News Detail
Legendary Coach Frank Amato Receives Lifetime Achievement Award
Legendary Loyola Academy Track and Field Coach Frank Amato has been named the recipient of the Sports Faith International All Star Catholic High School Lifetime Achievement Award. Coach Amato, who retired from Loyola in 2013, was honored at the 11th annual Sports Faith Hall of Fame ceremony on Friday, May 18, held at Mundelein Seminary.
This honor follows a number of important distinctions throughout Amato’s half-century of service to Loyola Academy. Since 1966, he has held several administrative posts at Loyola, most recently as executive director of the Academy’s Athletic Hall of Fame, to which he was inducted in 1990. Amato was also inducted into the Illinois Track Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1985. He is a member of the Chicago Catholic League Hall of Fame and the Illinois Track and Field Coaches Hall of Fame. In 2006, he and his wife, Alice, were given one of Loyola’s highest honors, the Rev. Daniel A. Lord, SJ, Award for Distinguished Service in the Cause of Youth. Then in 2009, Loyola’s new track was renamed the Amato Track in honor of Frank and his coaching legacy. Finally, in 2011, Coach Amato was selected the National Coach of the Year for Boys’ Track and Field by the National High School Athletic Coaches Association.
Amato was a star high school hurdler in Kingston, New York, before heading to the University of Notre Dame to play football for Coach Frank Leahy. World War II intervened, and Amato enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corp, serving in the Pacific theatre and eventually ending up as part of the occupation forces in China. At the war’s end, he returned to Notre Dame and graduated in 1952 before launching his legendary high school coaching career.
This year’s Sports Faith Hall of Fame induction ceremony is set to include Mass, celebrated by Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki, and dinner followed by the induction ceremony. Chicago Bears’ Patrick McCaskey serves as the chairman of Sports Faith International and will host and emcee the event. Tickets can be purchased here.
Sports Faith International, founded in 2008, is dedicated to contributing to positive cultural change by showcasing the virtues and achievements of exemplary athletes, coaches and teams. Past inductees into the Sports Faith Hall of Fame for Professionals include George “Papa Bear” Halas, New York Football Giants’ longtime owner Well Mara, Pittsburgh Steelers’ Art Rooney, Arizona Cardinals’ Bill Bidwill, Philadelphia Phillies’ Jamie Moyer and Oakland Raiders’ Dave Casper.
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