Maybe my age is showing. Maybe I’m becoming that grumpy old guy who swears everything was better back in his day.

I can accept that.

But there is one thing I’ll argue forever: WPIAL football on Friday nights just felt different before social media.

I’m not necessarily saying the football was better. I’m talking about the experience. The anticipation. The mystery. The excitement.

And if you grew up around Western Pennsylvania high school football during that era, two words should immediately take you back: John Fedko.

 

Skylights Was Our Social Media

Kids today have Hudl, Instagram, TikTok, X, Facebook and YouTube.

A kid can score a touchdown at 7:42 and have the clip circulating before the fourth quarter starts. By the time he gets home, he might already have thousands of views.

We didn’t have that. John Fedko and Skylights were our social media.

Friday night, you played your game, went home, grabbed something to eat and got in front of that television.

And you waited. Everybody waited. Players. Parents. Coaches. Students. Fans. You wanted to see what happened around the WPIAL. Remember, we didn’t have scores and highlights coming across our phones all night. Sometimes you genuinely didn’t know who won a big game.

You’d hear rumors.

Somebody’s cousin might have heard something. Maybe somebody called somebody from another school. But until those highlights came on, you weren’t always sure.

That made it exciting.

 

The Game of the Night Felt HUGE

And then there was the Game of the Night.

Man.

If your school was involved in that, it felt like Monday Night Football. There was hype around it all week. Everybody knew Fedko was coming. The student section was going to be crazy. The stadium was going to be packed. Players wanted to show out because you knew Western Pennsylvania was going to see you that night. There was something different about knowing you only had a few opportunities to be seen.

Today, almost everything gets recorded.

Back then? You better do something while those cameras were there.

That pressure created moments.

 

You Had to Earn Your Buzz

This might be the biggest difference for me.

Back then, becoming a household name around WPIAL sports took work. You couldn’t create a highlight page for yourself. You couldn’t post the same touchdown from four different angles. You couldn’t make a mixtape every week. You couldn’t wake up one morning with thousands of followers because one clip went viral.

You had to keep producing. Week after week. And if you were doing something special, eventually you started hearing John Fedko say your name.

Then he’d say it again the next week. Then again. That’s when you knew you were becoming somebody. Fedko saying your name consistently was basically the Western Pennsylvania blue check before blue checks existed.

If that man gave you a nickname? Forget about it. You had arrived.

But you couldn’t manufacture it. You couldn’t pay to promote it. You couldn’t create the buzz yourself. Your play had to create the buzz.

That’s what I miss.

 

Social Media Changed Everything

I’m not blaming social media for ruining high school football.

Social media has done some great things for these kids. Players get exposure we could’ve only dreamed about. A kid at a smaller school can put his film online and potentially get seen by college coaches across the country. Families who can’t make the game can watch clips. Players can build their own brands. Local media outlets can cover more athletes than ever before.

Those are all positives.

But every advancement takes something away, too. And what social media took away was mystery.

Friday night doesn’t really end anymore. It’s happening on your phone in real time. Score. Clip. Touchdown. Update. Final score. Interview. Another clip. Another score.

By the time you get home, you’ve already seen half the night.

There isn’t that same moment where an entire region sits down together waiting to see what happened.

 

Scarcity Made It Special

I think that’s really what I’m talking about.

Scarcity.

When you couldn’t see everything whenever you wanted, seeing something actually meant more. If you missed Skylights, you missed Skylights. There wasn’t necessarily a clip waiting for you whenever you felt like watching it.

So you made sure you were there. That created shared experiences.

Monday morning at school, everybody was talking about the same plays. “Did you see what happened in that Penn Hills game?” “Did you see Woodland Hills?” “Did you see that kid from McKeesport?” “Did you see that hit?”

And if Fedko went crazy over a play? Everybody knew about it.

One television show could turn a high school kid into a name people recognized all over Western Pennsylvania.

That’s powerful.

 

Maybe I’m Just Getting Old

I know what somebody younger is probably thinking. Old head yelling at clouds.

Fair enough.

Every generation believes its era was special. And today’s players probably wouldn’t trade social media for what we had.

I don’t blame them. If Instagram and TikTok existed when I was playing, I probably would’ve been posting my highlights too. Let’s keep it real.

But I’m glad I experienced WPIAL sports when I did. Because there was something pure about playing a game without immediately knowing what everybody else in Western Pennsylvania was doing.

There was something special about getting home and waiting for those highlights.

There was something special about hearing Fedko build up the Game of the Night.

And there was definitely something special about hearing your name come through that television.

 

You Couldn’t Give Yourself a Name

That’s probably the part younger athletes will never completely understand.

Today, you can build your own platform. Back then, somebody else had to recognize what you were doing.

You couldn’t tell everybody you were a star. You had to play like one.

You couldn’t manufacture a reputation. You had to earn one.

And when John Fedko kept saying your name on Friday nights, Western Pennsylvania started learning it too. That’s how legends and local household names were created.

So maybe social media didn’t ruin WPIAL football.

Maybe the football is still great. Maybe the kids are just as talented. Maybe I’m simply nostalgic for the way we experienced it. But I’ll tell you this: Nothing on Instagram will ever duplicate sitting in front of that television on a Friday night, waiting for John Fedko to tell Western Pennsylvania what just happened.

If you lived it, you know.

And if you didn’t? Man, you missed one hell of an era.