Remembering North Harford's Glamp Brothers' athletic legacy following another of their untimely deaths

Everything about the Glamp family exudes strength. From their physical stature, bearing and Pattonesque competitive nature, the Glamps always have had a certain presence, even now as those remaining find themselves immersed in the emotional riptide of the latest tragedy to befall them.A Mass of Christian Burial was held Friday at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Crofton, for Pat Glamp, 58, who died in North Carolina highway crash in early September.Ten years earlier, a similar service was held there for his brother, Pete, 48, who died suddenly of a heart attack. Three years before that, the church was the site of a celebration of the life of Pete's twin brother, Paul, 46, who lost his struggle with brain cancer.For those who well remember the Glamps for their consistently stellar football and wrestling exploits at North Harford High School, their untimely passings are difficult with which to come to grips.After their family had moved to Dublin from football-rich western Pennsylvania, the Glamp brothers, including surviving sibling, Phil, 57, used sports as a sort of social icebreaker. They quickly made friends by participating in countless pickup games played on Dublin Elementary School's sometimes unforgiving playground, which was just a dropkick from their residence.Once they arrived at North Harford High, the Glamps became major forces in high school sports on the county, region and state levels. The strapping brothers played key roles in lifting their teams to prominence.Paul, who won the state heavyweight wrestling championship as a junior, went on to play football at the University of Maryland, where he was an offensive guard, and in 1979, served as team captain. Pete was a starting defensive end for the Terps.&quot;The team voted him its captain because he was a nonpretentious, nonegotistical person,&quot; Pete Glamp told a Baltimore Sun reporter following Paul's death. &quot;He led through his determination to win, and he also led with his stare. You knew from his look where you stood. He was a highly competitive person.&quot;Pat and Phil Glamp traveled a relatively hardscrabble path en route to becoming half of Harford County's only known brother foursome to play Division I football. Pat and Phil both played for Dick Fordyce's crackerjack Harford Community College teams prior to making it to the next level. After Pat signed on with Temple, Phil followed Pete and Paul to College Park.Billy Day and Larry Dawson, childhood buddies and schoolmates of the Glamps, were among mourners who filed into the spacious Anne Arundel County parish for Pat's service, on a sun-kissed morning as golden leaves floated like butterflies before lightly touching down just outside dark-hued stained glass windows.&quot;Once we got to high school, we would get together and play ball all of the time,&quot; said Day, himself a baseball star at North Harford, and a longtime Coca-Cola Co. employee, in recalling neighborhood ballgames of his youth. &quot;Pat was the real character of the Glamp family. Every time we'd try to start a football game Pat would steal the ball and take off with it.&quot;Dawson, who is from Darlington, found his way to Dublin for many of the neighborhood sandlot battles, and later became a bruising all-star running back for the Glamp-era North Harford Hawks.A smile creased his face as he recalled those bygone days when black and blue were every bit as much the school colors the official green and gold.&quot;They were great days, no doubt,&quot; said Dawson, who looks as though he could still lower an ample shoulder and plow his way to pay dirt. &quot;High school days with the Glamps and everybody were the best.&quot;After their sons had married and moved away, Walt and Eileen Glamp moved from Dublin to Crofton and finally to Columbia, S.C., where Eileen still resides. Walt, who died five years ago, was a retired Bel Air High School educator. Phil resides in Spokane, Wash. His sister Mary Beth Miskelly, the youngest family member by nine years, lives in Columbia, S.C.Following Friday's service, Eileen Glamp, toting a portable oxygen supply, warmly greeted family, friends and acquaintances in a gathering area beyond the sanctuary, standing as solid as Gibraltar in these rockiest of times.Mac Lloyd, a former Aegis sports editor and proud North Harford High graduate, covered the four Glamp brothers in their high school and college days. He lives in Churchville.

Remembering North Harford's Glamp Brothers' athletic legacy following another of their untimely deaths

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