One person can make a difference for countless others.

Chuck Dunaway was living proof of that.

He was athletic director at Butler County Community College for more than 30 years. He coached five different sports there. He was the charter inductee into the BC3 athletic Hall of Fame, which is named after him.

Dunaway died recently at age 82. To say he left a legacy behind at that school would be a ridiculous understatement.

Maybe an athletic program would have gotten started at BC3 eventually. Maybe not. One thing’s for certain. Dunaway gave it a head start. That makes sense, since the man was ahead of his time.

He made sure female athletes got a fair shake before Title IX — which mandated such action — ever came into being. He picked a handful of men’s basketball players from the college’s intramural program to compete in a game against the Community College of Beaver County, informally starting the Pioneers’ intercollegiate athletic program.

Dunaway laid the groundwork for an athletic program that produced 31 All-Americans in seven sports and more than 90 conference, region or state championships.

More than all of that, Chuck Dunaway created opportunity.

By providing an avenue for students to compete in athletics, he opened a pipeline for many of those athletes to move on to four-year schools to complete their educations. Some went on to enter the coaching or athletic administrative fields themselves.

BC3 became a viable option for student-athletes in this county to continue to play and develop skills in their respective sports. Some used that additional two-year window to make themselves attractive to four-year collegiate programs.

Others used it to improve their academic standing, drawing such motivation through the opportunity of continuing to compete on the court or in the field.

Chuck Dunaway started all of that.

Besides getting sports started at BC3, he was instrumental in the formation of the Pennsylvania Collegiate Athletic Association, which brought other community colleges together and enabled those schools to provide their students similar opportunities.

While doing all of this, Dunaway was quiet and unassuming. He painted in the gym. He drove buses to away games. Whenever something needed done, he did it.

One man.

The term legend is often overused in sports. Not in this case.

Dunaway probably never knew what would grow from his endeavors. He triggered it all through tireless passion.

The thank yous this guy deserves probably numbers in the thousands.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle