Invoice Priatko turns 94 in a few months. The way in which the awards hold coming in for the previous Steeler, he could have as a lot of them as birthday candles to blow out on Oct. 16.
The most recent got here on the finish of July throughout an annual lunch of distinguished Western Pennsylvania highschool soccer coaches and choose friends at Grandview Golf Membership. Former Steelers GM Kevin Colbert and Thomas Jefferson coach Invoice Cherpak, who received his tenth WPIAL Championship final season, offered him with the newly created Invoice Priatko Award. The certificates reads:
Offered in honor of a distinguished dedication to the sport of soccer marked by exemplary character and steadfast integrity, inspiring delight and uplifting the spirit and well-being of the group.
A tidier summation of Priatko you’ll not discover. And his eyes have been as moist as they’re blue, as he acquired the eponymous award that he’ll give yearly to a soccer coach transferring ahead.
“It shocked me,” Priatko mentioned, “as a result of one thing like that by no means entered my thoughts.”
Not that awards and accolades are something new to Priatko. He’s a member of three Halls of Fame, together with the Western Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports activities Corridor of Fame. He has represented the Nineteen Fifties throughout a number of Steelers celebrations, most not too long ago in 2023.
And that’s only a brief listing, one which retains rising. Inside the final two years, Priatko has been inducted into the Air Drive Honor Guard’s Order of Praetorians and joined his sons Dan and David, each West Level graduates, as a Norwin Excessive College Distinguished Alumni.
Priatko taught at Norwin however didn’t attend that college; he was acknowledged as a Buddy of Norwin by the Distinguished Alumni committee.
How becoming.
Priatko has so many associates that those he made by way of soccer alone might have their very own wing of the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame. Paul Brown and Chuck Noll. Bart Starr and Franco Harris.
And, in fact, Dick LeBeau.
The previous Steelers defensive coordinator is Priatko’s finest good friend, and the 2 nonetheless frequently discuss on the telephone. They roomed collectively in 1959 on the Cleveland Browns coaching camp, and people have been completely different occasions.
Camp lasted 9 weeks, the primary three in pads every single day, twice a day. Groups performed six preseason video games, one thing Priatko and most others liked. The rationale: they have been paid $50 a recreation.
“We thought we have been millionaires,” Priatko mentioned.
If tens of millions are measured in relationships, Priatko is Invoice Gates — with fingers that also look sturdy sufficient to crush a mailbox.
That’s the reason the annual lunch at Asti’s Italian Steakhouse, the place he turned an unwitting honoree, means a lot to him.
It began greater than a decade in the past with Priatko and a few legendary highschool coaches, Pete Antimarino and Chuck Klausing. It steadily grew, and the group now consists of Cherpak, Eric Kasperowicz, Joe Hamilton, Mark Lyons, Dan Matsook, Gene Matsook, Jack McCurry, Pat Monroe, Tom Nola, George Novak, Jim Render, Mike Smijanac, George Smith, and Don Yanessa. Former WPIAL govt director Tim O’Malley can also be within the group.
Lots of them have been at this yr’s lunch, and these aren’t simply names.
They’re a Who’s Who of Western Pennsylvania highschool coaches, previous and current. They’ve received virtually 70 WPIAL titles mixed—a slew of state championships, too.
Franco Harris, so impressed by this gathering of greatness, as soon as referred to as Priatko to ask if he might attend. He ended up talking twice on the occasion, together with 5 months earlier than he handed in 2022.
LeBeau has additionally spoken twice at it, together with 2024. This yr, he referred to as to say hey, by way of cell speakerphone, and need everybody effectively. Former Steelers defensive finish Brett Keisel adopted him because the visitor speaker, spinning LeBeau and different tales for nearly half an hour.
Keisel held court docket after lunch, one during which Priatko ordered a sandwich that isn’t simply any sandwich.
Priatko’s Reuben is piled excessive with corned beef, and even its namesake’s prodigious urge for food was no match for it.
LeBeau, whom Priatko ate lunch with each in-season Friday on the Steelers’ apply facility for years, would have been shocked.
Simply as Priatko was when Colbert and Cherpak offered him with one thing that was a lot greater than a framed certificates.
“To have all these accolades and honors coming my approach, it makes me marvel why are these coming my approach as my path in life narrows?” Priatko mentioned. “I’m simply so grateful, and one of the simplest ways to say it’s God has been good to me.”
