Penn Hills School District officials have posthumously named Bill Fralic Jr., a football standout and community icon, its latest distinguished alumni.

The award was given at a Sept. 30 school board meeting by district Athletic Director Stephanie Strauss to Fralic’s brother-in-law, Tom Brown.

“Bill has had an impact on the Penn Hills School District and Penn Hills athletics for decades and continues to help Penn Hills youth even after he passed away in 2018,” Strauss said.

Fralic, a 1981 graduate, won a WPIAL wrestling title and helped the high school football team win three PIAA championships. He would go on to become a University of Pittsburgh Hall of Famer and was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons in 1985.

He died December 2018 at age 56.

Through his foundation, Fralic was able to raise money for an athletic center named after the donor. It also paid for hotel rooms for the football team before the state championships.

Strauss said his wife, Susan, continues to sponsor the team’s sideline subscription and a new community center is in the works at the former Penn Hills library.

Brown thanked the district for the honor on behalf of the Fralic family.

“For those that knew Bill, he was larger than life,” Brown said. “He was an incredible person in many ways, and his amazing life started right here.”

Brown called Fralic one of the best players to come out of the state, and he never forgot his roots.

“Bill Fralic was and will always be a proud son of Penn Hills,” Brown said. “He personified the loyalty, toughness, history and pride that the Penn Hills community and school district represented.”

School board President Erin Vecchio nominated Fralic for the award.

“He was such a great person, and he’s such a friend to Penn Hills,” Vecchio said.

The district is working with the family to have a Fralic portrait placed in all three schools with the other distinguished alumni awardees, Leslie Mintz (2019) and Verneil “Ric” Williams (2018).

Mintz, a 1996 Penn Hills High School graduate and weapons system operator for naval fighter jets at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, was one of nine women who participated in a Missing Man Flyover in Maynardville, Tenn., during retired Navy Capt. Rosemary Mariner’s funeral Feb. 2, 2019.

Williams, a 1993 graduate, was named the 2018 Pennsylvania Direct Care Worker of the Year.

He has been in the health care field since 1997 and an aide at Extended Family Care in Wilkins Township since 2001.

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