This is the first in a series of articles profiling the 2011 inductees into the Butler High School Athletic Hall of Fame.BETHEL PARK — One Hall of Famer has led to another.Bill Erdos, one of the first standout gymnasts in Butler and a three-sport athlete with the Golden Tornado, is among the nine inductees entering the Butler Area School District Athletic Hall of Fame this year.Butler will induct its second Hall of Fame class prior to the home football game Sept. 16 against Canon McMillan.“This is my third induction, but it’s the most special one to me,” Erdos said. “It means a lot being inducted at the high school where you played all the sports.”Erdos competed on Butler’s first gymnastics team — formed by Paul Uram in 1958 — and was the WPIAL flying rings champion in 1961.Erdos insisted his athletic career “would have been nothing” if not for Uram, who was a charter member of this Hall of Fame last year.“I can’t emphasize enough the importance of coach Uram in my life and my coaching career,” Erdos said. “He’s helped me out so much as a person.“Much of what I have in life, I owe to him. He’s always been such a charismatic person. He was like a magnet to kids. No matter what sport he would have coached at Butler — soccer, basketball, baseball, anything — it would have been a championship team.”Erdos was the WPIAL all-around runner-up all four years he competed in high school.“I couldn’t beat Jimmy Curzi,” he said. “He was probably the greatest gymnast to ever come out of Butler. He went on to the University of Michigan and won the award as best gymnast in the country.“I beat him out for the flying rings title my senior year, when he was a junior. That’s probably my proudest achievement as an athlete.”Erdos played safety, running back and special teams for Butler football and ran the 100-yard dash, high and low hurdles in track and field.“Dave Johnson and myself were the only two gymnasts to play football at Butler,” Erdos said. “I was 5-foot-7, 140 pounds, not very big, but one of the fastest players on the team.“We were 7-2 my senior year. We lost to Beaver Falls and Joe Namath, 26-6. We were missing some key players that game and had four turnovers.”Erdos was the first and only coach inducted into the Baldwin High School Sports Hall of Fame in 1991. He gained induction into the Butler County Sports Hall of Fame in 1995.After high school, he went on to Youngstown State, teaching gymnastics classes to physical education majors and helping coach AAU boys gymnastics in the Youngstown area.After a year of coaching in Homer City, Erdos took a teaching position at Baldwin High School and was asked to begin a girls gymnastics team.“That was when Title IX was taking hold and the athletic director told me they would start a boys team a little later if I put a girls team together,” Erdos said.“The boys team never happened.”The girls’ success did.In 16 years, Erdos posted a 120-36 record, winning six section titles, one WPIAL team competition and posting seven second-place WPIAL finishes.Baldwin won one state championship under Erdos. He coached 16 girls to individual WPIAL titles and nine to state championships.“Winning that state championship at Baldwin in 1989 while having three individuals win state titles. ... That was a pretty darn good team we had that year,” Erdos said.A reception honoring all of the inductees will take place from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Sept. 16 in the high school cafeteria. The inductees will also be recognized on the field at Art Bernardi Stadium at 6:45 p.m.