The 1974 Milford Buccaneers are the only undefeated regular season team (10-0) in program history. For this reason, it is no accident that quite a few members of that team have been selected for induction into the 12th Man Gridiron Club Hall of Fame. This year, 1976 graduate David Sharp has been selected for inclusion. The star defensive back, who also played on all special teams, was a key member of that squad and his contributions to Milford football are now being recognized.
About being selected for the Hall of Fame, Sharp was both thrilled and humbled.
“Other than being totally unexpected, I am genuinely honored and grateful. I’m also humbled, because I know the performances of some players – before, during, and after my time – for whom I wasn’t worthy to carry their helmet.”
He was also very thankful to the 12th Man Club for continuing to recognize Milford football legends.
“I marvel that men like Jack Simon, Vern Walch and others I don’t even kno) would do the heavy lifting required to launch and maintain this legacy institution of a Milford Football Hall of Fame.,” Sharp said. “They get zero compensation and minimal recognition. Yet they persevere out of love for the sport, the school, and the players. In a world filled with people focused on their own glory, these men do it for others. Such selfless service is worthy of recognition.”
For Sharp his football journey began in Pop Warner. Even at a young age, Sharp sensed something special about that group.
“I think back to the initial season of Pop Warner football, when many dads, led by head Coach Wyatt left their day jobs and continued working by teaching us the basics,” Sharp said. “I vividly recall those practices under the lights as a 12-year old. This is the truth – I had a vague sense even then that Milford football was going to do something special, though I certainly couldn’t define it at that stage. As the years passed, and that core group of players moved to high school, that sense of future accomplishment was cemented.”
Selected 1st team All-Conference as a sophomore and senior, a freak injury a few games into his junior year in 1974 would sideline him for the remainder of the regular season. Sharp would keep working during the regular season, finally getting the go-ahead to participate in the playoff game against a loaded St. Mark’s squad. Although Milford would fall in that game, then coach Vern Walch offered high praise for Sharp.
“He was just that type of player. He gave everything he had, all the time,” Walsh said. “He was the type of player all coaches loved, you just had to show him once and he would understand it. However, it is his toughness that really stands out for me.”
After participating in the 1976 Blue-Gold game, Sharp was off to Swarthmore College. Selecting Swarthmore over Dartmouth, Brown and Lehigh, Sharp claimed the decision was fairly simple.
“They offered me a full McCabe scholarship,” Sharp said. “The aversion to coming out of school with significant debt was stronger than playing at the higher level.”
While Swarthmore may have been at a lower level, the realities of a collision sport would soon offer Sharp his greatest athletic challenge. A starting corner as a freshman, Sharp was also playing spells at running back. It would be on a running play which fate interceded in brutal fashion as Sharp would suffer a severe knee injury that would place him in a full leg cast for 10 weeks, with ligament and cartilage damage. Sharp would rehab from January to August, only to suffer another injury to the same knee in the teams first scrimmage. While not playing his sophomore or junior years, Sharp aided his teammates and coaches during practices and games his junior year.
After a total of three surgeries on his knee, Sharp was ready for his senior season. In fact, he was close to 100 percent physically and it showed on the field where he was able to play defensive back without the use of a brace. The result was a solid season, that culminated in Sharp being named The Small College Comeback Player of The Year by Philadelphia Sportswriters. He would even go on to play some rugby at The University of Michigan during graduate school. Sharp would comment on his rugby rather bluntly.
“In my opinion it was tougher than any football game I ever played in.”
Sharp would earn his BA in Economics and Political Science from Swarthmore, and gain his MBA in accounting and finance from Michigan. Sharp would spend over 20 years working in multiple capacities for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
In 2003 his church asked him to come on staff as a pastor.
“After a lot of hand wringing and prayer, my wife and I stepped out in faith, relocating to Gaithersburg MD for one year of intensive pastoral training. From 2004 – 2009 I served on staff at Covenant Fellowship Church in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania,” Sharp said. “That church then asked me to assist in planting a new church, Brandywine Grace Church, in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, which is where we remain. I stepped off as a full-time staff pastor in 2023 but continue to serve in a “lay” pastor capacity.”
Sharp met his wife Andrea in the summer of 1975 when her family moved to Milford from Wilmington and they look forward to celebrating their 43rd wedding anniversary this October. They have three children, Sarah, Andrew and Rose, born in Bolivia and adopted by the family at the age of four months. Sharp has three granddaughters, Julia, Isobel and Ivy. He also has a grandson, Andrew.
