In a story as compelling as any sports movie, the 1979 Mt. Lebanon football season was shaped by a contentious teacher strike, negative press and on-field struggles. Mt. Lebanon graduate Michael Eck revisited that turbulent year while discussing his new memoir, “Strike Season,” before a packed crowd at the Historical Society of Mt. Lebanon on Apr. 25. 

The news came as a blow. The union and the school board hadn’t been able to reach an agreement, and Mt. Lebanon teachers were striking. For football quarterback and senior Eck, the choices were stark. With teacher-coaches unable to cross the picket line, he and his co-captains were told they either needed to coach the team themselves, or they wouldn’t play at all. 

“We heard the rumors and assumed it would never happen,” Eck said. “It would be like extended snow days.” 

Not playing was not an option. They had one of the strongest teams Mt. Lebanon had ever seen and there were nine seniors with D1 college scholarships on the line. In fact, teammate John Frank, a 1979 All-Stater, would go pro after college and win two Super Bowl rings for the San Francisco 49ers.  

“We were doing what we had to do. It was self-preservation. It was survival of the season, with no anticipation or planning,” Eck said. “There was no one holding us accountable except us.” 

And his team did the unexpected. They organized their own practices, called their own plays and kept winning football games – much to the dismay of the school board. “Both the school board and the union lost leverage because we kept winning,” Eck said. 

Historical society board member Jon Delano, acting as moderator for the event, explained how the team became unwitting “pawns in the larger political game between the school board and the union.” In the end,  “it took a judge to bring people back into the room to talk to each other,” he said. 

Eck said he’d always watch football movies and TV shows like Friday Night Lights, remember his own high school football career, and say, “I think we have a better story.” Finally, one of his sons told him he should write it down and turn it into a book. 

“I’ve never written anything other than a couple of emails before!” Eck joked. He began contacting former teammates and coaches, uncovering a deeper story of perseverance and struggle during the six-week strike that had lasting repercussions. 

“This story, this experience, impacted me throughout my life.  It had a pretty profound impact on everyone,” Eck said. 

“It’s a powerful reminder that growth doesn’t happen in easy times. It happens in moments of uncertainty, challenge and even adversity,” said historical society President Alyssa Jones. “The people who show up are the ones who shape lives.” 

Eck, describing his teenage self as a “knucklehead,” said he and his teammates had “no appreciation for what the teachers, the coaches and the union were going through” at the time.  

“There are two heroes in the book,” Eck said, pointing to former social studies teacher Mark McCloskey and former Head Coach Art Walker, sitting in the audience. “Not me. One. Two. Right here. What you guys were able to do at this time while we muscled through, right or wrong…” 

At just 29, McCloskey was thrust into the role of union chairman, having to communicate with the teachers, the union, the school board and the media in one of the most contentious strikes in the area. Eck said, “he was doing extraordinary things for the union that had never been done before.” 

“Back then Mt. Lebanon was notorious for paying low salaries with little benefits,” Eck said. The school board brought in a “big time” union buster from Pittsburgh to negotiate for them. 

“He was gonna teach the teachers a lesson and we ended up on strike for six weeks,” added Walker. “It should have been six hours. The teachers needed a raise and they [the school board] knew it. It was hell to make a living on a teacher’s salary.” 

As for Walker, he found every action as a coach placed under a microscope. He had to resort to subterfuge to speak to his students, using intermediaries like a priest at St. Bernard’s Church to arrange meet ups in a safe place. 

Eck gave a colorful recounting of how he and his teammates sneaked over to Walker’s house, located in neighboring Baldwin Township, during the strike. It was being guarded by a Mt. Lebanon police cruiser parked out front, sent by either the school board or the union. They parked two blocks away, then crawled through backyards and climbed over fences to get to Walker’s home.  

It was a real “one if by land, two if by sea” moment, Eck said. At one point, he and teammate Tim “Sully” Sullivan stood there in the dark, arguing about which house was Coach’s before the backyard lights flashed, letting them know which garage to go into. 

“I’ll never be disloyal to the union, but I’ll never abandon this team,” Eck recalls Walker telling the players. 

Walker’s attempt to help the team led to him being outed in a Pittsburgh Press article for wearing a mic to talk to the spotter on the field. It was during their winning game against archrival Upper St. Clair. After the game a reporter caught Eck off-guard and the quote he gave him made it clear Walker was still communicating with the team. The administrators had to go before the school board to convince them nothing untoward was going on. 

“He made me look like a liar. It was really an achievement against an archrival and I remember picking up the paper the next day and it made me really look bad,” Eck said. “And then I was really worried I had put the season at risk because of what I said and did.”  

Eck said when the strike ended, he let out a big sigh of relief. “I couldn’t wait to get yelled at and get told what to do again.”  

The book event at times felt like an Old Home Week reunion, as teammates reminisced about old games and bantered about which season had the best team. “The talent was just unbelievable on that team,” Walker said. 

Sully, gesturing with a beer, described how they had to cross the picket line to practice on the football field and were called “scabs” by their own teachers. Sully and Eck remembered how the USC coach went toe-to-toe with them in the huddle prior to the game to tell them they were “ruining lives” by playing and encouraged them to quit.  

“We flipped the coin and said, “let’s go kick their ass,” Eck told the engaged crowd.  

Paul Tate recounted a fight on the field where he ripped his helmet off in anger and Eck admitted there was one practice where he was being “a showboat” and his teammate, Tom Scanlan, “the Human Bowling Ball,” took him out with a flip to teach him a lesson.   

“The best part of this project has been connecting with the larger group [of former teammates] on a deeper level,” Eck said. “I say the same thing about Coach Walker. What a gift to be able to reconnect again.”  

The talk was punctuated by the arrival of new Mt. Lebanon Head Coach Bruce Fronk, returning from the NFL Draft. With him he carried the school’s draft football, featuring the names of former Mt. Lebo NFL draftees. Then it was announced that 2022 graduate Eli Heidenreich had been drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers and the room erupted in cheers.  

All proceeds from book sales will benefit the nonprofit STEER for Student Athletes, co-founded by Eck, which provides mentorship to support high school student athletes from challenging circumstances. 

Preorders of “Strike Season” are available now at: https://tinyurl.com/StrikeSeason