I remember as a kid the first time I saw the number one jersey hanging up on the wall by our trophy case. I asked my dad why it was there and whose it was. I heard a number of stories about the great Dan Zarlingo. How talented he was, how he played college sports, and how he led Lowellville through years of success. I was so curious to find out some stories about his high school days and what exactly he accomplished at Lowellville. Mathew Lucido, Alex Modelski, and I were all very excited to go out and meet him. I knew there was much more to know about him and that there was a reason that the people of Lowellville who watched his career speak of “Danny” in such high regard.
The sports divisions were divided differently when Dan was playing in high school compared to now. When he played, there were only three divisions in Ohio sports, the first division being the smallest and the third being the largest. Although our league was in the first division it was still larger than it is today. Dan said, “it was us, McDonald, Springfield, South Range, and Crestview. ''
There was no three point line when he was playing basketball. According to Dan and various other people who’ve watched him play he shot many of his shots from outside three point range. Because there were only 9 teams in our league, we only had 18 basketball games a season and 9 football games a season. Dan scored over 1,600 points for Lowellville in his basketball career with 16 less regular season games and has the single game scoring record of 42 without having a three point line. He said if the three point line had been in place he would’ve had over 2000 and that our scoring record would’ve been in the '60s.
The high school football playoffs didn’t have a district, regional then state match, but rather the state would pick 4 teams (one from NE, SE, SW, and NW) to have a short bracket to the championship. Having only played 9 games, we weren’t 10-0 so we weren’t technically the best team in the NE area, and didn’t make the “playoffs' '.
He talked about how Lowellville had a much rougher reputation compared to now. Other schools would call us the river rats, and nobody liked playing against us. “We used to have police escorts from every game… two cop cars would bring us there, and two cop cars would bring us back,” he said. He told us that we would even embrace this characteristic, we’d attach felt to the fronts of our helmets that resembled river rats. He said he remembers a game versus McDonald with at least 15,000 people in attendance, and all the way around the fence there were 20 rows of people trying to watch the game. I
Dan was getting recruited by many colleges for both basketball and football. He received his first offer as an eighth grader at a high school basketball camp at Pittwhere Pitt’s basketball head coach offered him a full ride scholarship. He obviously was a multifaceted player and it stood out to college coaches. In basketball he had offers from Ohio State, Duke, North Carolina. “I could’ve gone anywhere really on the east coast.” Even Washington State had scouted him and gave him an offer for basketball.
Football was his first love. He had raw talent and he could throw a ball nearly 80 yards. He played several positions including wide receiver, quarterback, punter, kicker, and as a defensive back at safety. After his senior season Dan had a scholarship offered to him from Ohio State to play football. Dan finished his senior year before picking a college to play for. The coach that initially recruited him at Ohio State was no longer working there at this time and his scholarship offer from Ohio State was given to another person. Dan chose Indiana for his second option where he was a four year letter winner. He started for the team at safety his first two years, then moving to punter, for which he still holds their record for longest punt (85 yards). He said there were games with attendance of over 104 thousand people and that “playing for Indiana was no joke back then”. His team finished 3rd in the conference multiple times behind Ohio State and Michigan, but Indiana beat top 5 teams in the nation multiple times during Dan’s career. Dan was coached by none other than Lee Corso, an ESPN analyst.
Dan spoke very highly of his college coach and teammates. He said, “When you’re there, you really have to want to be there” because otherwise you’d end up quitting. Dan would’ve had his chance to go pro if not for the knee surgery he went through preceding the draft. He did not end up going pro, but he still remains close with many old college players he played with, emphasizing the importance of friends, especially in sports. Dan was in communications with the Dallas Cowboys about going to play football there before he tore the cartilage in his knee. His father who ran his own business was growing older and Dan didn’t want to let his father’s business die, so Dan chose not to enter the draft or pursue his career in education that he studied in college, but rather to carry on his dad's business legacy.
Dan believes he became a great player because he grew up in a time when there were no video games and kids’ interests around here were just sports. “We’d shovel snow and play basketball.” Players loved going to practice, he said, they all wanted to get better, it wasn’t like a chore. “It was a team… It was a good time, we practiced, we wanted to practice, and when we played we played hard.”
When playing in college Dan discussed the difference mentally compared to high school sports. He said that “you get what you put in. There was no plan B.” Practices were more brutal, hitting was dangerous, and safety of players was not to the level they are today.
According to Dan, his greatest sports accomplishment was not his scoring record, or being in the 1000 point club, but rather being a part of two undefeated football teams for Lowellville. Dan preferred football to other sports, he was very passionate about it. “Football made me go,” he said. He played wide receiver his first two years before switching to the team's quarterback position. They went undefeated his junior year (nobody scored against them until the sixth game of the season), and split three ways for the league as a senior. His team ran the triple option style offense, which is very dependent on the quarterback’s decision-making skills, which judging by the season they had he was pretty good at. Alex, Mat, and I talked with Dan for ages about football jargon and the idea of if his team played against our team and how the game would go. He felt they would have easily won, “by 60” he said. There was nothing rude or arrogant in his tone, “It was probably the best team we (Lowellville) ever had.”
As far as his talents in basketball, he was incredible. He averaged 25 points a game his senior year, with no three point line, as an outside shooter. His reasoning on why he picked football over basketball to play was not just because of his passion for football but because he said you can see the writing on the wall when there's guys 6’5 or 6' 6 that can do the same thing you can at 6’3. There's definitely some truth to that, basketball is a sport where height can play a major role, not that Dan was short but college basketball players at the time were very tall and had very long arms, the game was closer to the hoop. Dan was so talented in high school that his senior year he was invited to play in the “Dapper Dan Roundball Classic” (currently the McDonald’s Classic) in which he faced NBA players like Moses Malone and Brad Davis. Dan’s uncle Slaven is also considered to be one of Lowellville's best basketball players. Dan tied his record of 39 points in a game in his junior year then beat it his senior year.
Dan’s high school basketball coach was Dick Williams. Recently Dick passed away on January 24, 2023. Dan spoke very highly of him as a coach, mentor, and leader. Around Lowellville Dick Williams is a household name, he coached basketball for our school for many years and when the new school was built the new basketball court was named after him. When asked about him, Dan said, “he was a great coach” he said coaches had to be teachers, and would coach for the extra check, but not him, he said Dick was 24/7 basketball, and that he just really loved the game.
Lowellville didn’t have a baseball team in the '60s and early '70s which meant there was no high school baseball for Dan. He played in little league and Lowellville kids would even go play on Poland's youth team. Poland fans didn’t like that very much because soon enough the Poland team was starting all Lowellville boys! As soon as the topic of baseball came up in our discussion, Dan said to us with confidence that baseball was by far his best sport. “I could’ve played professional baseball, easily,” he said. He was offered a tryout by the Pittsburgh Pirates, but couldn’t accept it because at the time he was on football scholarship, and colleges at the time didn’t allow that without removing the student.
We asked him how important it felt to be a leader for his teammates, to which he never claimed to be their “leader” but rather just another member of the team that really wanted to win. From his perspective, he didn’t have to lead anyone if they wanted to win just as badly as he did. If there was anything he said set him apart from his opponents he said that there were two things, talent and desire. Like any athlete if you are more talented and have more desire, you’re going to go further, and do better.
He advised us to report on other athletes from Lowellville so they are remembered for their accomplishments and not forgotten. As he pointed out, Lowellville Schools does not have a Hall of Fame for their athletes so it is important for previous athletes in our community to be remembered for their successes. He never claimed he was the greatest athlete we’ve had (though every adult we’ve asked that watched him play says he was). He refused to brag about himself. He said, “if you were good enough, other people will say it for you.” He had no regrets about his career, the only thing he wishes he could’ve changed was tearing up his knee late in his college career. “Everything else was what you put in it. It isn’t just sports but everything in life, you get what you put into it. If you don’t put anything into it, you’re not going to get anything out of it. The one thing you cannot be afraid of at any level is competition. If you're afraid of that you might as well join the band, there's not as much competition in the band like there is in sports.”
Alex, Mat, and I were curious who had the greatest impact on his career. He paused for a moment and really thought about the question. He said it was his mother. “My mother was tough… She was the disciplinarian in our family. She was always the first one in the gym for games, she was the first one there for football.” He said his mother and father made it to every single one of his games, they never forced sports onto him as a kid, it all just came to him.
We learned a lot from him that day, not just about his career, but about mentality and sports in general. There will always be debate about who's the greatest athlete we’ve ever had. Many say it’s him, some say it’s other athletes. Few Lowellville athletes have played the games of football and basketball with the amount of success Dan has. What other Lowellville athlete can claim having been offered scholarships from Ohio State, Indiana, North Carolina, and Duke? What other Lowellville athletes can claim they were invited by the Pittsburgh Pirates to try out? What other Lowellville athlete can say the Dallas Cowboys were interested in him? There are greats in basketball like Lebron, Kobe, and Jordan and there will always be a debate about who is the best at anything. When it comes to Lowellville sports there's always one name I hear when I ask who's the greatest we’ve had.
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