Legendary Newark High athlete Swann Sr. dies; halfback keyed late 1960s football teams

When he arrived at Newark High as a teacher and assistant football coach in 1970, Butch Simpson heard the tales of 1969 graduate Pedro Swann’s exploits on the football field for the Yellowjackets.

They sounded too amazing to be true. One day, Simpson popped film in the projector, seeking proof.

“When you hear somebody so legendary, when I sat down, I thought this guy can’t possibly be that good,” Simpson said. “And when I watched the film, he was just a man among boys. He had that vision of cutting back and making it a highlight film.”

Swann, a 2004 inductee to the Delaware Afro-American Sports Hall of Fame, died at age 68 on May 11.

Seeing him play football – or baseball or basketball or run track, having excelled in all three – often drew such awe and left a lasting impression.

At Newark, halfback Swann was one-third of the so-called “three aces” with end Gary Hayman and quarterback Bob Tucker, who wreaked havoc on Newark opponents before the inception of state football tournaments. Newark had won 33 straight when they closed their careers.

They made their biggest headlines Nov. 17, 1967, when Newark ended Middletown’s longest-in-the-nation 53-game win streak 19-6 and with a 44-0 victory for the Gold in the 1969 Blue-Gold all-star game, in which the three accounted for every point.

There were an estimated 9,500 in the stands in Middletown that night when Swann rushed for 114 yards on just 13 carries, including a fourth-down 1-yard run for Newark’s second TD. His 40-yard dash had set it up. Swann caught a 16-yard pass from Tucker for Newark’s third TD. Tucker went on to Maryland and Hayman to Penn State and then the Buffalo Bills.

John Gosnay, now a William Penn High assistant coach, witnessed that game standing on a large plank draped across the top of two stepladders behind the grandstand with fellow coaches.

Gosnay was on the coaching staff at Gunning-Bedford, then a junior and senior high school, now just a middle school, in St. Georges. Gosnay was a close friend of then-Newark coach Bob Hoffman and Gunning-Bedford scrimmaged Newark in the preseason.

“He was a tough guy, a tough kid to bring down,” Gosnay said of the 5-foot-6, 170-pound Swann. “He had speed; he had virtually all the ingredients of a good running back. He wasn’t a guy who would float down the field. He was a burst kind of a guy, a lot like the kid from Smyrna these past few years [Will Knight].”

Swann rushed for 2,665 yards, averaged 7.8 yards per carry and finished with 3,677 total yards at Newark, where he often threw passes, too.

“That Pedro, he was just great,” Newark coach Bob Hoffman told The News Journal after a 1967 win over Wilmington in which Swann swallowed up 284 all-purpose yards in a 41-7 win.

Swann was also the state low and high hurdles champion in track as a junior and a basketball standout.

Swann then went to Delaware State where, as a freshman, he was named the school’s outstanding athlete after batting .471, which ranked No. 8 nationally, in baseball in the 1970 season. A center fielder, Swann batted .363 in three Delaware Semi-Pro League seasons (1969-71) with the Newark Mets and was league MVP in 1970, when he batted .412.

After playing one football season at Delaware State, Swann didn’t return to school and ended up having a career as a DuPont Co. technician.

Longtime friend and Newark backfield mate Gary Connell easily recalled the first time he encountered Swann. The two were on opposing Newark American Little League teams, playing on the VFW field on Elkton Road. Connell’s team caught Swann in a rundown between third and home.

“Pedro jumped over the catcher,” Connell said. “I’ll never forget it.”

Connell, the other halfback in Newark’s Wing-T backfield, recalled a 26-20 comeback win at Brandywine their senior year in which Swann had three touchdown runs and then won the game with a late 45-yard TD pass to Hayman.

 “He was phenomenal,” Connell said. “He would run over you. Run around you. It didn’t matter.”

Survivors include wife Beverly and sons Darius, Maurice and Pedro Jr., the St. Mark’s High and Delaware State graduate who played 17 seasons of professional baseball, including 25 major league games with the Braves, Blue Jays and Orioles.

A viewing and celebration of life will be held beginning at 9 a.m. Monday at the House of Wright Mortuary, 208 E. 35th St. in Wilmington.

Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @kevintresolini.

MORE IN SPORTS:

Delaware Baseball Hall of Fame to induct CR grad Snell, St. Mark's coach Smith

Delaware high school football coaches teach new, safer tackling — and keep winning