Bill Fralic was a wrestler for Penn Hills
- Thread starter Dallas Burgher
- Start date
- In the 1979 PIAA State Wrestling Tournament (I think he was was a Soph) ...... Fralic lost in the state quarterfinals to Jack Parry on a 15-6 dec ..... Parry then went on to win the state championship over Jeff Green ...... Fralic did not place as they only placed the top 4 wrestlers back then.
- In the 1980 PIAA State Wrestling Tournament (I think his Jr. year) ..... Fralic lost in the state semifinals to Jeff Green on 3-3, 3-1 OT loss ...... Green then became a two time runner-up as he lost to Steve Sefter in the finals (Sefter won the 185 championship in 1979) ...... Fralic came in 3rd when he interestingly defeated Dennis Atiyeh in the 3/4 place match ........ Atiyeh then won the championship in 1981 ........ Fralic came to Pitt in 1981 and started in football so I'm not sure if he didn't wrestle in the 1980 -1981 season which should have been his Sr. year at Penn Hills (I think) or got hurt and wasn't in the Tournaments or lost early which I don't remember ...... of course, Dennis Atiyeh ended up playing football at Pitt with Fralic !
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He WAS hurt his senior year. Fazio had the bright idea to help Fralic out so he took Phil Pazzuli (sp?) and Bill Maas to his high school to work out prior to the tournament. Those guys wrestled in highschool. Those knuckle heads had to show how tough they were. The workout got physical and Fralic separated his shoulder.
Three Pitt football players were at that weight. In addition to Fralic, who beat Ateyeh 4-1. Dennis Ateyeh pinned Troy Benson - who later had a nice career with the NY Giants.
Three Pitt football players were at that weight. In addition to Fralic, who beat Ateyeh 4-1. Dennis Ateyeh pinned Troy Benson - who later had a nice career with the NY Giants.
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I had a vague recollection that Fralic got hurt his senior year but wasn't 100% sure.
Fralic definitely beat Atiyeh for 3rd place on a 4-1 dec in 1980 .... Atiyeh won the championship the following year ..... see link below for 1980 brackets with Unlimited matches at the bottom and documenting Fralic's win over Atiyeh in the 3/4 place match ....
http://live.pa-wrestling.com/pdfs/1980_PIAA_State_AAA_results.pdf
Bill was not the best technical wrestler but his physical skills and appearance were intimidating. He was a lean 275 in high school and won most of his matches at the weigh in. I know of several occasions where his opponent quit and walked away - literally - after weigh ins.
Dennis Ateyeh wrestled one year at Pitt. He was undersized but had a good motor and stayed aggressive. Dennis quit wrestling so he could maintain his weight as a nose guard for the football team. He was most renown on the football team for fighting at practices and he was dismissed to the locker room early several times. I think Dennis might have placed third at the EWL tournament that one year he wrestled.
Of course his brother Joe won a silver medal in the Olympics wrestling for Syria and his brother George played as a nose guard for the Philadelphia Eagles for a few years.
Dennis Ateyeh wrestled one year at Pitt. He was undersized but had a good motor and stayed aggressive. Dennis quit wrestling so he could maintain his weight as a nose guard for the football team. He was most renown on the football team for fighting at practices and he was dismissed to the locker room early several times. I think Dennis might have placed third at the EWL tournament that one year he wrestled.
Of course his brother Joe won a silver medal in the Olympics wrestling for Syria and his brother George played as a nose guard for the Philadelphia Eagles for a few years.
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