History with Chuck: The Abington/Cheltenham dynamic via high school football and Bob Saget

According to local historian Chuck Langerman, Abington and Cheltenham have always been rivals, including through sport.

The Abington/Cheltenham High School football rivalry dates back to 1915, making it one of the oldest in the state. When the two schools meet on August 25 at Schwarzman Stadium in Abington, there will be two firsts in the 108-year history:

• One of the head coaches will be a teacher in the other school’s building. Abington head coach Terence Tolbert is a business teacher at Cheltenham High. Mr. Tolbert graduated from Abington High in 1989 where he was a highly regarded defensive back who once returned an interception 100 yards for a touchdown against Pennsbury High in 1988.
• Both head coaches will be African-Americans. Cheltenham head coach Troy Gore is a 1985 graduate of Lincoln High School in Philadelphia.

Despite the ongoing competition, there are countless examples of camaraderie as well. Here is an example of two famous graduates working together:

After graduating from Abington Senior High School in 1974, the late Bob Saget matriculated at Temple University where he received guidance from 1945 Cheltenham High School graduate and Alumni Association Hall of Famer Lew Klein.

Mr. Klein, a broadcasting pioneer and philanthropist, is the namesake of Temple’s media and communication building. Klein served as his mentor, always rooting and vouching for Saget. Klein helped Saget get a gig at “The Mike Douglas Show,” his first internship in show business.

According to Saget, “Lew Klein was a hero of mine. A mentor of mine.”

Fun fact about Bob

Honored in 1991 for his accomplishments in the Arts, Saget credited a number of Abington teachers for his success, especially Mrs. Elaine Zimmerman:

When I got to [Abington], I had to make up two years of English in one, . . . Mrs. Zimmerman took me as a solo effort in her honors class and would meet with me a few times a week to discuss books she’d asked me to read. Anything by Steinbeck, Kipling, Hemingway I read, and we’d have lengthy discussions about them. Moby Dick and The Scarlet Letter I took rainchecks on.

There went my A, but she was so giving as a teacher and as a person, I can say that she is one of the greatest influences in my life so far. I used to show her Super 8mm movies I’d made and bore her with my “creative” writing and she wound up suggesting I not go to college as a pre-med student, but study to become a comedy filmmaker. That’s dangerous advice for a teacher to give a student. She even wrote in my yearbook, “To the next Groucho-Fellini.” I haven’t yet reached those goals she had helped me realize for myself, but I’m working on it.