Neighbors Spotlight: Greg Gulas

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Greg Gulas

Age: 55

Career: I will start my 30th year at Youngstown State University on Feb. 6. Currently, I serve as the Assistant Director of Campus Recreation and Student Programming and have been a member of the school’s Division of Student Affairs for the past 13 years. For 17 years, from 1980-97, I was based in athletics where I served as sports information director for 22 men’s and women’s varsity sports.

Family: My parents were natives of nearby Campbell and both their parents settled in Campbell in the late 1800’s so you can see that my family is currently in its third century of living in the Mahoning Valley. I have lived in Boardman Township since 1996.

Groups: I love to write and for the past two decades, have served as the chair of its selection committee and official biographer for the Curbstone Coaches Hall of Fame. I have also written the biographies for the Trumbull County Sports Hall of Fame where they will install their eighth class of inductees this fall.

Education: I am a 1972 graduate of Memorial High School, earning my BA degree in Speech and Communications from YSU in 1977 where I played baseball for four years (1973-76) under legendary head coach Dom Rosselli. I then earned my MA in Sports Administration from Ohio University in 1977.

Q. What do you like best about living in your town?

A. Our area is unique in that we remain a melting pot of residents, a League of Nations if you will, with many diverse cultures represented, not just in Boardman Township, but throughout the entire Mahoning Valley.

Q. What one thing would you add to your town if money was not an issue?

A. Right under the Market Street Bridge and in conjunction with the Covelli Centre, I’d love to see a riverboat setting with gaming throughout for those to satisfy their gaming urges.

Q. Describe the last community event you went to, and what was neat about it:

A. It was the annual YSU Festival of the Arts where there was a little bit of something for everyone in attendance.

Q. If there was a store or business to add to your town, which would you like it to be?

A. We were once the “Steel City” and I’d sure like to see us return to become a major player once again in the steel industry. Thinking back to Black Sunday in the late 1970s is still a painful thought.

Q. If you could name a street after someone, who would it be?

A. I’d take Elm Street from the Service Road to the front step of YSU’s Kilcawley Center and then re-name it “Dom Rosselli Way” — in honor of the legendary head Penguin basketball and baseball, and assistant football coach. He is the face of YSU athletics and there is no better way to honor the face of YSU athletics than to name the street heading to “The House that Dom Built,” Beeghly Center, in his honor. I wouldn’t stop there either because three other Penguin coaches: Dwight “Dike” Beede (YSU’s first football coach who is credited with inventing the penalty flag as we have come to know it today); Jim Tressel (his four Division I-AA championships and six title game appearances during his 15 years at YSU set him apart from the other coaches) and Ed DiGregorio (the former women’s basketball coach who won more league titles than any other women’s basketball head coach and our only NCAA Tournament appearances) should be honored in much the same manner as Rosselli.

Q. Where is your favorite place in town to go for a little hideaway time or bite to eat?

A. If I had the time, I’d eat every breakfast at The Waffle House, obviously because of their waffles and then every lunch at the Golden Hunan on the city’s North Side because their lunch buffet is second to none.

Q. What one place would you direct an outsider to visit to experience your town:

A. We’d be doing any visitor to our city an injustice if we didn’t either direct them to or take them on a tour of Mill Creek Park, especially the Fellows Riverside Gardens area.

Q. Is there a song, book or movie that you hear or see and say “They’re describing me!”?

A. Forget the lyrics, but the melody of Quicksilver Messenger Service’s “Fresh Air” and Motherlode’s “When I Die” would be excellent descriptors.