SAXONBURG — Freeport graduate Frank Ballina will be inducted into the Armstrong County Sports Hall of Fame April 24.

But he has nothing on his wife when it comes to athletics.

Less than two weeks later — on May 7 — Sue Haggerty will be inducted into the Slippery Rock High School Hall of Fame.

“I never could get anything over on her,” Ballina said, laughing.

Ballina was a first team all-state defensive back at Freeport and made second team all-state as a running back. A 1973 Freeport graduate, he led the Yellowjackets to the 1972 WPIAL title game, a 21-15 loss to Beaver at Pitt Stadium.

Haggerty graduated from Slippery Rock High School in 1970. A member of the rifle team, she led the squad to a state championship and owns the school record for best individual score.

Slippery Rock has not had a rifle team for years.

“That was so many years ago. I figured people had forgotten all about it,” Haggerty said. “Frank got his letter about the Armstrong Hall of Fame and a couple of days later, the (Slippery Rock) letter arrived for me.

“I opened it up and said, ‘Hey, Frank, look at this.’ We couldn’t believe it. It’s funny, this happening to us so close together.”

Ballina agreed.

“Definitely unique,” he said.

Besides being a standout football player, Ballina was a professional umpire from 1979-86. That all occurred by happenstance.

“I was coming home from work one day and drove by the ballfield. There was an American Legion baseball game getting ready to start, so I stopped in to watch,” Ballina recalled. “But the umpires didn’t show up.

“A couple of guys I knew asked me to umpire. That was something I had never done and I told them as much ... They said if I didn’t umpire, they couldn’t play the game.”

So Ballina stood behind the mound in his street clothes, called balls and strikes and worked the bases. He stopped by a game the following night and the same thing happened.

Again, he worked the game while standing behind the mound in his street clothes.

“Next thing I know, I get a phone call with an offer to umpire the West Penn All-Star Game,” Ballina said. “They supplied me with the gear and I went and did the game.

“There were 26 major league scouts there watching the players. Three of them approached me afterwards, said I did a good job and asked me how long I’d been an umpire. They couldn’t believe it when I told them three days.”

One thing led to another and Ballina wound up at the Harry Wendelstedt School for Professional Umpires. He was one of 21 umpires selected from 500 there to do an additional week of training at the Pittsburgh Pirates camp in Bradenton, Fla. From there, Ballina signed a pro contract and worked all levels of the minor leagues and a few National League games.

“I was in a bad car wreck in Cincinnati and broke my back in four places,” Ballina said. “That was the end of my athletic career.”

Haggerty learned how to shoot from her father, who was a hunter for a long time.

“I never got into hunting ... I couldn’t shoot Bambi,” she said. “But I did a lot of target practicing with him. He told me I should go out for the rifle team in high school.”

There were no female sports in high school at that time.

“Boys football and basketball were about it, along with that rifle team,” Haggerty said.

She quickly became the team’s top shooter.

“They used to call me Annie Oakley as a nickname,” Haggerty said.

“She can still shoot,” Ballina said. “We were up at a camp in Jefferson County and I was outside shooting targets. She took the rifle from me and promptly hit the bullseye four times.

“She handed the gun back to me and said anytime I wanted lessons, to let her know,” Ballina said, laughing.

The couple has been married for 11 years.

“It’s been an ongoing joke between us since we both got those letters in the mail,” Haggerty said. “I was more shocked than he was.

“I just remember traveling to all of those different schools for rifle. So few schools even have that sport anymore.”

So Haggerty’s school record is safe.

“Nobody ever got it,” she said.

“Surround yourself with the right people in life or you’ll fail,” Ballina said. “That’s true in sports and outside of sports. My wife is a tremendous person, inside and out. I love her to death.”