Luke Friday was a kid who was practically born wearing a Tyrone letterman’s jacket.
A third-generation Golden Eagle football player, he could trace his lineage back almost to the very beginnings of the sport in the borough. His father, Don, was a two-way player in the 1960s who set records for kicking and later was a coach for the first District 6 championship team in 1987.
Luke, himself, took up his role with the football team as early as elementary school, when he was a water boy in the 1980s and early 1990s.
With a background like that, what else could Luke have been but a star on one of the legendary teams to have donned the Orange and Black. Lettering all three seasons on the varsity team,
Luke made his mark as a starter in 1995 and 1996 on teams that reimagined what success meant for sports teams in Tyrone.
Luke passed away on September 23, but his impact on Tyrone football and the community he loved won’t be forgotten. He is survived by his wife Megan and son Lloyd, along with his parents, Don and Jaqueline, his sister Jess, and a large family of nieces and nephews, aunts, uncles, and cousins.
The teams he starred on brought the program out of a fog of underachievement that is like a fever dream when looking back 30 years later. From 1989 through 1993, the team won only 9 games, at one point building a losing streak that reached 19 in a row.
But Coach John Franco entered the picture in 1994, just as Luke’s class was emerging from junior high. His group had always been successful, it had high expectations, and it wanted to be pushed. Those three factors made them the perfect match for the hungry Franco, who came to the borough from Altoona after being fired in 1993.
What those teams did over two seasons was magic, and for anyone living in the borough at that time it was unforgettable. On the field they reached heights that hadn’t been attained since the 1940s: 12-2 in 1995, a District 6 championship, a spot in the PIAA final four with a shot at playing for a state title; 13-1 in 1996, a second straight District crown, and a place in the title game against Mount Carmel, which at that time was still played at Mansion Park in Altoona.
But the team’s biggest impact may have come off the field. They turned high school football into a party-like, must-see event every Friday. They made the game the most popular sport in school, one that entire generations of young boys would grow up dreaming to play, further feeding the program. From that jumping point in 1995, Tyrone football went on a 20-year run that’s unprecedented in school history and in the conversation with the best runs in all of Blair County sports. For more than 20 season the Eagles never missed the playoffs and played for a District championship 12 times, winning 9. Before another school from the county would win a PIAA championship, Tyrone had already played for it all three times, bringing it home in 1999.
Franco had much to do with that success, but he always credited the teams from 1995 and 1996 with setting the standard.
That’s where Luke came in. Not only was he a starting lineman, but he also kicked extra-points, and it was his PAT in 1996 that lifted the Eagles to a 14-13 win over Aliquippa in the Western Finals, sending the team to its first state championship game in more than 50 years. (He’s still tied with his father for the second-most PAT kicks in a game with 7).
In 2020, I began writing two books that were published in 2021 on the history of Tyrone football and its connection to the growth of Tyrone borough itself. Along the way I conducted more than 50 interviews. Most of them I recorded and still have saved.
After Luke passed, I searched through my recordings and found that I still had his interview. Luke was always fun to talk to, but his memories of his time playing for Tyrone were always fresh and lively. He had a way of looking at the scope of the era in which he and others played that was in line with my own thinking, so I always enjoyed our conversations about the game.
In April of 2021, when I talked to him specifically for my book, he was thoughtful, honest, and funny. It was a great interview, and if you’ve read the book you will see it makes up a big part of the chapters covering the teams of 1995 and 1996. I could never have done it without him.
I’m including the recording of that interview here. I hope it’s something friends and family can listen to when the time is right and smile. Obviously, it shows his passion for Tyrone football, but I think you also hear just how unselfish and team-oriented he was, and just how much he loved his community.
Those teams in 1995 and 1996 did more than just play football. They really did create something special in the community, and Luke got that. As a 17-year old kid, he knew something was going on that was bigger than just a high school game, and you hear that in the interview.
ORANGE AND BLACK 