When Paul Uram was hired for his first teaching job at Millvale High School in 1949, the Butler resident didn't have a car.

To make the 40-mile trek to work, he hitchhiked.

"I didn't miss too many days," Uram said.

He made quite an impression when he got there.

The Slippery Rock College graduate and Butler resident started the gymnastics and track and field programs at the school, co-founded youth baseball, football and basketball programs in Millvale and was an assistant football coach under Ray McCarthy.

He didn't have much in those early days.

"I had a quarter for lunch and that was about it," Uram said.

He made $2,200 to teach physical education. But he gave much, much more.

Because of that, Millvale mayor Vincent Cinski made Uram an honorary citizen of the small borough four miles north of Pittsburgh and proclaimed March 24 as Paul Uram Day.

More than 20 of Uram's former students attended a luncheon in his honor Tuesday at Natili's Restaurant in Butler when the proclamation was read.

"He left a very big footprint in Millvale," said Lee Rouse, a 1955 graduate of Millvale High who organized the luncheon. "He's been acknowledged by every organization that deals with athletics, but never by his own, where he started. Nobody really had a chance to say thank you."

Uram spent six years in Millvale. For two of those years, he thumbed his way to work.

It was no big deal to Uram, who went on to become the stretching and conditioning coach with the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1973 to 1981.

"When I was (in Millvale), I was 22, 23. I was pretty close to their age," Uram said. "Great times. Great school. Great people. We came from the same type of environment. They didn't have much and neither did I."

Uram's gymnastics teams went undefeated in 120 straight dual meets. His track and field teams enjoyed great success.

His work with the football team also was memorable.

John Lang, a 1953 Millvale graduate who was the starting quarterback, said Uram was an innovator.

"Paul had some of the best plays on the books," Lang said. "We played a Y formation, a T formation, we played a split wing. He was able to educate us to where we could call plays at the line of scrimmage. It was easy to learn. We had a formation I have never seen in high school football since."

McCarthy and Uram also were known as disciplinarians. Uram had a paddle — corporal punishment was popular back then — that was affectionately named Elmer.

Both coaches also had strict rules.

"We were not allowed to see any girls as long as we played football," Lang said. "It was either football or girls. We chose football."

Uram is a member of the Butler Area Sports Hall of Fame, as well as the Slippery Rock University and Western Pennsylvania halls of fame.

And now he has his very own day in Millvale.

But accolades mean little to Uram. He said his greatest rewards have nothing to do with people recognizing his achievements.

"The fondest memories are of the kids I had the opportunity to teach," Uram said. "It was a great experience."