Ray Didinger, who grew up in the Milmont Park section of Ridley Township and graduated from St. James High in Chester, and former Villanova University men’s basketball coach Jay Wright were among those inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame at its 61st annual awards dinner at the Drexelbrook Events Center recently.

Others joining the Hall of Fame included football players Jim Braxton (deceased), Mike Guman, Bo Orlando and Andre Reed; baseball players Jacob Daubert (deceased) and Mike Mussina; Paralympic skier Stephanie Jallen; basketball coach Bruce Parkhill; basketball player Dave Popson; and golfer Carol Semple Thompson.

Phil Martelli, the Lansdowne native who played basketball at Widener University and coached at Saint Joseph’s and who has been a member of the PA Sports Hall of Fame since 2007, was master of ceremonies for the event.

After mentioning that many of the inductees are members of their sport’s National Halls of Fame, Martelli put in a plug for Billy “White Shoes” Johnson, the Chichester All-Delco and Widener All-America, to be the next PA Hall of Fame member elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

In introducing Didinger, Martelli told the audience to take time to view the video of Ray and his son, David, exchanging hugs after the Eagles’ Super Bowl victory in Minneapolis in 2018.

Didinger, who worked briefly for the Daily Times before beginning a long career covering sports in Philadelphia, spoke of summers spent as a youth at the Eagles’ training camp in Hershey as well as going to Connie Mack Stadium with his father to see Phillies games and to Franklin Field for Eagles games.

“In those days I considered myself the luckiest kid in the world,” he said. “Then I got to cover sports in the best sports town with the best sports fans in America and had the best seat in the house for 50 years.

“Now with this honor, I want to thank the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame for making me feel like the luckiest kid in the world once again.”

As Martelli introduced Wright, he called upon Semple Thompson, one of the first female members of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews in Scotland, to intercede on Wright’s behalf to allow him to play a round there. Martelli also mentioned that “for anyone who has a conversation with (Wright), his greatest gift is that after that conversation, a person walks away feeling so much better about themself.”

Wright introduced a number of his former Villanova players in attendance and said his “biggest blessing was having the chance to coach at Villanova University.” Wright came to Villanova as an assistant under head coach Rollie Massimino, who always boasted that all of the members of his coaching staff were Italian.

“I’m not really Italian, but I could never find the right way to tell Coach Mass that,” Wright said, before mentioning that one of his children did an ancestry test that discovered some Italian blood in the Wright family history.

“I was so glad to learn about that,” Wright said. “(Massimino) always taught me to treat my team like family.”

Parkhill noted that his father grew up in Yeadon and worked for Horn & Hardart. After the family moved to Ridley Park, Parkhill attended the former Tome Street Elementary School.

Daubert was one of the outstanding players in Major League Baseball’s Dead Ball Era more than 100 years ago. He holds the National League record for career sacrifice bunts. In introducing Mussina, Martelli asked him if the Dead Ball Era was a reference to the recent Phillies-Mets playoff series.

A number of people recalled the day when Mussina, when he attended Montoursville High, pitched and won a PIAA baseball playoff game against Upper Darby High.

Carl Schaller, who scored 1,000 points in his Garnet Valley basketball career, recently reached the 1,000-point mark in a Gettysburg College uniform.

Schaller, a senior, scored a season-high 29 points in a win over Bryn Athyn, including his 1,000th career point in the second half.

During the 2023-24 hoops season, Schaller was named to the Centennial Conference All-Academic team.

Malvern Prep senior Andrew Pellicciotta, who ran for a touchdown and played shutdown defense at safety to help the Friars defeat Episcopal Academy recently, comes by his athletic talents naturally.

Pellicciotta, who helped Malvern to the PA Independent Schools baseball title last spring, is the son of former Archbishop Carroll athletes Marc and Jessica (Findeison) Pellicciotta. Marc was a football and baseball player at Carroll and spent time in the Houston Astros’ minor league system.

Jessica Pelliccciotta was an All-Delco field hockey defender for a Catholic League winner at Carroll, then earned Regional All-America honors at Ohio State.

Andrew Pellicciotta has committed to the United States Naval Academy, where he plans to play football.

The Springfield School District’s Athletics Hall of Fame recently honored it Class of 2024.

Among the inductees were field hockey coach Lois Carocci (deceased), lacrosse player Julianna Jeffers, football and track standout Andre Nelson and baseball player Brad Warner. The 1962 football team also was added to the Hall of Fame.

Belle Mastropietro, an All-Delco basketball and lacrosse player at Springfield who played lacrosse at Temple, is an assistant student athletic trainer at Penncrest. She is a second-year student in the Masters of Science in Athletic Training program at Temple.

Many of her Springfield friends and former teachers joked about her being on the Penncrest sideline when the Lions football team played at Springfield last month.

Ridley graduate Nick Volpone, a junior kicker at Wilkes College who lists his hometown as “Delco, Pa.,” recently broke the school record for conversion kicks. With four PATs against Lycoming, Volpone’s career total stood at 88.

As Wilkes completed its 7-4 season, his career total stood at 112 conversion kicks. Volpone also was 8-for-11 on field goal attempts, including a 3-for-3 against Lycoming. His longest 3-pointer was a 32-yarder.

Carol (Daly) Cantele, a graduate of Nether Providence High, and Interboro High grad Ryan Moore were inducted into the Gettysburg College Hall of Athletic Honor.

Cantele helped Gettysburg field hockey win the Associations for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) title in 1980 and helped the lacrosse team qualify for the national playoffs for the first time in 1981.

In 30 years coaching Gettysburg women’s lacrosse, she won 446 games and earned NCAA Division III championships in 2011, 2017 and 2018. She was named national coach of the year four times. In 2016, Cantele received the Diane Geppi-Aikens Memorial Award from the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Association for “a lifetime of achievement to the women’s college game.”

She also earned more than 100 wins in 10 seasons as Gettysburg’s field hockey coach.

Moore, who played football under coach Steve Lennox at Interboro, was a four-year starter at linebacker at Gettysburg, reaching triple digits in tackles each of his last three seasons. He finished his career with 16 interceptions, five of which he returned for a touchdown, a school record. He earned all-conference and All-American recognition three times.

Moore’s son, Braden, a junior at Upper Moreland, caught a touchdown pass for the Bears in their District 1 Class 5A playoff loss at Chester recently.

Stephanie (Tinney) Robinson, a graduate of Ridley High, was inducted to Lafayette College’s Athletics Hall of Fame.

A member of Lafayette’s Class of 2002, she was the Patriot League lacrosse defensive player of the year in 2001 and 2002 and was a member of the Brine All-Mid-Atlantic Region team. She was Patriot League playoff MVP in 2001 and set a league record in 2002 by claiming 108 ground balls, an average of 5.4 per game, tops among NCAA Division I players.

She, her husband, Ben, and their three children live in Sydney, Australia, where she works providing STEM resources to schools and museums. She also volunteers for an organization that provides food to needy families.