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鈥檚 and early 1960鈥檚, 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鈥檚 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.
鈥淚 played my sophomore year for Park Glass and we were 7-2,鈥� Novak recalled. 鈥淭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.鈥�
Novak had some great things to say about his old coach Park Glass.
鈥淗e loved his teams, he cared about his players,鈥� Novak said.
Novak had mixed fillings about John Pringle, who coached him his junior and senior seasons.
鈥淭here was a huge difference,鈥� Novak opined. 鈥淧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.鈥�
The big game of the year was always the showdown with arch-rival North Union.
鈥淚t was anybody鈥檚 ballgame,鈥� Novak stated. 鈥淣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.鈥�
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鈥檚 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.
鈥淲e had some good teams, particularly during my junior year,鈥� Novak stated. 鈥淭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.
鈥淚 was a guard and play maker,鈥� Novak recalled. 鈥淚 started three years, and as a player, I was primarily a jump shooter from the corner or out front.鈥�
Novak has high praise for his basketball coach, the late Marty Fagler.
鈥淗e was tremendous,鈥� Novak offered. 鈥淗e was a great teacher and extremely knowledgeable and he was an experienced coach that we learned a lot from.鈥�
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.
鈥淲e had the football field,鈥� Novak explained. 鈥淲e had no track and the football field wasn鈥檛 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.鈥�
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.
鈥淲e really had a strong meet that day,鈥� Novak recalled. 鈥淲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.鈥�
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.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know Fred was going there,鈥� Novak said. 鈥淚 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.鈥�
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.
鈥淚 had a tremendous run and was blessed with a great work career,鈥� 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鈥檚 鈥淢emory Lane鈥� column appears in the Monday editions of the 缅北禁地. He also hosts a sports talk show on WMBS-AM radio from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.