”

Of course, Petrucci also did well when he was one of Joe Montana’s coaches at Ringgold High School.

Contz and the Leopards won a ton of games.

“We had a lot of gritty determined, but undersized kids. Not stand-out. bluechip, five-star kinds of guys. The coaches were very good at instruction, technique, teaching proper methods and what was successful.”

As for his days on the Belle Vernon hoops team, it helped that he experienced a significant growth spurt between ninth and 10th grade, shooting up to 6’ 5” (and eventually up to an intimidating 268 pounds).

His team also benefited from other talent. Both Tom Parks and Greg Grimm went 6-5.

“That afforded Tom to go out and play on the wing, and he had fantastic skill sets as both a basketball and football player,” Contz said. “He kept getting hurt at football — kept damaging his wrist, but to this day I still think Tom could have been a D-I football player had he not chose basketball.

“So we had size underneath. I was a starter as a junior and a senior. I played well enough to help that team, to play a role and to do my part. If you want to use the old Bill Belichick, adage, ‘Do your job.’ I think we all did. The team chemistry we had to win the WPIAL, that doesn’t happen by accident. That’s a lot of hard work in the offseason. That’s a lot of knowing where your teammates were and where they’re going to be, and what they’re going to be doing on the basketball court and so forth. I think basketball helped my football career in terms of footwork.”

Moving up another rung, Contz was a starter on the first Penn State team ever to win the national championship in 1982. His team knocked off Georgia to claim the title in the Sugar Bowl.

His job was playing the long tackle.

“That was the tackle that always had the benefit of lining up right next to the tight end and protecting the blind side of a quarterback,” he said. “At the time in the late 70s, early 80s, teams would put their better pass rushers on the other side. I learned thahow difficult that was by the time I got to the NFL.”

For winning it all, the Nittany Lions received a national championship rings.

Back then, said Contz, “It was a moderately sized memento, but it was a thrill to receive that.”

It wasn’t the only swag he’d receive.

From 1979 through 1982, the Nittany Lions finished 20th, 8th, 3rd, and then No.1 in the Associated Press poll.

“I was fortunate enough to go to three New Year’s Day bowl games. In my freshman year we went to the Liberty Bowl,” Contz said. “The bowls were kind enough to always give us a watch, a medallion or something of that nature.”

Perhaps that’s not as lavish as the NIL money players get today, but those gifts were cherished symbols of a team’s success.

“All the hard work, dedication, camaraderie and chemistry, and all those things that that that go into it — it’s just a lot of stars aligning for those positive things to happen,” he said. “It was a storybook tale to be able to play on a national championship team.”

He felt the same pride and joy about his high school days, saying how great it was being on Belle Vernon’s first undefeated Big 10 Conference and championship football team and their only WPIAL basketball championship team.

Part 2 of the Bill Contz story looks into more of his college career and his NFL days.