Saturday, November 12, 2005
HIRAM -- When Frank Paden of Boardman graduated from Chaney High in 1969 and decided to attend Hiram College to play football, he was surrounded by three Youngstown coaching connections there -- Bob Dove, Joe Malmisur and Billy Proverbs -- who all had positive impacts on his life.
"Bob Dove recruited me there. But the summer before I went there, Dove took the [assistant] job at YSU and Malmisur was my head coach. Dove left that summer and I played four years for coach Malmisur," said Paden, who joined a football program in transition with many young players at Hiram that gave him an opportunity to play a lot.
Paden, who became a four-year starter on the offensive line for the Terriers before graduating in 1973, was among six former Hiram College athletes inducted into the college's athletic Hall of Fame recently.
Paden played football at Chaney High for three years under coach "Red" Angelo, and made all-City in his senior year in 1968 to lead the Cowboys to the City Series championship before being recruited by Dove to play football at Hiram in 1969.
But Dove left and Paden played for Malmisur instead.
"Malmisur was head coach at Heidelberg when he came to Hiram, and when he came there he brought a lot of the Youngstown connection [of players] to Hiram," said Paden, who also played baseball for Hiram under coach Proverbs. "Bill Proverbs was there when Malmisur came."
Introduced by Malmisur
Paden, who now is president and chief executive officer of Farmers Bank in Canfield, was introduced at the Hall of Fame Banquet by Malmisur, who eventually left Hiram to become athletic director at Youngstown State and hired Jim Tressel as football coach.
Then Malmisur eventually was succeeded as YSU's athletic director by Tressel, who now is coaching the Ohio State football team.
"I asked Malmisur to [introduce me]. He was tickled pink to do it. He is like a second father to me," said Paden, who played every game for four years at Hiram. The four-year starter played guard and tackle.
"My freshman year we probably had eight or nine freshmen that started right out of high school, but we won our share [although] we lost our share of games, too," he said. "We never won a conference championship."
Hiram gave him opportunity
Paden said that without the chance that Hiram gave him to play intercollegiate sports, he probably never would have done so.
"The best thing about Hiram is that it gave me the opportunity to do something that I liked, which was play football," said Paden. "I didn't have the size to go to a bigger school, so it worked out perfectly."
Paden also cherishes the friendships he made at Hiram with his teammates, which still help to keep him close to the school and its various alumni functions.
"The friendships with my teammates -- I wouldn't trade that for anything," said Paden. "I still see a lot of my friends 30 years later."
He usually attends the Hiram Alumni Days event every year.
"Once a year I go back to the Hiram Alumni Days and play golf with the same three guys that I was friends with," said Paden. "I have been doing that for about the last 20 years. I usually don't miss it."
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