In the spring, before his final months of college at Clarion University, Fran Sirianni prepared to have the conversation that would change his life forever.
Fran’s father, Frank, was a worker. A man of the people. A World War II veteran. A second-generation American whose parents trekked here from Calabria, on the southern tier of the boot in Italy. He owned a women’s clothing store on the main drag in their hometown of Kane, Pa., selling pieces that he’d have his daughter wear to school, a way of modeling them in an attempt to drive in customers. The town, Fran said, would remind you of Bedford Falls in the winter.
Frank wasn’t much of an athlete. He went to one football practice, saw how hard everyone was smashing into each other and hightailed it home. Fran was different. He would letter in football and track for the Golden Eagles. He picked off so many passes—15—that the school put him in its Hall of Fame. Oh, and he also punted, finished third in the PSAC 400 hurdles and second in the 4x100.
Hence why he didn’t want to run the family business when it was time to come back home. Fran was an athlete. He wanted to coach like he’d been coached. But back then, it was famiglia over everything, and so Fran asked Frank what he wanted his son to do. Was it time to take over the store? “I owed my father and mother for helping me all the way through my life,” Fran says now, over the phone. “I owed them the respect to come back and run the family business.”
Frank told him: “It’s been really good for me, but I wouldn’t wish [running the store] on my worst enemy.”
The blessing for Fran to pursue his life’s passions ended up birthing a coaching family dynasty. Fran is still coaching the pole vaulters at Southwestern Central High School. The track and the complex are named after him. Fran’s son Jay is the coach of the track and field team; as of December, he is 42–3 since taking over in 2016. Jay was also the football coach for a time, racking up a pair of state titles and more than 100 victories (and was a national champion quarterback at Mount Union). Mike is the football coach at Washington & Jefferson College, winner of 176 games since ’03 and nine PAC championships.
Nick, the youngest—and, in some ways, the hardest for Fran to coach—will lead the Eagles into the Super Bowl on Sunday.
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“[Frank] would be proud,” Fran says. “He was a family man. This whole thing would make him proud. Hopefully he’s sensing that right now.”
Fran, a devout Catholic who opened a chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes back home more than 30 years ago, takes this all as a sign from God. From the places the boys went for college to the mentors they met along the way (Fran’s high school coach ended up being on the staff with Nick at his first coaching gig in Indiana, Pa.), how could he not think he was exactly where he was meant to be?
But in so many ways, the Siriannis are a familiar American story of sacrifice and growth. Fran was willing to give it all up to give Frank peace of mind, to take care of the man who took care of him. He’d already spent the time learning the ropes, washing the windows, fashioning the boxes and making deliveries. Frank refused, sensing not only his son’s passions but the coming storm of big-box retail stores. Frank was great at roping in buyers—Fran says Nick got his personality from grandpa and his notorious lack of patience from him—but who was going to stand their ground in a small town when Walmart and Target come rumbling through?
“The ways in which small businesses went in that town, most of them just didn’t survive,” Fran says.
All the Sirianni grandkids are continuing that tradition, of both honoring the past and paving a future. Nick, when he was an offensive assistant with the San Diego Chargers in 2013, whipped across the country to be in town for the moment the track and field complex would begin to bear Fran’s name. Scott Kindberg, a reporter who has chronicled sports in Jamestown for nearly four decades, said he saw Nick surprise his dad, walking up behind him and pretending he was a student who needed their ankles taped. Kindberg will text Nick about the high school days, about dad and brothers, and receive a reply regardless, even a few hours before a conference championship game.
Fran’s coaching techniques, Nick says now, have formed the basis for his own success in Philadelphia. Fran made it look right. Such is life when you’re living a dream and passing it on.
Just the other day, Fran got an email that brought the entire thing full circle as he prepared his itinerary for Super Bowl week. Someone from Italy, from the old neighborhood, near the old family home, sent him a picture. There, outside the place, was an Eagles flag waving in the wind. There was a symbol, as good as any, about the gifts one generation can give the next without even knowing.
