Frank Samsa was a champion athlete. He was so good, he could play two sports at once.
It was something he showcased a few days a season when the Turtle Creek baseball and track teams would play at the same time.
“Frank, who was the catcher on the baseball team, would come over to the track meet, and he (would) shot-put 60 feet or better, place first, and go back to the baseball game,” said Joe Suvak, a friend of Mr. Samsa's. “Mind you, he threw the shot with full catcher's gear on. That tells you what kind of guy he is.”
A talented athlete who was inducted into the East Boros Sports Hall of Fame in 1987, Mr. Samsa, formerly of Turtle Creek, died Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016, at Concordia of Monroeville. He was 65 and had pancreatic cancer.
A multi-sport athlete, Mr. Samsa lettered in football, basketball, track and baseball. He was a member of the 1964 state-champion St. Colman Grade School basketball team and was a forward guard on the 1967 Turtle Creek High School basketball team, which won a WPIAL Class B Championship. He was named WPIAL Class B MVP in football during his junior year of high school and selected to the Big 10 team.
A highly recruited football player, Mr. Samsa received a house call from Johnny Majors when he was coaching at Iowa State University. He also caddied for Notre Dame Head Coach Ara Parseghian at the Edgewood Country Club. He eventually chose to enroll at West Virginia University to play football for Coach Bobby Bowden, though “he could have went anywhere,” his brother John Samsa said.
Mr. Samsa played defensive end for WVU, which he attended from 1969 to 1972. He was named by Sports Illustrated as one of its Top 10 Freshmen, and even though he was a smaller player, he was still able to hold his own.
During one game, he chose to hit a larger, competing lineman “where it hurts really, really bad,” his brother said.
“The guy knocked him to the ground … and he picked my brother up by both arms and his shirt, he held him up in the air … and he said to him, ‘Please don't ever do that again.' … I thought that was pretty funny,” said John Samsa.
After college, Mr. Samsa worked for Westinghouse, East Pittsburgh and was employed as a bus driver for the Port Authority of Allegheny County. His career was cut short by multiple sclerosis, which he battled for 32 years, but he never once complained, said his daughter Danielle Pellegrino.
“If anybody ever needed anything, he was the one that they would call because they knew he would jump at the opportunity to help them,” she said. “It was never about him, never about him being ill. You'd go to see him, and he'd always ask about you … even if he didn't look like he was doing well.”
In addition to his daughter and brother, Mr. Samsa is survived by his wife, Donna Samsa of Penn Hills; son, Nicholas Samsa of Penn Hills; sister, Veronica Pecora of Harrison City; brothers, Robert Samsa of Shadyside, Ohio, and Greg Samsa of Austintown, Ohio; and nieces, nephews and grandchildren.
Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday and from 2 to 8 p.m. Wednesday in Patrick T. Lanigan Funeral Home and Crematory in Turtle Creek. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 9:30 a.m. Thursday in St. Colman Church.
Madasyn Czebiniak is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 412-320-7822 or mczebiniak@tribweb.com.
