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Zimmovan youngest of five to play at North Union

By George Von Benko for The 5 min read
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Frank Zimmovan followed in some big footsteps at North Union High School, as he had four brothers (Steve, George, Ed and Bill) that participated in athletics for the Rams.

The youngest of 12 children, Zimmovan was a three-sport standout in football, basketball and baseball for the Rams in the early 1950s.

“My brothers were outstanding athletes,” Zimmovan recalled. “I watched them play, there was no sibling rivalry because they were much older than me, I was the baby of the family.”

He played three years of football for the Rams on teams that posted records of 0-8-1 in 1949, 0-8 in 1950 and 4-5 in 1951.

“I had forgotten that we were that bad until you told me the records,” Zimmovan said. “The biggest problem we faced was lack of facilities. We played our football games at South Union Stadium and we played our basketball games at Lafayette Junior High. We practiced basketball at the YMCA and our practice field for football later became Williams Field up behind the high school.

“I liked football, but basketball was really my game. I also liked baseball and was a catcher on the high school team. Nick Bubonovich was the baseball coach and he was a catcher when he played. I was a catcher and he taught me how to play the position. I actually had a chance to play Class D minor league ball for the Phillies, but decided I would pass that up and go to college.”

Zimmovan excelled on the hardwood and played on North Union teams that went 10-9 in 1949-50, 9-7 in 1950-51 and won Section 10 in 1951-52 with a record of 13-4. The Rams beat Bellmar in the WPIAL playoffs and then lost to perennial power Farrell, 60-36.

“Farrell won the state championship that year,” Zimmovan stated. “Their star at that time was Julius McCoy and I don’t think I ever saw a better basketball player. I got to play against him in college, too, when he was at Michigan State.”

Zimmovan was the high scorer for North Union in the loss to Farrell with 14 points. He had several big games for the Rams in his career, including 28 points versus Connellsville in 1952, and 27 versus Connellsville in 1951. Zimmovan led Section 10 in scoring in 1952 with a total of 127 points. He was selected All-Section 10 his junior and senior seasons, and was named to the All-WPIAL Tournament Team his senior season and garnered Honorable Mention All-State honors from the Associated Press.

Steve Furin was Zimmovan’s head coach at North Union.

“He was a good coach,” Zimmovan said. “A good man and a good guy to play for, we got along well.”

When Zimmovan graduated from North Union he had a decision to make, play football or basketball in college.

“My football coach in high school Elwood Petchel played at Penn State and wanted me to go there and play football, he took me up for a visit. Assistant coach Nick Bubonovich went to George Washington and he said he could get me a football scholarship to play there. Pitt basketball coach Doc Carlson was a speaker at a dinner in Uniontown and he had offered me a scholarship to play basketball at Pitt. I was 6-2 and about 190 pounds in high school and thought about the toll football takes on your body. I decided to take the basketball scholarship and go to Pitt.”

Zimmovan never played for Carlson. After a year of freshman basketball he played for the varsity in 1953-54, but Carlson had retired and Bob Timmons was the head coach.

“Timmons was a good man,” Zimmovan offered. “Don’t know about his coaching, he had coached basketball in high school and he was an assistant football coach at Pitt. At that time basketball was really an afterthought at Pitt, football was king.”

Zimmovan played for Panther squads that posted records of 9-14 in 1953-54, 10-16 in 1954-55 and 15-10 in 1955-56. He played in 64 games for the Panthers and scored 378 career points for an average of 5.9. He also grabbed 364 career rebounds for an average of 5.7.

“I had a good career, not a great career, but a good career,” Zimmovan stated. “Played with some good teammates like Joe Fenwick from Brownsville, Ed Pavlick from Johnstown and Bob Lazor and John Riser from Washington.”

There were a couple of memories from his career at Pitt that stand out for Zimmovan.

“In my junior season we went on quite a trip,” Zimmovan recalled. “A 4,000 mile road trip that took us to Army, Navy, Tampa, Miami and finally to Puerto Rico. It was the first time a Pitt team had played outside the continental United States.

“My other memory is playing against West Virginia star Hot Rod Hundley. We tried several different guys guarding him. They put me on him, he was a showman and was doing all sorts of tricks and showing me up. I took his legs out on a drive to the basketball and he hurt his hip. The place went crazy, I practically needed a police escort to get out of there.”

Zimmovan graduated from Pitt and got into teaching, first in Cleveland, Ohio and then in Olmstead, Ohio. He taught for 30 years and retired from teaching at the age of 52. He served as a guidance counselor at a Community College in New Bern, North Carolina and then taught drivers education in Aiken, South Carolina.

Zimmovan, 80, resides in Columbia, South Carolina with his wife of 58 years, Dorothy. They have four sons: Michael, Gary, Brian and Jeffrey. They have eight grandchildren.

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