Sports records are made to be broken, but three
track records set by Bill Butler, the Beaver Speedster, stood the test of time.
At the time of his induction in 1976, Butler (who performed at Geneva from 1925 to 1928) still
held the college’s 100 yard dash record of 9.8 seconds, plus the
220 yard dash mark of 22 seconds flat, and the rugged 440 yard dash
record of 48.8 seconds. Bill was a
football and track star at Beaver High School in the early 1920s
when Haywood Taylor was track coach.
Bill played
both halfback and fullback in football and was a sprinter and relay
man on the track team. He became one of the outstanding sprinters
in the East during his college track career at Geneva, holding the
distinction of winning the first track meets held at Pitt Stadium
and at Reeves Stadium. He also competed in the 1925 Penn Relays at
Philadelphia. Bill graduated from Geneva in 1928 and from the Howard
University School of Law in 1931 and served as Juvenile and Adult
Probation Officer of Beaver County from 1948 until 1964. He was
appointed to the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole in 1964
and reappointed in 1969. Bill
was designated Acting Chairman of the Board in 1974.
Sports records are made to be broken, but three
track records set by Bill Butler, the Beaver Speedster, stood the test of time.
At the time of his induction in 1976, Butler (who performed at Geneva from 1925 to 1928) still
held the college’s 100 yard dash record of 9.8 seconds, plus the
220 yard dash mark of 22 seconds flat, and the rugged 440 yard dash
record of 48.8 seconds. Bill was a
football and track star at Beaver High School in the early 1920s
when