Locals honored by Rock
SLIPPERY ROCK — Three hometown kids have made it big — while staying at home.
Fred Lucas, Steve Rihel and Lucy Sack are being inducted into the Slippery Rock University Athletic Hall of Fame this fall. Each grew up in the vicinity of the school.
Lucas and Sack graduated from Slippery Rock High School in the early 1960's. Rihel graduated from Grove City High School in 1993.
“It's a special honor because it's from my alma mater and I grew up here,” Sack said. “For the longest time, I thought this was never going to happen.
“I'm thrilled that it did.”
Sack returned to The Rock just two years after her college graduation, taking a position as assistant gymnastics coach and physical education instructor in 1969. After just one year, she was promoted to head gymnastics coach and held that position until 1976.
“My background was in dance and I didn't get involved in gymnastics until my junior year in college,” Sack recalled. “That was the year the government pulled the funding for women's sports.
“I could coach because I had background in floor exercise and tumbling techniques through dance. The balance beam was teaching those same moves on a four-inch wide board.”
Sack found an assistant with experience on the uneven bars and off the program went. Sack guided the team to a PSAC championship in 1975 and a sixth-place regional finish in 1976.
One of her proteges, Sarah Singer Patterson, has coached the University of Alabama to seven national titles in gymnastics.“I haven't stayed in touch with her nor did I know her particularly well, but I'm really proud of her,” Sack said. “It's excited knowing she got started here.“Our team was not very sophisticated in those days. Our season was all of four weeks long when I took over. When I left six years later, we were a regional-caliber team with a 14-week season. We didn't have scholarships, we were primarily a walk-on team. That was quite an accomplishment.”Lucas led Slippery Rock State College to three consecutive conference cross country championships (1962-64), winning the individual league title twice and finishing runner-up once.And his original intent was not to attend the school in his own backyard.“We didn't have many kids on our high school team and I qualified for the state championship meet at Penn State in 1960,” Lucas said. “I tried to get a scholarship to Central State (Ohio), but that fell through.“The (Slippery Rock) college was right over the hill from our high school, so I ran and practiced there a lot. I began working out with members of the college team and that's how I wound up there.”Lucas became a national All-American before his collegiate career ended. He went on to coach at Herron Hill Junior High and Schenley High School for 35 years.“I was still helping out as a consultant in 2011,” he said. “I've just always enjoyed working with kids and seeing their progress.”Before entering the SRU Hall, Rihel owns a piece of history at the school. He became The Rock's first-ever NCAA Division II track and field national champion when he won the javelin title in 1997.
Rihel had placed eighth nationally in the javelin in 1995 and was third in 1996. He was named Field Events MVP at the 1996 PSAC Championships after winning the javelin and earning all-conference in the discus.“It was a pretty special feeling, winning the nationals,” Rihel said. “I was All-American two years before that. The two guys who finished ahead of me in 1996 had graduated, so it was my time.“It was a tough competition because of the weather. The wind was swirling on the track that day.”Rihel was always attracted to the throwing events. At Grove City Elementary School, he won the softball throw five years out of six.“I played football in high school and rushed for 100 yards in a game as a junior,” Rihel recalled. “Then I got injured in the second game my senior year and football was over.”“It was just as well. I ran indoor track in the winter, did decathlons in the Junior Olympic program ... Track was where my interest was.”Sack, Lucas and Rigel will join Rick Allen, Louis Hanna, Cheryl Levick and Bob Peterson in gaining SRU Athletic Hall induction on Sept. 28.“My experiences there were great,” Rihel said of SRU. “It only adds to the memories that they happened so close to home.”
