Up Close With PSR
Bill Fralic

Bill Fralic, arguably college football's greatest offensive lineman, joined the University of Pittsburgh football broadcast team this season as the Panther's new color commentator.

The 1981 Penn Hills High School graduate became a three- time All-American for the Panthers, twice finishing among the top 10 in Heisman Trophy balloting. Taken second overall by the Atlanta Falcons in the 1985 NFL draft, Fralic went on to play in four Pro Bowls before retiring after the 1993 season.

In 1999, Fralic was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. He now runs his own insurance company in Atlanta.PSR editor Tony DeFazio sat down with Fralic in Pitt's South Side football facility before the Panthers' game with Nebraska last month.

PSR: You did some announcing a few years ago with the Atlanta Falcons. Why did you get back into it?

Fralic: I did it for three years with the Falcons and I really had no desire to do it anymoreÉJeff Long called me probably not much more than a month ago, and I guess they had a situation come up with (former color commentator) Bill Osborne. My interest is Pitt and to work with Bill Hillgrove. I really don't have any interest to do it anywhere else, and I enjoy coming back to the team and being involved with the program.

PSR: Your career at Pitt established you as one of the greatest lineman ever to play college football - how do you carry that legacy?

BF: You know that seems like a lifetime ago. I haven't played football since 1994. When I did it, it was the most important thing in the world to me.I'm honored that somebody would consider me as that, but football isn't really part of my thought process. It's not my identity. I guess that it was at one point. Even though football affects every part of my life probably, and every decision I make in some way, shape, or form because of all the time I spent doing it, it's not really something I think about.

PSR: What is more important for a college offensive lineman - to be fundamentally sound and have perfect technique, or to have a mean-streak?

BF: I think attitude goes through everything you do. I mean, to be a great football player, you have to be aggressive - that's a given. But you also have to have solid technique and you have to know how to apply it and when, if that all makes sense. I don't know that one is more important than the otherÉbut I guess if you pinned me down, I'd rather have somebody who was tough and wanted to beat somebody up, because you can hopefully teach them and give them technique, but I don't know if you can teach toughness.

PSR: You were rather outspoken and candid about steroid use in the NFL when you played in Atlanta. Has anything changed at all?

BF: You know that's a good question as far as how much has it changed.I'm sure it's like anything and has its peaks and valleys, but I think as long as you have something that's very important to somebody, you're always going to have some people trying to push the envelope and do what they can to get better, and sometimes that goes into probably illegal things like steroids. So I think you're always going to have somebody trying to whatever they can to improve themselves.

I'm not exactly sure, but when I look at the NFL now, or college, the guys - they are so big but they don't seem to (use as much). When you look back at the Steelers of the late 70s and those guys looked like weight lifters, you don't see that type of build typically around now. So I don't know if it's as prevalent as it would have been, say in the 70s and 80s, but I can't believe there isn't something going on too, just because of the nature of what I said earlier.

PSR: What coach taught you the most about football?

BF: It's hard to break it down. I had the great fortune of playing for a guy, Joe Natoli, at the Morningside Bulldogs. And Baz Fitzpatrick was the coach. I would say the Morningside Bulldogs, the Penn Hills Indians, and the Pitt Panthers. Joe Moore, Andy Urbanic, Joe Natoli and Baz Fitzpatrick. I would be short-changing any of them to pick one over the other because I was so young when I played for Morningside, I didn't even know how to put my pads on. It's hard to really compare what I learned there to what I learned at Penn Hills and then with Pitt. I couldn't have been at Pitt if it wasn't for Morningside or Penn Hills, in my mind.