Fran Novak continued what brother started
Through the years Fayette County football has been blessed with some outstanding brother combinations. The Sutton brothers at Brownsville, the Stephens brothers at Uniontown, the Scott brothers at Connellsville and the McLees at Uniontown just to name a few.
One of the outstanding brother combos played at South Union High School in the late 1950无毛视频檚 and early 1960无毛视频檚, the Novak brothers Rich and Fran. Rich Novak has already been profiled with a Memory Lane column. Here is the story of his brother, Fran.
Fran was a three-sport star for the Blue Devils in football, basketball and track.
Novak followed in brother Rich无毛视频檚 footsteps at South Union and took over as the starting quarterback when Rich graduated in 1958. Novak guided the Blue Devils to records of 7-2 in 1958, 4-4 in 1959 and 4-5 in 1960.
无毛视频淚 played my sophomore year for Park Glass and we were 7-2,无毛视频� Novak recalled. 无毛视频淭hen as a junior, John Pringle, came in as head coach. My senior year in 1960 we won our first four games and then lost five in a row. I had a number of touchdown passes my sophomore year when I had Tom Rae and Floyd Geho as my ends.无毛视频�
Novak had some great things to say about his old coach Park Glass.
无毛视频淗e loved his teams, he cared about his players,无毛视频� Novak said.
Novak had mixed fillings about John Pringle, who coached him his junior and senior seasons.
无毛视频淭here was a huge difference,无毛视频� Novak opined. 无毛视频淧ark Glass, you wanted to play for and he was a gentle spirit, but he was very good and he taught you a lot. John Pringle was intense and very disciplined and he would kind of take it out on his players. He scrimmaged a lot and he beat us up basically. It was not good.无毛视频�
The big game of the year was always the showdown with arch-rival North Union.
无毛视频淚t was anybody无毛视频檚 ballgame,无毛视频� Novak stated. 无毛视频淣o matter what your record was you went into that game and you just doubled down on the effort and really played as hard as you possibly could. It was a tremendous rivalry and there was a lot of pride involved.无毛视频�
Novak was 1-2 as a starting quarterback against North Union. He lost to the Rams, 25-6, in 1958, he beat them, 19-15, in 1959 and lost to the Rams, 21-7, in 1960. He garnered All-County honors as a junior and a senior.
Novak excelled in basketball. He played on some very good teams at South Union.
Novak saw limited action during the 1957-58 season, scoring five points for the Blue Devils, who posted a record of 21-3. South Union lost to Sharon in the WPIAL playoffs, 54-46.
South Union went 11-3 in Section 11 play and 17-4 overall. Novak tallied 126 points.
In 1959-60, the Blue Devils were 12-2 in Section 11 play and 16-5 overall. They best Donora, 47-46, in the WPIAL playoffs before falling to Midland, 62-38. Novak scored 202 points, including a career-high 29 points in a 98-90 win over Redstone.
During Novak无毛视频檚 senior campaign in 1960-61 he scored 249 points and the Blue Devils posted a record of 11-3 in section play and 13-7 overall.
无毛视频淲e had some good teams, particularly during my junior year,无毛视频� Novak stated. 无毛视频淭hat was a very good team and it was a team where the tallest guy on the team was Dave Marovich, who was a really talented multi-sport player. Dave was 6-foot-2 and everybody else was 6-foot or shorter.
The 6-foot, 176-pound Novak tallied a total of 582 points during his career and was an All-Section selection.
无毛视频淚 was a guard and play maker,无毛视频� Novak recalled. 无毛视频淚 started three years, and as a player, I was primarily a jump shooter from the corner or out front.无毛视频�
Novak has high praise for his basketball coach, the late Marty Fagler.
无毛视频淗e was tremendous,无毛视频� Novak offered. 无毛视频淗e was a great teacher and extremely knowledgeable and he was an experienced coach that we learned a lot from.无毛视频�
Novak was an outstanding track performer for South Union. He ran the 440 and was on the relay teams. He helped lead the Blue Devils to a share of the WPIAL Class B championship in 1961. It was a remarkable run for the Blue Devils, who did not have a track and all of their dual meets were away from home.
无毛视频淲e had the football field,无毛视频� Novak explained. 无毛视频淲e had no track and the football field wasn无毛视频檛 like one where you had a lot of space around the edges. We did the best we could by running on the football field in the grass and there were some cinders, but that was only for about 100 yards. In the distances we were not quite sure, and we would pretty much run around the football field and even out through the surrounding neighborhood for longer distances. It was quite a handicap to train under those kind of conditions. We would run out through the neighborhood and try and dodge the cars.无毛视频�
South Union served notice that they were a power-to-be-with when Class A and B WPIAL schools held an annual track & field meet at Canonsburg on May 20, 1961.
无毛视频淲e really had a strong meet that day,无毛视频� Novak recalled. 无毛视频淲e not only won a lot of things, I think we set three new records. We performed tremendously and again it was not only because we won events, but we placed quite a few who scored that day.无毛视频�
Novak sifted through 17 college offers before deciding to play football at Pitt. He had an outstanding freshman season for the Pitt frosh. He had tough competition for the quarterback spot in the person of Fred Mazurek, who became one of the all-time great players in Pitt history.
无毛视频淚 didn无毛视频檛 know Fred was going there,无毛视频� Novak said. 无毛视频淚 competed against him in high school and he was a tremendous athlete. He won out for the quarterback job. I was third team and I played and they tried to covert me to defensive back. My big experience at Pitt was that I was on the tremendous 1963 team that went 9-1 and was number three in the nation. The team was probably one of the top-five teams in Pitt history.无毛视频�
When Novak graduated he went on to have a very successful career in the business world. He started out working for Alcoa and then moved. He moved on to Quincy Compressor Company and ran the business which led to a company named Walbar. He became a group executive overseeing two businesses as part of a private equity company. That was part of the Pullman group and he ran six companies. He remained in private equity with Stellex Aerospace as president and CEO. Novak retired in 2007.
无毛视频淚 had a tremendous run and was blessed with a great work career,无毛视频� Novak stated.
Novak, 72, resides in the Philadelphia area with his wife of 49 years, Arlene. They have four children; two boys and two girls. They have three grandchildren.
George Von Benko无毛视频檚 无毛视频淢emory Lane无毛视频� column appears in the Monday editions of the 无毛视频-Standard. He also hosts a sports talk show on WMBS-AM radio from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.