A moment of silence was held at Friday night’s “Old Shoe” game to remember a local sports legend credited with helping start the decades-old Back Mountain football tradition.
Robert Dolbear, a longtime educator who was instrumental in creating the annual high school rivalry game in 1948, has died at the age of 104, it was announced earlier Friday.
Born in Plains Township in 1915, Dolbear graduated from Plains Township High School and Mansfield University before returning to the Wyoming Valley to begin his teaching career at Dallas High School, according to a 2015 Times Leader profile written to commemorate his 100th birthday.
Dolbear served as a U.S. Army cryptographer during World War II, entrusted with high-level documents — including communications between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower — secrets his daughter said Dolbear never discussed.
He returned to work at Dallas after the war, and went on to serve as principal from 1965 to 1978, when he retired.
In addition to his role in creating the “Old Shoe” game, Dolbear also was involved in creating the Wyoming Valley Conference high school softball all-star game: The Robert L. Dolbear All-Star Softball Classic is played each year in his honor.
The “Old Shoe” game trophy is — what else? — a bronzed football cleat, awarded to the winner of the annual contest. The game began as a rivalry between multiple schools, but thanks to mergers over the years is now a competition between Dallas and Lake-Lehman.
Lake-Lehman took home the trophy on Friday night with a 42-0 victory, the largest margin in the history of the game.
Dolbear continued to follow Dallas sports long past retirement and attended the annual games for decades; when he could no longer do so, the teams from both schools would visit him each year.
When asked five years ago what he attributed his longevity to, Dolbear responded: “Good living.”