A tradition that has carried on for more than half a century in the Steel Valley/West Mifflin area will continue this weekend, but not without quite a few noticeable changes.

The 51st annual Thompson Run Athletic Association Sports Night will take place Sunday at the social club located on Ball Avenue in West Mifflin, according to event chairman Darrell Hess, who has had that title since the banquet's inception, organizing all 50 of the previous events.

Doors open at 6 p.m. with dinner at 6:30.

Over the years, the event has attracted some of the biggest names in Western Pennsylvania sports history as guest speakers.

This year's version will mark quite a difference from the previous ones, however. Always a "stag" event, this will be the first "coed" Sports Night in club history and the event is being co-sponsored by the Homestead District Lions Club, with proceeds going toward Lions charities.

The date of this year's event also represents a big change from the previous Sports Nights.

"When we started out, we always held it in January," Hess said, noting that was a good time of year to obtain the services of the legendary Bob "The Gunner" Prince, longtime Voice of the Pirates, as the master of ceremonies. "We tied it in with the [Post-Gazette's] Dapper Dan banquet. We'd have it on a Thursday night, then the Dapper Dan events would be the following weekend."

After Prince died in 1985, Bill Hillgrove, the voice of the Pitt Panthers and now the Steelers, assumed the MC role and will once again be the man at the mic Sunday evening for the 24th consecutive year.

A few years after Hillgrove assumed those duties, a winter storm stranded him in Providence, R.I., with the Pitt basketball team.

"We had to cancel the event that year; Frank Fuhrer was supposed to get the Prince Award that year," Hess recalled.

From then on, Sports Night was moved to the spring, where it remained until this year.

But that's not the only change. In addition to opening the event to women, females will also be on the list of honorees for the first time. Sally Wiggin, a longtime newscaster at WTAE-TV, will receive the Bob Prince Memorial Award, given annually to a member of the media, and Jess Strom, a Steel Valley High School and Penn State graduate and now an assistant coach for the California University of Pennsylvania women's basketball team, will receive an award for outstanding achievement in women's basketball.

The Rev. Ray Saunders, a former standout basketball player at West Mifflin North High School and Penn State in the 1960s, will receive the community service award.

Ex-Pitt and NFL lineman Bill Fralic will receive the Man of Yesteryear Award and it will be presented to him by his former coach at Pitt, Serafino "Foge" Fazio.

Other speakers will include Point Park men's basketball coach Bob Rager, a Munhall High School graduate, sportscaster Paul Alexander of FSN Pittsburgh and humorist Jim Meston.

Hess said a limited number of tickets are still available and can be obtained by contacting Howard Caspar at 412 461-4649. Hess said he's expecting a sellout of the 200 seats.

"We used to squeeze 300 guys into that banquet room, but you didn't have room to turn around," Hess said.

A bit more elbow room is probably going to be the least noticeable of all the changes with this year's Sports Night, however.