(File Photo of Riverside High School)
Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News
(Beaver County, PA) Fran Ramsden was rehired as the head football coach for Riverside High School for the 2026 high school football season after a school board meeting at the Beaver County school last month. Ramsden was a former head coach and a longtime assistant coach at Riverside, which is where he served as a volunteer assistant coach and later the offensive coordinator during the 2025 high school football season.
(File Photo: Source for Photo: Pittsburgh Pirates’ Jack Suwinski (65) celebrates with teammates after hitting a home run against the San Francisco Giants during the seventh inning of a baseball game in San Francisco, Monday, May 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News
(Bradenton, FL) The Pittsburgh Pirates designated outfielder Jack Suwinski for assignment today, as the team held its first full-team workout at spring training in Bradenton, Florida. The move clears a roster spot for veteran slugger Marcell Ozuna, who signed a one-year deal with the Pirates with a mutual option for the 2027 season. The 27-year-old Suwinski slashed .147/.281/.253 with an OPS of .534 last year, as well as hitting three home runs while striking out 57 times in 150 at bats. Suwinski started that season on the opening day roster for the Pirates, but played in only 59 games and had two stints at Triple-A Indianapolis. Suwinski has struggled at the plate after hitting 19 home runs as a rookie in 2022, and 26 the following season.
(File Photo: Source for Photo: Steelers offensive tackle Zach Banner heads to the line against the Dolphins in the first quarter Monday, Oct. 28, 2019, at Heinz Field. (Matt Freed/Post Gazette)
Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News
(Pittsburgh, PA) Former Pittsburgh Steelers offensive lineman Zach Banner announced his retirement from football on social media yesterday. Banner was drafted out of USC in the fourth round of the 2017 NFL Draft by the Indianapolis Colts and then joined the Steelers in 2019, appearing in 22 games for them from 2019-2021. Banner most recently played for the Houston Roughnecks in the United Football League in 2025.
(File Photo of State Representative Rob Matzie)
Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News
(Ambridge, PA) According to a release in Ambridge from State Representative Rob Matzie’s office, Matzie announced on Friday that Beaver County is one step closer to having a new, state-of-the-art indoor track and field facility for spectator sports, thanks to new funding of $175,000. Matzie confirmed that the funding to M7 Sports Inc., which is located in Hopewell Township, will support a major expansion project to allow the venue to host bigger spectator events at all levels. In addition to that funding, Matzie stated that another grant of $120,000 would allow Visit Pittsburgh in Allegheny County to construct additional facility installations, which would support the city’s bid to host the Rugby World Cup in the years of 2031 and 2033. The funding was awarded through the Department of Community and Economic Development under the Sports Marketing and Tourism Program and this program was created to attract high-quality, amateur, and professional sporting and e-sports events to Pennsylvania.
(Credit for Photo: Courtesy of Visit Pittsburgh)
Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News
(Pittsburgh, PA) Tickets are on sale now for The Football Town, a film which explores the storied football tradition of the region as part of the celebration of Western Pennsylvania’s rich football history leading up to the 2026 NFL Draft in Pittsburgh and they can be purchased on the Kamin Science Center website by clicking here. NFL Films, in partnership with VisitPITTSBURGH, the Pittsburgh Steelers and U. S. Steel will present this film, which premieres on Saturday, February 28th at Kamin Science Center’s Rangos Giant Cinema, right next door to Acrisure Stadium, and it will run exclusively for two months leading up to the 2026 NFL Draft in Pittsburgh taking place on April 23rd-25th. The first-ever immersive format documentary produced by NFL Films, The Football Town, is an approximately 50-minute film that focuses on the unique history of football in Western Pennsylvania, which is a region defined by grit, steel, hard work, three rivers, the Appalachian hills and its community. Pittsburgh area native Pat McAfee will narrate the film and it will feature appearances by Steelers legends Jerome Bettis, Bill Cowher, James Harrison, Joey Porter Sr. and others. The Football Town is presented by U. S. Steel to celebrate its 125th anniversary and its deep roots in Pittsburgh.
(File Photo of the WPIAL Logo)
Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News
(Beaver County, PA) The high school wrestling postseason transitions to the individual playoffs and tomorrow, local wrestlers will be competing in the WPIAL section tournaments at 9:30 a.m. with many aiming to defend their section titles, while others are also looking to punch their ticket to the WPIAL individual championships. Blackhawk, Moon Area and West Allegheny will be competing in the southern sectional tournament at South Fayette in Class 3A. Ambridge, Beaver Area, Beaver County Christian School, Central Valley, Ellwood City, Freedom Area and Quaker Valley will wrestle at the northern sectional tournament at Keystone Oaks, while Hopewell and South Side will compete at Burgettstown in the southern sectional tournament. A preview can also be found by clicking here.
(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – Former Pittsburgh Pirates relief pitcher Elroy Face acknowledges the crowd during a ceremony for players that are part of the team’s Hall of Fame class before a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs in Pittsburgh, Aug. 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Matt Freed, File)
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Elroy Face, an All-Star reliever for the Pittsburgh Pirates who saved three games in the 1960 World Series to help them upset the New York Yankees, has died. He was 97.
In a news release Thursday, the Pirates announced they confirmed Face’s death. Team historian Jim Trdinich said the club was contacted by Face’s son, Elroy Jr., and informed the former pitcher died earlier in the day at an independent senior living facility outside Pittsburgh in North Versailles, Pennsylvania.
No cause of death was provided. Face was eight days shy of his 98th birthday.
“It is with heavy hearts and deep sadness that we mourn the passing of Pirates Hall of Famer Elroy Face, a beloved member of the Pirates family,” team chairman Bob Nutting said in a statement.
“Elroy was a pioneer of the modern relief pitcher — the ‘Baron of the Bullpen’ — and he played a critical role in our 1960 World Series championship.”
Selected to six All-Star teams, Face went 104-95 with a 3.48 ERA in 16 major league seasons with Pittsburgh (1953-68), Detroit (1968) and Montreal (1969). He pitched in 848 games, starting only 27, and compiled 191 career saves — although saves didn’t become an official statistic until 1969.
The 5-foot-8 right-hander holds the National League record for wins in relief with 96 and the major league mark for relief wins in one season after going 18-1 with a 2.70 ERA in 1959.
He topped the National League with 68 appearances and 61 games finished in 1960, when the underdog Pirates stunned Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and the mighty Yankees on Bill Mazeroski’s famous home run that won Game 7 of the World Series at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.
Face made four relief appearances in the Series, posting a 5.23 ERA in 10 1/3 innings. He closed out Pirates wins in Games 1, 4 and 5.
Inducted into the Pirates Hall of Fame in 2023, he is the club’s career leader in appearances with 802. And the team noted that if saves had been an official stat before 1969, he also would hold that franchise record with 188.
Face was born in Stephentown, New York, on Feb. 20, 1928. He is survived by his three children, Michelle, Valerie and Elroy Jr., and his sister Jacqueline, the Pirates said.
(File Photo: Source for Photo:
Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News
(Pittsburgh, PA) Pitt’s men’s basketball team has struggled this season, but one bright spot on the team is freshman Roman Siulepa, who was born and raised in Australia. Siulepa is averaging 10 points and five rebounds per game. Siulepa was swayed away from another sport that is popular in the country “down under,” which was rugby, because Siulepa was a well–known rugby player when he was in high school in Australia. Lamar Patterson, a teammate on his semi-professional team in Australia that once played for Pitt, convinced Siulepa to come to Pitt. Pitt faces North Carolina in Chapel Hill tomorrow, and Siulepa is coming off a great game against another blue blood of college basketball after Pitt lost to Duke on Tuesday in Pittsburgh, as he had a team-high nineteen points, three assists, four rebounds, a block and a steal.
(File Photo of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board Logo)
Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News
(Harrisburg, PA) The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) reported today in Harrisburg that preliminary figures show $59,275,463 was wagered in Pennsylvania on this past weekend’s Super Bowl between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots through retail and online sportsbooks, which was a 41.6% decrease over wagers placed in Pennsylvania for the Super Bowl that was achieved last year when the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs faced off.
(File Photo: Source for Photo: Ben Roethlisberger (from left), Joey Porter and Maurkice Pouncey talk during a photo op for the Steelers’ Hall of Honor prior to the game against Miami on Dec. 15, 2025, at Acrisure Stadium. (Matt Freed/Post-Gazette))
Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News
(Pittsburgh, PA) Former Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker and assistant coach Joey Porter Sr. expressed that Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was not a good teammate or person on the podcast of Steelers defensive lineman Cameron Heyward, “Not Just Football,” when it was recorded last week. Porter also stated during that podcast that Roethlisberger and linebacker James Harrison “broke the brotherhood” by discussing team business and criticizing former head coach Mike Tomlin on their own podcasts. Porter and Roethlisberger won Super Bowl XL together on February 5th, 2006 and were teammates for three seasons. Porter was a teammate of Harrison for four seasons.