A cherished photo with one of Franklin's all-time best. Franklin High School All Year Reunion August 24, 2013.
Wherever we are from, we can identify someone who has stood out from the others in sports. Sports, for millennia, have been a universally accepted measurement of a man - how his athletic prowess has provided an impressive display of the best of what men are. While times have changed, and now women have their rightful integration into the mix, the star athlete is a figure that many in the community will look up to. And also, as times goes on, the particular person may change due to visibility and acquaintance - a person from another era or time may be unknown by those born a century distant.
For my generation, Don Kovach was the personification of the star athlete. For thirteen years he was schooled in the same small school building. He came from father and grandfather miners in this rough and tumble mining town. He himself was one of the last remaining underground miners in the world-renowned Franklin Mine. Don excelled at sports and academics here in our hometown and had the opportunity to loosen the tight bonds of place and go to college, as few here did at the time. This was out of state at the University of Virginia where he excelled at football and was a fierce - but fair - competitor. He obtained his degree and went on to graduate school to become a lawyer.
Don Kovach was a great inspiration to many. He gained life-long friends on the Virginia team. During his life, principled preparation for sports, the ruggedness built from family mining traditions, and his astute awareness and hard-studied law gave him a rich but well-balanced capability. His civic responsibilities with school board, town and county positions, and church leadership were among the qualities for which many locals looked up to him. In the mid 1960s he drove us to Princeton for an several day church event even though none of his family were a part - this is remembered by me.
As he mentioned about a teammate, Don also was "at home with country folk, who's work ethic and moral values were his very essence."
These were Don's own words, given to his friend and UVa teammate Henry Jordan, the football Green Bay Packer great, when Don presented Henry Jordan's Enshrinement speech at the NFL Football Hall of Fame. https://www.profootballhof.com/players/henry-jordan/
I had a high school classmate who was an outstanding regional football player. Don Kovach inspired him to go to U of Virginia also, just like he did. Mike did play football at UVA and then became a good school administrator and inspired other young men to make something of themselves in football, and with continue with their own academics.
I also recall the many years, later in his life, when Don would continue to go to the old school grounds to run laps; an older man maintaining discipline. I continue to run in my own later years, in part by his example. In this, and several other ways, Don inspired me and countless others with his energy that imbued the Spirit that I feel is intrinsically a part of this old mining town. Donald Kovach, in this Profile in Character, exemplifies qualities that can make the world a better place.
Thank you, Don, for being an embodiment of the Franklin Spirit.