 
|
|
              
|
Joseph W. Golden Jr. / Teacher and coach who loved football
Thursday, October 26, 2000 By Phil Axelrod, Post-Gazette Sports Writer
Joseph W. Golden Jr. was a teacher, coach and businessman whose passion was football.
"He made a difference to a lot of different people," said his son, Joseph Golden III. "He really loved football."
Mr. Golden, an assistant football coach at Serra Catholic High School, died last Thursday of heart failure at his home in Penn Hills. He was 61.
Mr. Golden was an offensive lineman on Westinghouse High School's powerful City League teams from 1954 to 1957. Those teams were coached by the legendary Pete Dimperio. Mr. Golden went on to play football at Virginia State University and was drafted by the Dallas Texans -- now the Kansas City Chiefs -- of the old American Football League.
He played professionally with the Duquesne/Pittsburgh Ironmen semipro team and he coached the Ironmen and other semipro clubs. He was inducted into the minor-league football hall of fame on June 25, 1999.
Mr. Golden was general manager of the Pittsburgh Colts minor- league club and was a part-owner of the Pittsburgh Ironmen, a new team that is scheduled to begin play in the newly formed Indoor Arena Football League in February at Mellon Arena. He was president of the Pittsburgh Management Group, a group of local investors that owned the team.
"I've been playing football since I was 7 years old, and one of my goals was to follow Dad," said Golden, 33, of Penn Hills, who is an assistant football coach at Wilkinsburg High School. "He taught me you have to have the right attitude, you have to stay in shape and keep your body right so you'll be ready when you're called."
Mr. Golden had been the head football coach at Sto-Rox High School and an assistant at Westinghouse, Shady Side Academy and Harrisburg high schools and Duquesne University.
He earned a bachelor's degree in elementary education from Virginia State University in 1961 and worked in the Pittsburgh Public Schools as a special education teacher. He received his master's degree in social work in 1975 from the University of Pittsburgh and worked as a crisis management counselor, program director and supervisor for a number of local organizations.
He founded J.W. Golden Associates Inc., a consultant to minority-owned businesses.
Mr. Golden was a former member of the Penn Hills school board.
He and his wife, Claudette, were among the founding members of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Homestead, where they served as deacon and deaconness and he served as treasurer.
In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Golden is survived by a daughter, Claudia Golden of Maryland; other sons, Wilbert of Montgomery, Ala., Jeremy of Fredericktown, Md., and Otis of McKeesport; a brother, Edgar of Columbia, S.C.; a sister, Elizabeth Jackson of East Hills; and six grandchildren.
Arrangements were by Gaines Funeral Home.
|
