Hall of Fame
Dr. George Mihalik has been good medicine for Rock football. At the age of 54, Mihalik enters the 2006 season ranked No. 2 in career wins at SRU with a 120-73-4 record. He begins his 35th season as a part of The Rock football program and 19th season as SRU's head coach.
These impressive stats are the result of brains and values. Mihalik is a member of an elite group of collegiate head coaches in the nation to own a doctorate degree. He received an Ed. D. in Safety Management from West Virginia University in 1986. His bachelor's and master's degrees are from SRU.
Values, not winning at all costs, form the core of his coaching philosophy. While developing winning football teams, Mihalik is also focused on producing valuable members of society.
With a great coaching record and two postgraduate degrees, Mihalik is a unique showcase for the success of the values of education, honesty and loyalty.
Mihalik ranks third among active Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) head coaches in career wins. He ranks 12th nationally among active NCAA Division II head coaches in both career wins and winning percentage.
When he was named SRU's 15th head football coach in 1987, he said his mission was to re-establish The Rock as an elite member of the PSAC. Mission accomplished.
SRU won four successive PSAC-Western Division championships from 1997-2000 and earned a berth in the NCAA Division II playoffs in three of those seasons.
While under the care of the good doctor, Rock squads won 38 of their last 54 PSAC- West contests, 38 of their last 50 home games, 65 of the last 91 regular-season games against NCAA D-II rivals, 67 of their last 103 games overall and 87 of 135 games played in the last 11 seasons -- that's a .640 winning percentage. The Rock had 12 successive winning seasons - the longest streak in the PSAC - and won 95 of 132 games (.712) from 1991-2003.
Perhaps part of Mihalik's success is his long history with The Rock. It extends back to the fall of 1970, when the graduate of Bishop Carroll High School in Ebensburg walked through the doors of SRU as a freshman. Since then, he played three seasons as SRU's starting quarterback and coached 31 seasons. In fact, the only year Mihalik was away from Rock football since 1970 was in 1976, when he served one season as a Southeastern Conference graduate assistant coach at the University of Kentucky.
As a Rock player, Mihalik was a three-year letterwinner and quarterback of the 1972 and 1973 PSAC championship teams. In his final game, Mihalik scored three touchdowns to lead SRU to a 28-14 win at West Chester in the State Championship Game. He still holds the career pass completion percentage record (59.9%).
Following graduation, Mihalik served 11 seasons as quarterbacks coach. He succeeded his former mentor, Bob DiSpirito as The Rock's head coach at the end of the 1987 season.
Mihalik is a professor in SRU's Department of Health and Safety and retains faculty status and teaches within the department.
The high-water mark of Mihalik's tenure came in 1998, when The Rock earned a second successive NCAA playoff berth and advanced to the national semifinals. A year later, Mihalik led SRU to a No. 2 ranking on the final regular-season national poll and an unprecedented third straight appearance in the NCAA playoffs.
Mihalik's accomplishments have earned him many honors.
In fall of 2001, Mihalik was featured in "Gridiron & Steel," a documentary about the connection between the Pittsburgh-based steel industry and football.
In recognition of his efforts in leading The Rock to three successive unbeaten PSAC-West seasons from 1997-99, his coaching peers named him the division's Coach of the Year in 1997, 1998 and 1999.
Mihalik also received Regional Coach of the Year honors from the American Football Coaches Association in 1997 and 1998 and the Tri-State Intercollegiate Football Officials' Association's Coach of the Year honor in 1991. He was inducted into the SRU (1997), Butler Area Sports (2001) and Cambria County Sports (2006) halls of fame.
In typical Mihalik fashion, The Rock head coach shares the credit and honor.
"I have always maintained the coaching awards I have been fortunate enough to receive should be cut up and presented to the assistant coaches and players," he says. "Throughout the years, I have had the good fortune of having excellent assistant coaches and players, and they deserve the credit."
Mihalik was born in Colver, Pa. and grew up in Ebensburg. He and his wife Laura -- who is also an SRU alumnus -- are the proud parents of two daughters: Jenny Lee, 24, a 2005 SRU graduate and current Rock graduate student, and Beth, 21, a junior volleyball player at Washington & Jefferson.
Loyalty to SRU runs deep in the Mihalik family. Mihalik's mother Helen is arguably the No. 1 Rock fan. But she may be challenged for that honor by Mihalik's brothers Denny and Bob, all of whom are fixtures on The Rock sidelines or in the stands. Nephews Greg and Bobby Mihalik - both of whom are SRU graduates - are the head football coaches at Hampton (Pa.) and Aurora (Ohio) high schools, respectively, and provide their uncle with coaching advice.
To honor the memory of his father, a former coal miner who taught his sons the importance of a blue-collar work ethic, the George Mihalik Sr. Memorial Golf Outing was established shortly after the family patriarch's death in January 1991. Proceeds from the outing at Ebensburg County Club provide a scholarship for Rock football student-athletes from Cambria County.
The short time in the year that Mihalik isn't involved in coaching or teaching, he likes to hunt, fish and play golf.
