Call to the Hall: BVA grad Fayak reflects on stellar football career
Submitted photo
Belle Vernon Area and Penn State graduate Craig Fayak (middle) stands with Steve Russell (left), Mid Mon Valley general chairman, and his father Jack Fayak at the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame ceremony in Erie on Oct. 22. Fayak was a member of the Class of 2016.
Submitted photo
Belle Vernon Area and Penn State graduate Craig Fayak (top row, second from left) is shown on the cover of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2016 program along with the other inductees.
When Craig Fayak was in grade school he took a curious interest in something his brother was doing.
“When he was learning to kick a football as a sophomore in high school, I was probably in fifth or sixth grade at the time,” Fayak said. “I just wanted to be like him, to emulate him, and I started to learn.”
So was the beginning of what would turn out to be a hall-of-fame career.
Fayak became a multi-sport star in high school at Belle Vernon Area but the one trade he was best at was kicking. That led him to Penn State where he became one of the greatest kickers in Nittany Lions history, and he eventually landed in the Mid Mon Valley Sports Hall of Fame and the BVA Football Hall of Fame, and then, most recently, the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame.
Fayak was inducted into the Pa. Hall on Oct. 22 at the Erie Bayfront Convention Center in Erie with his parents, Jack and Jean Fayak, witnessing the event.
“It’s a bit overwhelming to be honest with you,” Fayak said in recalling his induction night. “You think of all the great players and all the great coaches in the state of Pennsylvania, it’s an amazing honor and I was just thrilled to be part of it.
“The other thing it reminds me of is just to be thankful for all of the great teammates and players and coaches and family, all those people who have contributed to help me with my career and to get me to this place and have this honor at the Hall of Fame. I can see faces and names of every coach from midget league all the way up through college, and teammates, some famous and most of them not so famous, they were all contributors. All those great experiences sort of came back with this whole experience of being inducted and, of course, the ceremony itself. It was just a thrill.”
Fayak described the ceremony.
“It was well done. The Hall of Fame committee just did a great job with the venue up in Erie,” Fayak said. “There was probably about 500 people there. I was just a really cool experience, just to see all those other Pennsylvania athletes who’ve been involved and you hear the stories about them and to be up there on the dais with some of the other inductees was just a great thing.
“It was a great thing for my family, too. My dad, my brother and my sister were there, my wife Nicole was there, my mom, my buddy George Milliken from home. It was a nice event for all of us to be there and be part of it. It went fast, but it was a really great event and it was wonderful to be there. They called you up and you got to say a few remarks and then they give you your medal and certificate.”
Fayak was more than deserving of the honor, but it all began with his brother, Jack Fayak Jr.
“He was a high school kicker and went on to play at Bethany College,” said Fayak, who also has two sisters, Pam Powell and Sherri Walker. “He got some instruction from a gentleman who ran camps around the country and was my agent after I left Penn State and turned pro. I just learned some technique and how to do it and I think I was kind of a natural at it. I had a very natural swing and I got some instruction from following my brother and I just got better and better.”
Confidence and practice were key factors in Fayak’s development as a kicker.
“Once you realize you’re good at something you just want to perfect that craft,” he said. “I had that at a young age. So in addition to playing quarterback, which I loved, and other sports, I just realized that kicking was something I was pretty uniquely good at.”
He wasn’t just a talented kicker in high school, however.
“I played baseball for four years,” Fayak recalled. “I started as a freshman. I was a pitcher and shortstop. When it came down to college choices I either was going to go to Oklahoma to play baseball or I was going to go to Penn State to play football. I still remember my visit to Norman (Oklahoma). It was a great visit. Obviously I made the right choice in going to Penn State but I really had an affinity for Oklahoma as well.”
Fayak was the youngest player to be selected for the Pennsylvania American Legion East-West All-Star game in 1986 and four years later as a senior he helped lead the BVA baseball team to the Section 2 championship and was named the section MVP.
Fayak also played basketball for two years but is best known for his performance on the football field for the Leopards, which included much more than just kicking the football for a highly successful team that won the Big Nine Conference title his junior and senior years.
“It was a fun thing to play football in high school because, obviously, we won a lot and I never had to leave the field because I played quarterback and defensive back and I was kicking and punting,” Fayak said. “Literally, I would never leave the field.”
Fayak topped the 2,000-yard mark in passing and added over 500 rushing yards in his BVA career that also included 21 field goals and 266 points. He was the highest scoring kicker in the WPIAL both his junior and senior seasons of 1988 and 1989. He played in the Big 33 game in Hershey as a senior and booted six extra points in Pennsylvania’s 42-28 win over Maryland.
All those accolades opened the door for him to play at Penn State under Joe Paterno. Once there, he never imagined he would have such an outstanding career.
“No, not at all,” Fayak admitted. “I remember my freshman year, thinking to myself and calling home and saying I will probably never play a down here. At that level, the switch from high school to college is pretty dramatic. I wasn’t big compared to the other quarterbacks we had on the roster like Kerry Collins and John Sacca and some of those guys. They were 6-5, 240, I was 6-2, 190, so I realized I probably wouldn’t be playing much quarterback.”
The kicking position was a different situation, however.
“They had a couple good kickers on the roster as well,” Fayak said. “I remember that first week of training camp was pretty tough. After the first regular season game against Texas I kicked off. I had a strong leg so I was the kickoff guy but I didn’t kick field goals. Then when our other kicker started the first game he missed a couple kicks against Texas.”
That led to Fayak’s big break with the Nittany Lions.
“The next game, it was at USC, I remember going in to my locker on a Tuesday and there was a blue jersey in there which meant you were on the first team,” Fayak said. “I’ll never forget that feeling of seeing that blue jersey and saying, ‘Wow this is amazing.’ So here I am getting on a plane going to California to play a game. I had never been to L.A. I had only been on a plane two other times for recruiting visits. It was a pretty overwhelming experience.”
Fayak’s career as a field goal kicker for Penn State didn’t get off to the best start, though.
“I missed my first field goal out at USC,” Fayak said. “I pulled it wide left. Two weeks later we played a home game against Temple and I had one field goal chance and they blocked it. So I was 0 for 2 to start. Then my first field goal was like a 45-yarder against Temple and I remember the relief when it went through.
“Once the first one week through, I got on a roll from there.”
Fayak recalled a game on Oct. 27 that season in which he scored all his team’s points in a 9-0 victory at a famous venue.
“Kicking three field goals down in Tuscaloosa against Alabama was big,” Fayak said. “I remember the third field goal I kicked late in the fourth quarter, we knew it was going to ice the game, the fans beside the goal posts were rocking side to side like in basketball and I literally can remember it felt like the goal post was moving, but I made the kick.”
Fayak is best remembered for his field goal in the final seconds that lifted Penn State to a stunning 24-21 win at No. 1 Notre Dame.
“Obviously, that game was an amazing experience,” Fayak said. “I would also say the ones I made against West Virginia and Pitt, just two big rivals, were memorable to me also. Just playing it Pitt Stadium was such a big deal. I can remember seeing games there as a kid. And playing in Morgantown, I had some big games against them.”
While Paterno and the Nittany Lions recruited Fayak out of high school, the Panthers and Mountaineers weren’t as interested.
“They didn’t recruit me very heavily. They offered me walk-on positions,” Fayak said. “I know Pitt had a kicker in mind at the time that they gave a scholarship. At the end of the day, neither offered me a scholarship.”
Ironically, Fayak made all 11 of his career field goal attempts against Pitt and WVU, but he said he never held a grudge against either school.
“I’ve never been a person who looks for revenge or anything like that,” he said. “For me it was special because I had just been there before as a kid in both of those stadiums. I always dreamed of playing football in front of big crowds at places I used to go to and watch players and games at, like Major Harris at WVU or Dan Marino at Pitt. That part of it was thrilling for me in addition to contributing to a win and having good games. It was so important for me to do good in those games and those stadiums because they’re important to western Pennsylvania football.”
Fayak also was around when Penn State joined the Big Ten.
“Playing in the Big Ten for a year was also a lot of fun, playing at stadiums like Ohio State, Michigan State and Iowa with the pink locker rooms,” Fayak said with a chuckle. “Iowa stills has them I saw.”
By the time he graduated from Penn State, Fayak was the Nittany Lions all-time leading scorer with 282 points and 50 field goals. He held that record until 2007 but still sits second on the list. Athlon Sports Magazine listed him on its All Time Penn State Team.
The Nittany Lions went 37-12 in Fayak’s four years there, which included four bowl games.
Fayak sparkled in the classroom at Penn State as well, graduating with a 3.5 GPA. He earned CoSIDA Academic All-American honors, the Big Ten Medal and the John W. Oswald Award.
Fayak never caught on with an NFL team but was on preseason rosters for the Dallas Cowboys, Miami Dolphins and Jacksonville Jaguars. He currently lives in Bernardsville, New Jersey, approximately 30 miles from New York City, with his wife Nicole and son Eli.