Creating an alumni association less than a year ago, the Williamsport Area School District has announced Frank Girardi as its first Distinguished Alumni Award recipient.
Girardi, a 1957 Williamsport Area High School graduate, came back to the area after receiving his degree in health and physical education from West Chester University to begin a football coaching career.
His coaching career earned him inductions into four hall of fames, along with other awards and accolades.
After spending some time as the head football coach at Jersey Shore Area High School, Girardi joined Lycoming College's football staff. Three years after serving as an assistant, he became the head coach and remained in that position for 36 years before retiring in 2007.
Girardi became one of the more successful football coaches, racking up 257 wins, placing him 15th in all divisions in the NCAA. He also is only one of 29 coaches to win more than 200 games at one college. Through those victories, he also earned two national championships in 1990 and 1997 and had 29 consecutive winning seasons.
Although Girardi received most of accolades for his time on the sideline, he will be honored at the school where he starred as a running back. During a ceremony before Williamsport's homecoming game Oct. 5 at 6:30 p.m. at Millionaire Stadium. He will be presented with a plaque.
Girardi has been inducted in the Lycoming Athletics Hall of Fame, West Branch Valley Hall of Fame, the Pennsylvania State Sports Hall of Fame and West Chester University's W. Glenn Killinger Hall of Fame. He also was the first recipient of the Robert W. Maxwell Football Club's Tri-State Coach of the Year Award in 1999 and in 2007 had ESPN Radio 1050/104.1 named a lifetime achievement award "The Frank Girardi Lifetime Achievement Award."
