STANDFORD C. HUNSUCKER

“Honey” as his peers affectionately called him, graduated from West Bethlehem High School in 1949 as an all-star athlete. Lettering in both football and basketball for (4) years and baseball for (2) years, he made his mark as one of the legendary ball players to grace the West Bethlehem campus, and the West Beth Varsity Club for lettermen.

In his senior year he was captain of the football team and scored 66 points. He was selected to play in the Washington County All-Star football game in 1949. In basketball he was the team’s high scorer in his junior and senior year, 537 points in 47 games and average of 11.4 points a game. He was arguably the most outstanding athlete to play sports at West Bethlehem High School.

In 1949, upon his completion of high school, this exceptional athlete was signed as an under-aged player to the Homestead Grays Baseball Team, the Negro National League Champions for nine consecutive years. He played for the Negro Professional Baseball league for (2) years before returning to school as a college freshman at Waynesburg College, in Waynesburg, PA.

At Waynesburg, in 1951, Stanford played varsity football on both offensive and defensive sides of the ball. He helped his team to win the Tri-State Conference Championship. After the football season, he joined the varsity basketball team but his season was cut very short, when he was drafted into the United States Army, where he was placed in the Special Services, and continued to play football, basketball, and baseball for the troops from August 1952 to August 1954. Among his football, basketball, and baseball careers, Stanford “Honey” Hunsucker also managed to take up the sport of boxing, as an amateur boxer in the state of Pennsylvania.