purplehaze1
Active member
From the St. George Spectrum (story by David Cordero):
Sark’s boys pay homage to their beloved coach
Sark Arslanian was trans¬ported to a time long ago.
Although their faces are now wrinkled, their hair has grayed and most of them have added a few pounds, Arslanian’s former football players were 18, 19 or 20 again — at least for this night.
They were — and always will be — his boys.
“Being here right now, I can tell you everything about these kids,” Arslanian said. These “kids” are all well into their 60s — and beyond. “I can tell you where they went to school, I can name the members of their fam-ily and I recruited a lot of their wives as well.”
Arslanian, the charismatic ball coach, turned 88 recently, which was cause for celebration among his friends, family and former football players, of which there are legion. They all met up at the barn next to Staheli Catering in Washington City to honor their coach over the weekend. Most of them played for Arslanian at Dixie State between 1955 and 1964. Others were Weber State Wildcats under him from 1965 to 1972.
These men are fiercely loyal to their mentor. And they don’t consider him their former coach.
“He’s our coach for all time and for eternity,” said Phil Tuckett, who played for Arslanian at Dixie and Weber State before a long career at NFL Films. He now lives in St.
George — mere yards from Arslanian’s abode. Most of the attendees were locals — Ralph Staheli can walk there in two minutes from his house — but some traveled great distances. Halvor Hagen (Weber State 1967-68) and members of his family came out from Boston.
Hagen recalled a time when Arslanian recruited him and some Wildcats took him “somewhere I shouldn’t have been.” Hagen ended up losing his plane ticket home to Seattle. Then after he enrolled at Weber State there was another incident — not necessarily his fault, but again Hagen was at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Arslanian could have gotten rid of Hagen and no one would have questioned him. But that sort of reaction just wouldn’t be Arslanian.
That’s because his mind never strays far from the time he was a sophomore at Granite High School and his football coach and math teacher Ed Payne told him to stay after class. That usually meant Arslanian was going to get a good chewing out, which was frequent. The son of Armenian immigrants, Arslanian often ran with the street toughs in the rougher areas of Salt Lake City. He was always getting into trouble.
Instead Arslanian and his teacher went across the street, grabbed a bite to eat and spoke to each other man to man. To this day, Arslanian insists that was the turning point in his life.
He felt like someone cared about him.
Thirty years later he applied the same idea to Hagen. He saw a good man who made a mistake. He was going to stick with Hagen.
His decision was vindicated. Hagen earned his degree and played eight years in the NFL.
It goes to show that although Arslanian was a splendid football tactician, his legacy is in his ability to get into the heads of young men and convince them they can achieve great things.
Lynn Christensen was a member of Arslanian’s two best Dixie teams, the 1963 and 1964 squads, before coaching basketball for a number of years — including a long stint at Pine View. He was unequivocal in his praise to Arslanian.
“You’ve changed so many different lives, it’s unbelievable,” he said. “You made us think we walked on water as players.”
So why celebrate their coach’s 88th birthday? Why not? Some joked they didn’t want to wait until Arslanian turned 90 because none of his players would still be around.
Arslanian carries himself with the grace of a man 20 years younger, leaving others to wonder if he might outlive all his players.
Effervescent as always, on the night of his birthday Arslanian worked the room with the charm of a man who could sell an industrialsized freezer to a polar bear. What else would you expect? Arslanian was with his boys.
Sark’s boys pay homage to their beloved coach
Sark Arslanian was trans¬ported to a time long ago.
Although their faces are now wrinkled, their hair has grayed and most of them have added a few pounds, Arslanian’s former football players were 18, 19 or 20 again — at least for this night.
They were — and always will be — his boys.
“Being here right now, I can tell you everything about these kids,” Arslanian said. These “kids” are all well into their 60s — and beyond. “I can tell you where they went to school, I can name the members of their fam-ily and I recruited a lot of their wives as well.”
Arslanian, the charismatic ball coach, turned 88 recently, which was cause for celebration among his friends, family and former football players, of which there are legion. They all met up at the barn next to Staheli Catering in Washington City to honor their coach over the weekend. Most of them played for Arslanian at Dixie State between 1955 and 1964. Others were Weber State Wildcats under him from 1965 to 1972.
These men are fiercely loyal to their mentor. And they don’t consider him their former coach.
“He’s our coach for all time and for eternity,” said Phil Tuckett, who played for Arslanian at Dixie and Weber State before a long career at NFL Films. He now lives in St.
George — mere yards from Arslanian’s abode. Most of the attendees were locals — Ralph Staheli can walk there in two minutes from his house — but some traveled great distances. Halvor Hagen (Weber State 1967-68) and members of his family came out from Boston.
Hagen recalled a time when Arslanian recruited him and some Wildcats took him “somewhere I shouldn’t have been.” Hagen ended up losing his plane ticket home to Seattle. Then after he enrolled at Weber State there was another incident — not necessarily his fault, but again Hagen was at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Arslanian could have gotten rid of Hagen and no one would have questioned him. But that sort of reaction just wouldn’t be Arslanian.
That’s because his mind never strays far from the time he was a sophomore at Granite High School and his football coach and math teacher Ed Payne told him to stay after class. That usually meant Arslanian was going to get a good chewing out, which was frequent. The son of Armenian immigrants, Arslanian often ran with the street toughs in the rougher areas of Salt Lake City. He was always getting into trouble.
Instead Arslanian and his teacher went across the street, grabbed a bite to eat and spoke to each other man to man. To this day, Arslanian insists that was the turning point in his life.
He felt like someone cared about him.
Thirty years later he applied the same idea to Hagen. He saw a good man who made a mistake. He was going to stick with Hagen.
His decision was vindicated. Hagen earned his degree and played eight years in the NFL.
It goes to show that although Arslanian was a splendid football tactician, his legacy is in his ability to get into the heads of young men and convince them they can achieve great things.
Lynn Christensen was a member of Arslanian’s two best Dixie teams, the 1963 and 1964 squads, before coaching basketball for a number of years — including a long stint at Pine View. He was unequivocal in his praise to Arslanian.
“You’ve changed so many different lives, it’s unbelievable,” he said. “You made us think we walked on water as players.”
So why celebrate their coach’s 88th birthday? Why not? Some joked they didn’t want to wait until Arslanian turned 90 because none of his players would still be around.
Arslanian carries himself with the grace of a man 20 years younger, leaving others to wonder if he might outlive all his players.
Effervescent as always, on the night of his birthday Arslanian worked the room with the charm of a man who could sell an industrialsized freezer to a polar bear. What else would you expect? Arslanian was with his boys.
