There are certain games in Western Pennsylvania high school football history that people still talk about decades later.
Then there are the games that never happened.
One of the most fascinating involves two of the area’s greatest football traditions and one of the strangest circumstances from the early years of the PIAA football playoffs.
The 1989 Perry Commodores and the 1989 Aliquippa Quips.
Perry finished that season as the PIAA Class AAA state champion. Nobody can take that away from them. The Commodores earned their championship on the field, beating a powerhouse Berwick program 20-8 in the state championship game.
But there is another part of the 1989 story that deserves to be remembered.
Aliquippa won the WPIAL Class AAA championship — yet never received the opportunity to play in the PIAA tournament. Instead, Greensburg Salem represented the WPIAL in the state playoffs.
And here’s what makes it almost unbelievable by today’s standards: Greensburg Salem had already lost in the first round of the WPIAL playoffs.
Two Different Championships, Two Different Systems
You have to understand how different Pennsylvania high school football was when the PIAA playoffs were in their infancy.
The PIAA didn’t begin conducting statewide football championships until 1988. In 1989, the system had not yet evolved into what we recognize today, where winning your district championship generally determines advancement into the state bracket.
The WPIAL championship and qualification for the PIAA tournament were separate matters.
Aliquippa went through the WPIAL Class AAA playoffs and captured the championship, defeating Seneca Valley 17-9 in the title game.
That made Aliquippa the WPIAL champion. But it did not make the Quips the WPIAL’s representative in the PIAA playoffs. Under the qualification system being used at the time, that opportunity went to Greensburg Salem.
Think about how strange that sounds today.
The team that won the WPIAL championship stayed home. A team that had already been eliminated from the WPIAL playoffs continued playing for a state championship.
That’s exactly what happened.
Then Perry Entered the Picture
Perry wasn’t some team that backed into a state championship. Far from it.
The Commodores were outstanding. Their defense became known as “Blue Steel,” and Perry allowed only 33 points during the entire season.
After winning the Pittsburgh City League championship, Perry met Greensburg Salem in the PIAA Class AAA western semifinal.
Perry left no doubt. Perry 23, Greensburg Salem 0.
That sent the Commodores to Hershey to face defending state champion Berwick.
And Berwick wasn’t just good. Berwick was one of the premier high school football programs in America.
The Bulldogs had defeated Aliquippa 13-0 in the inaugural PIAA Class AAA championship game one year earlier. Berwick entered the 1989 championship game undefeated and ranked No. 4 nationally by USA Today.
Almost nobody expected Perry to win. Perry didn’t care.
The Commodores shocked Berwick 20-8, capturing the PIAA Class AAA championship and giving Pittsburgh’s City League a historic state football title.
That accomplishment deserves every bit of respect it receives.
But What About Aliquippa?
This is where one of Western Pennsylvania football’s great “what ifs” begins.
Aliquippa had just won the WPIAL championship. Perry had just won the City League championship. Both were from Western Pennsylvania. Both were championship-caliber football teams.
Yet they never played.
Instead of getting Perry against Aliquippa to determine which team would advance from the Pittsburgh area, the system sent Greensburg Salem into the PIAA tournament.
Perry handled Greensburg Salem 23-0.
That naturally raises a question that can never truly be answered: What happens if Perry plays Aliquippa?
The Game Pittsburgh Deserved to See
This would have been an incredible matchup.
On one side, Perry had one of the best defenses in Pennsylvania. The Commodores proved their championship credentials by beating Berwick — the same powerhouse program that had defeated Aliquippa for the state championship one year earlier.
On the other side was Aliquippa, the actual 1989 WPIAL Class AAA champion and a program in the middle of an incredible run. Aliquippa had won WPIAL championships in 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988 and 1989. The Quips had also reached the first PIAA Class AAA championship game in 1988.
This wasn’t some random team complaining because it didn’t get selected. Aliquippa was the WPIAL champion.
That’s what makes the story so fascinating.
Who Would Have Won?
Nobody can honestly say for certain. That’s the beauty of sports.
Perry deserves tremendous respect because we know what the Commodores actually accomplished.
They faced Berwick and beat them 20-8. They didn’t receive a championship through a vote. They didn’t receive it because of a computer. They won it on the football field.
So this isn’t about taking Perry’s championship away. It’s about asking whether Perry should have had to go through Aliquippa to get there.
Aliquippa had earned the WPIAL championship on the field.
In a modern playoff structure, that accomplishment would have carried enormous significance toward advancing in the state tournament. Instead, the Quips watched another WPIAL team represent District 7.
If Perry and Aliquippa had played, it would have matched an elite City League defense against the WPIAL champion.
Maybe Perry’s Blue Steel defense does exactly what it did to everyone else. Maybe Aliquippa’s championship experience changes the game. Maybe we get a classic that Western Pennsylvania is still talking about nearly four decades later.
We’ll never know.
And that’s precisely the point. They should have gotten the opportunity to settle it on the field.
Perry Still Deserves Its Flowers
Any discussion of this subject has to make one thing clear.
None of this diminishes Perry.
If anything, revisiting 1989 should remind people just how special that Commodores team was. Perry beat Greensburg Salem 23-0 and then took down an undefeated Berwick team that entered the championship game ranked among the best teams in the entire country.
That is an incredible accomplishment.
Perry didn’t create the playoff system. The players didn’t decide who qualified. They played whoever was placed in front of them. And they beat them.
Perry deserves its state championship. Period.
Aliquippa Deserved Its Opportunity
But two things can be true at the same time.
Perry earned the 1989 PIAA championship.
And: Aliquippa deserved an opportunity to compete for it.
That’s why this isn’t an argument about whether Perry was a legitimate champion. It is a story about a playoff system that produced a result that would seem almost impossible today.
Aliquippa won the WPIAL Class AAA championship.
Greensburg Salem lost in the opening round of the WPIAL playoffs. Yet Greensburg Salem advanced into the PIAA tournament while Aliquippa stayed home.
Perry then beat Greensburg Salem 23-0 and went on to defeat Berwick 20-8 for the state championship.
Those are the facts.
Everything after that is one of the greatest unanswered questions in Western Pennsylvania high school football history.
What if the 1989 Perry Commodores had played the 1989 Aliquippa Quips?
Maybe Perry still becomes state champion. Maybe Aliquippa gets another shot at Berwick after losing to the Bulldogs in Hershey the year before.
We’ll never know.
But Western Pennsylvania football deserved to find out on the field.
And because of the playoff system in place at the time, it never got the chance.