New book chronicles North Huntingdon soldier's recovery from life-altering accident

Dan’s military career in the Army was cut short just as it was starting in March 1985 when he suffered a traumatic brain injury in an accident along an icy stretch of Interstate-81 near Hazelton, while traveling home from a visit to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he had graduated the year before. An Army Ranger, he was days away from reporting to the Third Armored Division in West Germany, when plans for his life were dramatically altered.

The long journey and difficult challenge to regain his life while relying on his strong faith and equally strong family — mother, father and three siblings — and the support from people he has impacted along the way are woven together in “A Noble Knight/Dan Priatko’s Story of Faith and Courage,” an inspirational book by Scott Brown of Greensburg, a former Tribune-Review sportswriter.

“This book isn’t about me. It’s about spreading the gospel,” Dan Priatko said.

He hopes people who read the book get a lesson in how to face challenges.

“Whatever adversity you face in life … keep your eyes on Jesus Christ. He can overcome. Take one day at a time and don’t look backwards on what could have been. You have to accept what is. Do the best with what you have,” Priatko said.

As a result of the terrible crash, he was in a coma, spent some 14 months in hospitals at Hazelton, Walter Reed Medical Center and the Veterans Administration in Pittsburgh, followed by long-term rehabilitation to relearn how to walk and talk.

Priatko said he never gave a thought to quitting, despite the great odds and a prognosis from doctors that the former Army football player would not walk or talk again.

“I relied on my past training,” he said.

Priatko has given numerous talks to groups over the years, his father said, including one to the football team at Liberty University, which was coached by former Cleveland Browns’ coach Sam Rutigliano, who told Brown, when Priatko gave his speech to the team, “I saw Jesus” in him.

Brown said he did not intend to write a book about Priatko. He had written a story for a Duke University publication featuring Priatko’s friendship with legendary Duke basketball Coach Mike Krzyzewski, who connected through their shared experiences as West Point cadets. Priatko played football at Army, while Coach K played basketball under Bob Knight, who would gain fame as Indiana University’s coach.

Brown found he had talked to “only a fraction of the people who were involved in Dan’s story.”

Brown said he became friends with Bill Priatko while covering the Pittsburgh Steelers for the Tribune-Review. He would see the former Steelers player — Priatko played for the Steelers in 1957 — doing push-ups at the team practices while visiting his good friend and former Cleveland Browns teammate, legendary defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau.

Bill Priatko, a North Braddock native who played football at the University of Pittsburgh, said he hoped someone would write a book about his son’s life.

“I said to myself, before I leave this earth, I would hope that somebody might write a book about Dan. He (Brown) made my happiness a reality,” Bill Priatko said.