Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League

 
As football coaches go, he was no average Joe. Hamilton was a head football coach in the WPIAL in six different decades and almost a half century. He spent 49 years coaching Midland, New Brighton, Hempfield and Blackhawk. Hamilton played at Beaver High School and Geneva College before becoming a head coach at Midland in 1966. But he is most known for his days at Blackhawk, where he was the coach from 1976 through 2014 before retiring as the second-winningest coach in WPIAL history with a record of 342-170-11. He is seventh on the state’s alltime win list. In 39 seasons at Blackhawk, Hamilton had a 280-142-7 record and made the WPIAL playoffs 19 times. He won four WPIAL championships and his teams played in a state championship game three different times.