Hawk, aka Tony Dorsett, is a Hopewell High graduate. His mailing address growing up was Aliquippa. The field at Hopewell is named for Dorsett. Hopewell H.S. has not put out a lot of football players, of course, after TD, there is nowhere to go but down. Rushel Shell and Paul Pozluszny are the only two that I can really remember that did much. Paul was much better than Shell. Shell was a knucklehead. Shell had a great high school career and broke all of Dorsett's record, over 2,000 yards his junior and senior seasons and just over 9,000 for his four years. His talent did not transfer as well as Paul's. Paul played LB at Penn State and played 10, or 11, seasons for the Bills & Jaguars. Shell quit at Pitt and then transferred to WVU where he had some success but, it did not translate to the NFL.
Technically, as is the case for many communities around here, Hopewell surrounds Aliquippa. Aliquippa had all the people who worked in the mills and Hopewell were the "hick kids". Now that the mills are dead the towns are dead and the white people, for the most part, live in Hopewell and the black people, for the most part, live in Aliquippa. It's a strange phenomenon around here in that the steel towns were along the rivers and the outlying areas had the land but, no people. Now, many of the steel town high schools could be absorbed into the outlying schools. Some already have and more should. If you were to walk from Tony Dorsett Field to Aliquippa H.S. stadium it is 2.4 miles.
Danny Rains, a teammate of Dorsett's on the Hopewell team went to Cincy and played for the Bearcats and spent about five seasons with the Bears, it was Ditka who gave him the opportunity. I'd bet someone got ahold of Ditka's family down at the VFW and made sure Coach talked to Danny. Danny earned a Super Bowl ring with the 1985 team. I know Danny, not well but, I know him. I don't really know a lot from Hopewell. Other than my friend Johnene, who was a cheerleader at Pitt when I was there and another gal, Michael Ann and her family.
Hopefully that clears up the confusion.