SLIPPERY ROCK — George Mihalik doesn't think of himself as a legend. He doesn't have to.

Everybody else does.

Mihalik, 63, retired Wednesday after 28 years as Slippery Rock University head football coach. He retired in front of a throng of SRU players, coaches, family members and supporters at a press conference on campus.

“How do you put 44 years of your life into a statement? How do you do that?,” Mihalik said. “How can one guy be so fortunate?

“I remember August of 1970. My father dropped me off at the stop sign in front of the field house here for football camp my freshman year and drove away.

“I kept that car in my vision for as long as I could. Then it disappeared. I stood there and wondered what I was doing here. Forty-four years later, I'm standing here wondering what I'm doing here,” Mihalik added.

Since 1970, the only year Mihalik wasn't part of The Rock was in 1976, when he served as a graduate assistant coach at the University of Kentucky.

He was starting quarterback at SRU for three years, leading the team to two PSAC championships. He scored three touchdowns to lead The Rock to a 28-14 state title win over West Chester in his final collegiate game.

Mihalik wound up winning PSAC titles as a coach in his final two seasons. He won eight PSAC West crowns and was named the West Division coach of the year six times.

“When you do what he's done at one place as a player and a coach, you are a legend,” said Shawn Lutz, SRU associate head coach. “And you can't replace a legend.

“He's our version of Woody Hayes, Bobby Bowden, Joe Paterno ... but George has something those other guys don't. He was also a professor here. He wore two hats and excelled at both.”

Mihalik won 197 games in his 28 seasons and ranks fourth overall in wins in PSAC history. N.Kerr Thompson is second on The Rock's all-time victory list with 126.

Mihalik started the safety management field of study at SRU. That has become the third most popular degree acquired by students at the university.

“I am extremely proud of that,” Mihalik said.

Offensive line coach Chris Conrad said that “legend beats any other word in describing George Mihalik. He's all about family and he insisted his coaches and players be the same way.”

Being family-oriented is a description Mihalik gladly accepts.

“Family over football,” he said. “That's how it should be. So much anymore, all over the country, it's win, win, win at all costs.

“We won here. But not at all costs. We won the right way.”

SRU athletic director Paul Lueken said Mihalik's departure is “the end of an era.”

“Every athletic director should have the opportunity to work with a coach as great as this man,” Lueken said. “It's a heartache, seeing him go.

“Any challenges that would come up, we solved them together. George has had a storybook career, absolutely storybook.”

Senior tackle Cory Tucker was among the players on hand at the press conference.

“He was like my second dad here,” Tucker said. “A lot of players on the team feel that way about him. He'd yell at me if I did something wrong, congratulate me when I did something good.

“I feel good that he's going out with us (seniors). We're all going out on top.”

SRU's 12 wins this year tied the program record set in 1998, when The Rock reached the NCAA Division II semifinals under Mihalik.

“I wanted to go out on top and I'm doing that,” Mihalik said. “We've enjoyed one of the best runs in the program's history.

“It was tempting to come back one more year and get that 200 wins. No one in this (West) division has ever done that. But the time is right to leave. Too many coaches hang on too long. I didn't want to do that.”

The Rock is three-time defending PSAC West champion and two-time defending conference champ. SRU has been to the national playoffs each of the past three years as well.

SRU president Cheryl Norton was out of town Wednesday, but issued a statement about Mihalik's retirement:

“George Mihalik's true measure of excellence is the positive difference he has made in the lives of thousands of students and student-athletes as a distinguished professor in safety management and SRU's head football coach.

“He is a man of great integrity who has always placed the needs of students and the University above his own. Parents of recruits knew they could believe him when he looked them in the eye and told them he would look after their sons and help them succeed in the classroom and on the field.”

Mihalik admitted to wrestling with the decision to retire for the past couple of years.

“I came this close to telling the team after our (playoff) loss at West Chester last year that that was it,” he said. “Was this an easy decision? Heck, no. It was an emotional decision.”

And it was a grateful reflection on his years at Slippery Rock.

“All the wins, all of the championships are great,” Mihalik said. “But I met my wife Laura at this university. We raised our two daughters here. As a coach's family, we never had to uproot and move every couple of years.

“Our girls always knew where their home was. Slippery Rock University will always have a special place in the hearts of all of the Mihalik family.”

Here is a look at retiring Slippery Rock University football coach George Mihalik's career by the numbers:197 — Career victories116 — Career PSAC West victories.638 — All-time winning percentage43 — Years spent at SRU as quarterback, assistant coach and head coach40 — Years of service to SRU prompting the university to change the name of N.Kerr Thompson Stadium to Mihalik-Thompson Stadium in 201123 — Number of winning seasons as SRU head coach12 — Consecutive winning seasons at The Rock (1991-2002)12 — Most wins in a season (1998 and 2015)8 — PSAC Western Division titles6 — Number of PSAC West Coach of the Year Awards6 — Number of NCAA Division II playoff appearances5 — Number of Hall of Fame inductions3 — Number of touchdowns scored in the 1973 PSAC title game, his last game as a collegiate player2 — Highest national ranking (1999)2 — Number of PSAC championships won as a head coach2 — Number of PSAC championships won as a quarterback