New inductees
Uniontown Hall of Fame Class of 2025 includes Chandler, Burns, Hartman
Photo courtesy of Duquesne University
The Uniontown Area High School Academics, Arts and Athletics Hall of Fame will induct the school’s all-time leading scorer in basketball among its 11th class this September.
The Hall of Fame recently announced it Class of 2025 inductees and Jocelyn Chandler, who poured in 2,048 points in her career with the Lady Raiders to rank No. 1 among all boys and girls players, is one of three who will be inducted in the Sports category, along with Jim Burns and Dr. Harry Hartman.
“Jocelyn was obviously a great, great player and went on to have a great career at Duquesne, too,” said Hall of Fame board chairman Tony Mercadante. “She’s also a member of the Fayette County Hall of Fame.”
Also being inducted are Emile Etheridge in the Special Recognition category and the 1975 boys basketball team which won the program’s sixth WPIAL championship.
The Class of 2025 also includes Erica Stanish, Tiffany Gleason Fluhme and Joanie Brittingham in the Arts category, Mary Agnes Braum, Vince Ostrosky and Judge William Franks in the Academics category and Cody Helmick in the Technical School category.
“It’s another good, strong class,” Mercadante said. “We always have a lot of impressive candidates to pick from even after 10 years.”
Burns is a 1985 graduate who was a baseball star at Uniontown and went on to have a great career at California University of Pa., being chosen as conference MVP there twice, and is a member of the Vulcans Hall of Fame. Burns also played minor league baseball and was an all-time great player in the Fayette County Baseball League.
“Jim was just an outstanding baseball player, one of the best to come out of Uniontown,” Mercadante said.
Hartman played football for Uniontown and went on to also play at Salem College where he was All-West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC) First Team in 1960 and 1961. Harman later became a head coach and assistant coach at Salem.
Etheridge was a basketball star for the Red Raiders who went on to be an assistant coach of the boys basketball team and is also an author of several self-published books.
“Emile is a great story and a great, great man,” Mercadante said.
The 1975 Red Raiders basketball team went 27-1 on its way to claiming the WPIAL Class A title. Abe Everhart was the head coach and Dave Shuck was the assistant coach of the team which had a starting lineup of seniors Dana Perno, Gary Garbutt, Dan Spiranac and Tommy Hutson and junior Mark Hozak.
The Class of 2025 will be honored before the Red Raiders football game against Brownsville on Sept. 5 and will be formally inducted at a brunch the next morning starting at 9:45 a.m. in the high school cafeteria.
Tickets are $30 for the Hall of Fame brunch and ceremony and can be purchased by contacting Mercadante at 301-643-1499 or via email at acmerc@msn.com. Tickets can also be purchased at the door.