John R. Kovach: Unsung heroes were his passion

By Joe Scalzo

scalzo@vindy.com

Photo

John Kovach

YOUNGSTOWN

Maybe the best way to start this story is with John Kovach’s desk, a regular gray cubicle with file cabinets on either side.

There are old college programs and newspaper clippings and, in one file folder, a flag football catalog from 1979.

And there are hundreds and hundreds of photos. Photos of amateur boxers. Photos of local runners. And, more than anything else, photos of college softball players and swimmers and football players.

“He loved the true student athlete,” said Kovach’s brother, Bob. “He loved the guys from Division III. Those are the ones he really cared about.

“And you could see that in his writing.”

Kovach, a big man with a bigger heart, died this week at age 69. He spent 39 years with The Vindicator, carving out a niche as a champion of the underdog, treating a story about a local bodybuilder or a 9-year-old gymnast the same way he might treat a story about a major Division I football player.

But he was more than that.

“John was more than just a sports writer,” said Vindicator correspondent Greg Gulas who, like Kovach, graduated from Campbell Memorial High. “He was an excellent football player for the Red Devils who never really liked the limelight.

“An accomplished author, inventor and idea man, he was a background guy who lived by Martin Luther’s credo, ‘It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.’ ”

Kovach was born on April 22, 1940 in Youngstown and grew up in Campbell. As a 240-pound center nicknamed “Beef,” he earned All-Ohio honors clearing the way for a 9-1 Red Devils team in 1957, his senior year.

“I always felt a sense of security when someone the size of Beef was in front of me clearing the way,” said Dr. John F. Geletka, a quarterback for Campbell that season.

Kovach also served as sports editor for Campbell’s yearbook, The Reveler, where he combined two of his biggest passions: sports and writing. He went to Indiana University for one season before returning home to Youngstown College to be a full-time student, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree.

He was hired at The Vindicator in 1970, where he took over the area college beat in addition to covering amateur, high school and pro sports.

“Nobody was more dedicated to his job than John was,” said longtime Vindicator sports writer Pete Mollica, who worked with Kovach for 30 years before retiring in December. “He took over a very difficult area college beat and turned it into one of the most read-sections of the sports department.

“Anybody from this Valley who went off to college to play any sport was followed closely by John and he really enjoyed what he was doing.”

Kovach and his wife, Nancy, were married for more than 43 years and had two children, son John Jr. and daughter D’Arcy. When John Jr., died suddenly in November, it left him devastated. But he filled the hole in his heart by spending more time with his three grandchildren.

Kovach was a leader in the community, forming the Youngstown Touch Football League and the Ohio Flag Football Association in the early 1970s.

“He got everything off the ground and was the absolute driving force,” said Tom Krispinksy, a Big Ten official who was the quarterback of the Linhart Towing team that won the first two Youngstown Touch Football League championships. “He didn’t want any credit and always wanted to remain in the background, but nobody would outwork him in order to ensure the success of the league.”

In recent years, Kovach helped form the Campbell Memorial Alumni Association and the Lariccia Family High School Basketball Series at the Covelli Centre.

“That [the series] was his baby; he was very proud of that,” said WFMJ sports director Dana Balash, who still has a framed copy of a story Kovach wrote about him 20 years ago hanging in his office. “He always wanted to bring basketball to downtown. He always wanted to see a regional or district [tournament] there and, unfortunately, he didn’t get that opportunity.”

In his spare time, Kovach was an author and inventor who loved reading and watching old movies. He made sports-related board games (you could buy them at the old Hill’s department stores), gasoline gloves (for when self-serve pumps were coming into vogue, giving drivers a way to avoid getting gas on their hands) and a potato peeler that he never quite perfected. In recent years, he wrote a children’s book called “Appleland.”

“I guess you’d call him an idealist,” said Ron Tofil, a Campbell graduate who was close friends with Kovach. “He had a lot of different ideas and he always wanted things to be right and he worked very hard at making things right.

“At one time, a famous politician in town called him the most honest guy in Mahoning County. John was like that. You could trust him.”

For all the lives he touched, Kovach’s biggest impact was on the athletes he covered. He wrote a weekly college column which usually focused on unheralded athletes from Division III or NAIA schools, often featuring unheralded sports such as rifle or race walking.

In recent years, Kovach devoted several stories to Olympic shot put hopeful Adriane Blewitt of Boardman, who overcame cancer in 2003.

“He always made me feel so loved,” Blewitt said. “He cared so much about my aspirations and really put that into words people could understand.

“I always felt good when I talked with him. He asked all the right questions and made sure to mention the people who were important in my life. I appreciate everything he wrote for me.”

Inside his files, there are hundreds of athletes who would say the same thing.

Calling hours will be Monday from 5 to 7 p.m. at Wasko Funeral Home in Campbell, where a prayer service will be held at 7 p.m.

A funeral mass will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday at St. Michael’s Byzantine Catholic Church in Campbell.