Iconic figure: Pirilla made name in Perryopolis as football player, business owner
Submitted photo
Frazier graduate Len Pirilla is shown during his playing days at West Virginia.
Submitted photo
Frazier graduate Len Pirilla is shown during his playing days at West Virginia.
Submitted photo
Frazier graduate Len Pirilla’s family as been running Perry Pharmacy for 80 years.
Len “Skip” Pirilla has been an iconic figure in the Perryopolis community, first as a high school athlete and later running an 80-year family business, the Perry Pharmacy.
Pirilla was a standout fullback/halfback for Perry High School in 1958 and 1959. In 1960 the name was changed to Frazier High School. Pirilla was on teams that posted records of 5-4 in 1958 and 2-6-1 in 1959. In 1960 the Commodores went 7-2 with a loss to Class A Bellmar in the opening game and a 26-0 defeat at the hands of Washington Township in the WPIAL Class B title game.
“I was a three-year varsity letterman,” Pirilla stated. “In 1960 everything went together and the team jelled as a team. It was always a team effort. We had a good line that opened holes and we had two other good backs and we had a good quarterback and it all came together.
“The championship game loss was a disappointment. Washington Township was very good, they were like a small college team. I think we were hurt when East Pittsburgh canceled the final game against us and we had an extra week off. It really messed up our timing and we couldn’t get on track.”
Pirilla had a breakout season as a senior, scoring 10 touchdowns and six extra points for 66 points and gaining over 1,000 yards. He had tallied one touchdown as a sophomore and one touchdown as a junior.
An All-Fayette County and All-WPIAL Class B selection as a senior, the newspapers described Pirilla as a bruising fullback.
“I can’t say I was bruising,” Pirilla opined. “At the time, being 6-foot and 190 pounds, I was probably one of the bigger backs. It was a different era of football and actually I ran away from tacklers more than I ran over them. There is a very stark contrast in size between players from my era and today. The biggest player on our team was a middle guard that weighed 220 pounds.
“We were building to that senior season from the time we were in junior high. We were the same team for all those years and it wasn’t just that we jelled together. We knew everybody’s position, we knew what that job was at that position and anybody could substitute at any position. We were interchangeable all the way around. We didn’t do a lot of it, but we could do it.”
Looking back, Pirilla has great respect for his old head coach Don Mains.
“We had a great relationship,” Pirilla said. “Our coach was probably one of the best coaches in the area. Of all the coaches I’ve had he still ranks as No. 1.”
Pirilla played basketball as a sophomore, but decided to stick with football with hopes of playing in college.
“I always had the hope,” Pirilla said. “But you never know.”
Pirilla was recruited by West Virginia and other schools.
“WVU happened because of former Perry player Bob Benke who played for the Mountaineers,” Pirilla explained. “I had other offers from Minnesota, South Carolina, I visited Notre Dame. Houston offered along with Dayton and Virginia Tech. My dad was a big Pitt guy at the time, and I talked to them. But I followed Benke to West Virginia.”
Pirilla played freshman football for coach Ed Shockey at WVU on a team that went 4-1.
“Our only loss as a freshman was to Pitt,” Pirilla recalled. “We beat Penn State. Joe Paterno was the freshman coach at Penn State that year. We had a good team. I stay in touch with my roommate Milt Clegg.
“On the varsity in 1962 we were 8-2 and I was a backup running back. I didn’t see any action and for me that’s when things turned sour. I lost interest in football. I stayed on the 1963 team which went 4-6. I can laugh at myself now, but in 1962 and 1963 it was probably the lowest point I had as a scholar athlete. I decided I had enough and I gave up my scholarship in 1964. Always the question if I had stayed, but I never looked back.
“I made a decision am I going to be an athlete or am I going to be a student? I was studying in the Physical Education Department and got my grades in order and graduated in January of 1966.”
Pirilla accepted a job at Elizabeth Forward High School setting up its elementary physical education department. Pirilla stayed at Elizabeth Forward from 1966 to 1970. He decided to go to Pharmacy School at the University of Pittsburgh. He graduated from Pitt in 1974.
“My dad had a stroke and he said somebody has to take the pharmacy over or I’m going to sell it,” Pirilla said. “That’s when I decided to get into it. I wanted it to stay in the family. It’s pretty special, we’ve been in business at the Perry Pharmacy 80 years. We are ingrained in the community and I’m proud of that. I’m more proud of that than anything in football.”
Pirilla, 78, still resides in Perryopolis. He and his wife Marie were married for 55 years until she passed away in March 2021. They have four children: three daughters and a son. Pirilla has five grandchildren.
Looking back, Pirilla feels it’s been a great life.
“Athletics helped me on my path,” Pirilla stated. “Running the pharmacy has been a labor of love. This is my life and I’ve really enjoyed it. Since my wife passed, this is the only thing I have right now and it keeps me going.”
George Von Benko’s “Memory Lane” column appears in the Sunday editions of the Ăĺ±±˝űµŘ. He also hosts a sports talk show on WMBS-AM radio from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.