Hall of Fame
Gene Collodi, a former two-way standout for The Rock football team and longtime western Pennsylvania high school coach, will be included in a group of seven individuals inducted Sept. 29 into the Slippery Rock University Athletic Hall of Fame.
An offensive guard and defensive linebacker, Collodi was a co-captain of The Rock's 1961 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division championship team and served as a student assistant coach for the 1962 conference championship team.
Collodi received regional All-America honors as a player, earned a spot on the Pennsylvania College and University All-Star Team comprised of the top players in the state and was twice named to all-district and All-PSAC-West honors.
Voted by his Rock teammates and coaches as the 1961 recipient of the Copley Award given to the team's Most Valuable Player, Collodi was a starting linebacker in the Gem Bowl, a small-college all-star game featuring the top players from Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Following receipt of a bachelor's degree as a health and physical education major at Slippery Rock in 1963, Collodi served 30 seasons as a head or assistant coach for teams that competed in the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL). He was head coach at Arnold, Valley and Burrell high schools, served as an assistant coach at Karns City, Plum, Wilkinsburg and Burrell and ultimately concluded his career as Valley's athletic director.
A highlight of his coaching career came in 1986 when he served as defensive coordinator for Burrell's WPIAL championship team and directed a squad that did not allow a single point to opponents during the playoffs.
In the midst of his high school coaching career, Collodi also served as defensive ends and linebackers coach at the University of Cincinnati while earning a master's equivalency in education, which he received in 1976.
Prior to enrolling at The Rock Collodi was an honorable mention all-state performer on an undefeated 1957 New Kensington High School football team.
Collodi began his collegiate career as a full-scholarship student-athlete at Arizona State University, where he played one season before sustaining an injury. He then transferred to Palo Verde Junior College in California and eventually to The Rock.
Collodi was a two-sport, football and baseball, student-athlete at Palo Verde and continued that practice at The Rock, where he was the starting third baseman on the 1963 baseball team. He later played on several national-level softball teams.
