Jun 7, 2024 By Rob Burchianti 8 min read

Fran Novak followed in the steps of his brother, 2010 Fayette County Sports Hall of Fame inductee Rich Novak, as an outstanding multi-sport athlete at South Union High School.

Fran paved his own path to greatness with the Blue Devils and this year he’ll join Rich, who died in 2021, in the Hall of Fame.

“I’m so very honored and deeply grateful to be going into this 15th class in 2024,” said Fran Novak, who talked about being alongside his Rich in the Hall of Fame.

“I’m so elated to say the least,” Fran Novak said. “He was my idol throughout growing up and in high school into college. I was a freshman when he was a senior in high school. To follow him and be inducted as an individual is just wonderful for our family. We’re just all so excited.”

Fran Novak was a 1961 graduate of South Union who was a three-year starter as quarterback of the football team and on the basketball team while lettering in four years at track & field.

“I actually lettered as a freshman so I competed with him in track,” Fran Novak said of playing on the same team with Rich. “When he graduated I moved right in as a starter in football, in basketball and continued on the track team. He was a four-sport star and I was in three sports at South Union.”

Fran Novak was selected to the All-County team in football his junior and seniors years. He scored 582 career points in basketball and made the All-Section team. He competed in multiple sports in track & field while helping South Union tie for the WPIAL Class B championship in 1961.

Fran Novak went on to play football at the University of Pittsburgh.

While three- or four-sport athletes are much rarer nowadays, Fran Novak is a proponent of participating in multiple sports.

“You use different muscles,” he said. “You need different strengths and skills and abilities in each one of these. I think they complement one another. I always liked athletes that were in multiple sports. You contribute to the teams and to the schools by being in three or four different sports in high school.

“Rich in his four sports, he competed in track and baseball. Sometimes he would play baseball and track on the same day. It was unbelievable. He actually broad jumped 21 feet and almost nine inches and took second in the state without ever practicing (that event).”

Novak played football under coach Park Glass for two years and under John Pringle for two years at South Union.

“He was a legend at South Union,” Novak said of Glass. “He just had a way about himself. He was a team builder, a coach, a mentor, had a great attitude and had a good staff. You wanted to play for him. He got the best out of you.

“When I was a sophomore I had Park Glass and Tom Rae was on that team. Tom was inducted (into the Fayette Hall of Fame) a number of years ago. He was an end who went on to play at Maryland with Rich, and Tom Sankovich and Joe Hrezo.”

German Township’s Murnis Banner made it five Fayette County players on the Terrapins team at the same time.

“Totally amazing,” Novak said. “They obviously knew of the talent here and they got them all. They all contributed and were great football players at Maryland.”

Novak played under coach Marty Fagler in basketball at South Union.

“There were many, many great athletes when he was there,” Novak pointed out. “Chuck Davis was one, who was in the first Hall of Fame class. I remember when Rich scored 54 points in one game which was amazing in 1957.

“Marty Fagler was quite a coach. We had some success. I started as a sophomore, junior and senior. We did get in the playoffs a little bit in Pittsburgh. Our gym was a tiny little bandbox. It was small but it was great because you filled the place up every time. We had great games with Redstone, Freddy Mazurek, Point Marion and Albert Gallatin with Buddy Quertinmont. We had a lot of great rivalries. I enjoyed my three years of being a starter there on the basketball team.”

South Union’s biggest rival was North Union.

“It was a tremendous rivalry,” Novak said. “You never knew who could win because it didn’t matter what the records were. We always wanted to win that game. We tried our best. A great rivalry, particularly in football but also in basketball. Probably about four or five years after I graduated they put the schools together under Laurel Highlands, which made a lot of sense.”

Novak’s coach in track & field at South Union was Ringy Stefancin.

“Ringy was a quiet guy but very intense, very committed to his team,” Novak said. “We wanted to win for him. He really was a strong supporter of us.

“We had a lot of good guys. We broke school records, one after the other. Dave Marovich, who was inducted two years ago, was on our track team. We had a nucleus of about a half dozen that did multiple events.”

Novak felt the track team put in more work than the other two sports he participated in.

“We trained harder than the other sports,” Novak said. “We had no training facilities so we trained as best we could. We ran through the neighborhood and ran around the football field. It was sometimes grass or mud. There were a little bit of cinders but not much.”

Novak competed in several events in his first two years with the Blue Devis but eventually settled on two his final two seasons.

“I was able to beat some guys running the quarter mile,” said Novak, who felt his mile relay team was able to best some teams that had more natural talent. “We just worked harder and were ready to compete.

“In my senior year when we won (the WPIAL title) I was the quarter mile which is the 400 meters today and the mile relay. I set a record for that (400). Our mile relay also won.

“In my earlier years as a freshman and sophomore I ran the 100 and the 220.I did some high jumping and some other things.”

Novak was coveted by several NCAA Division-I teams while he was a senior at South Union.

“I was blessed to have 17 offers,” Novak said. “I visited six or seven schools. Bill Power from Uniontown High School really wanted me desperately to go to Ohio State and I actually made two trips to Ohio State and sat down with (head coach) Woody Hayes twice.”

His final decision took him closer to home, however.

“I ended up selecting Pitt, which I never regretted because it was close so family could go to the games,” said Novak, who majored in engineering. “That launched me in my work career. Also my girlfriend went to Pittsburgh to the nursing school so that all worked out.”

Novak found himself competing with Mazurek for playing time at quarterback job at Pitt.

“Freddy won the starting job so I was a backup to him,” Novak said. “I got in some games. I remember playing against UCLA in the Coliseum and I remember playing in South Bend, Notre Dame. Eventually they converted me to a defensive back so I got some playing time as a safety.”

Novak was part of Pitt’s famous “no bowl” team of 1963.

“That was an incredible team,” Novak said. “We lost one game that year.”

The Panthers fell to Navy, quarterbacked by Roger Staubach, 24-12 in a game played in the mud.

“It was great playing against a guy as good as he was,” Novak said of facing Staubach.

“We were ranked in one poll third in the country and in another poll fourth. It was the year that President (John F.) Kennedy was assassinated. We had a week off because the (Penn State) game was postponed for one week. The bowl selection committee – there was only a handful of bowls in those years – they didn’t want to take the chance that we would lose to Penn State and send us to one of these major bowls having lost our last game.

“So they waited and some of these bowls were filled by the time we beat Penn State. We actually got an invitation to a lesser bowl (Sun Bowl). We didn’t want to do that. I still have a ‘no bowl’ watch, on the back it was engraved with our record.

“The university was very proud of us and we were quite a team.”

Novak and many others on that Pitt squad made their mark in the world after graduation.

“What I was most proud of was an overwhelming number of us went off to have very, very successful professional careers,” Novak said. “Marty Schottenheimer in the NFL as a coach, lawyers, doctors, dentists, I was a corporate executive, and others really did the university proud with our achievements after we graduated.”

Novak, now 81, has been married to his wife Arlene for 58 years.

The Fayette County Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2024 will be enshrined at the Hall of Fame Golf Outing/Luncheon/Social, starting with golf at 9 a.m., on June 21 at Pleasant Valley Golf Club in Connellsville. Luncheon tickets are sold out and all spots in the golf outing have been filled.