Mihalik Earns Sportsmanship Award

SRU's Mihalik earns sportsmanship award from officials association

Rock head coach George Mihalik was named last Friday as the 2012 recipient of the Eastern Collegiate Football Officials Association's sportsmanship award

6/3/2013

PIPERSVILLE, Pa. – Slippery Rock University Head Football Coach George Mihalik was named last Friday as the 2012 recipient of the Eastern Collegiate Football Officials Association's sportsmanship award.

Mihalik will receive his award during the ECFOA's annual clinic Aug. 3-4 at West Chester University.

“Each year the officials in the ECFOA select a coach who by his actions demonstrates the highest ideals of sportsmanship,” ECFOA spokesman Dennis Crim said in a letter announcing Mihalik's selection as the award winner.

George Mihalik

“[Coach Mihalik's] interaction with officials, players, and coaches exemplifies the highest ideals of collegiate athletics,” Crim said. “By his actions, he set a bench mark for his players and coaches to follow. It is always a pleasure for our officials to work Slippery Rock games.”

This year's award is the second Mihalik from an officials' organization. He was named in 1999 as the Tri-State Officials' Association's “Coach of the Year.”

Mihalik has also received four Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division and two regional “Coach of the Year” honors in recognition of his leading SRU to five PSAC-West championships and three appearances in the NCAA Division II national playoffs.

SRU's all-time leader in career victories, Mihalik ranks second among active PSAC head coaches and fifth on the conference's all-time wins list with a 168-102-4 record in 25 seasons as head coach.

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Mihalik has been part of The Rock football program every season except one since enrolling as a freshman quarterback in the fall of 1970. He was the starting signal caller for The Rock's 1972 and 1973 PSAC championship teams prior to joining the Green and White coaching staff.

In September of 2011, SRU officials recognized Mihalik's commitment to the University by renaming the former N. Kerr Thompson Stadium as “Mihalik-Thompson Stadium.”

Mihalik is currently serving as a tri-chair for SRU's upcoming 125th Celebration steering committee.

A native of Colver and graduate of Bishop Carroll High School in Ebensburg, Mihalik has been inducted into five halls of fame: SRU Athletic (1997), Butler Area Sports (2001), Cambria County Sports (2006), Bishop Carroll (2012) and Pennsylvania Sports Western Chapter (2012).

Mihalik, in addition to serving as The Rock's head football coach, is one of a very few collegiate head coaches who owns a doctorate degree and/or remains an active member of his college or university's academic faculty.

A full professor in SRU's safety management department within the College of Business Information and Social Sciences, Mihalik earned both his bachelor's (1974) and master's (1976) degrees from SRU and added an Ed.D. degree in safety management from West Virginia University in 1986.

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Bob McComas
Sports Information Director
Slippery Rock University
1 Morrow Way - Room 201 Old Main
Slippery Rock, Pa. 16057
Office: 724.738.2777
Cell: 724.421.5658
Email: robert.mccomas@sru.edu
www.sru.edu

A ROCK SOLID Education

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