North Catholic coach emphasized teamwork, effort
Raymond DiLallo never had a losing season as head coach of the North Catholic High School football team, but it wasn’t because winning was everything to him.
“I think winning is only a byproduct of coaching. If you instill the right objectives in your players, you can’t help but win your share of games,” he said in a March 1982 story in The Pittsburgh Press.
Instead, the longtime history teacher and baseball and football coach promoted a philosophy that focused on teamwork and effort, and winning was often a bonus.
Some of his players credit his life lessons with helping them become the people they are today.
“He was sincere. There was never anything pretentious or phony about him. You knew exactly where you stood and what you had to do,” said Kevin Colbert, general manager of the Pittsburgh Steelers and a former North Catholic student athlete who was coached by Mr. DiLallo. “You have to honor those who have helped shape your life.”
Mr. DiLallo, 87, a lifelong resident of the North Side, died July 6 of renal failure.
He was the son of Italian immigrants and grew up playing baseball and football and graduated in 1950 from North Catholic.
In 1952, he enlisted in the Army, expecting to fight in the Korean War. But his skill as a left fielder altered his fate, and Mr. DiLallo was instead asked to play for the Army baseball team, said his son, Ray DiLallo Jr., of Kennedy.
“He played semipro baseball for the Army, and they traveled, so he didn’t have to go to Korea,” his son said.
But his father never pursued a career in the major leagues, Mr. DiLallo Jr. said.
“He wasn’t a limelight seeker. He played baseball because he loved it.”
After he was discharged in 1954, Mr. DiLallo used the GI Bill to attend Duquesne University, where he played baseball and graduated in 1958.
A year later, he returned to his high school alma mater as an assistant football coach and head baseball coach.
By 1966, Mr. DiLallo began teaching history and social studies at North Catholic and coaching at Bishop Canevin High School.
He served as assistant football coach at Bishop Canevin until 1968, when he took over as head football coach for five years.
He returned to North Catholic as an assistant football coach in 1973 and was named head coach in 1982.
Four seasons later, Mr. DiLallo stepped down from the football coach position for health reasons, though he continued teaching at North Catholic until his retirement in 1997.
He coached the North Catholic baseball team for many years, along with coaching stints at other schools and youth sports leagues. He was a natural motivator and leader, his son said.
“It kind of went hand in hand with teaching,” he said. “He told me recently that he never had one bad day as a teacher or a coach. He always wanted you to be on the straight and narrow and to have respect for your elders, and if you didn’t, you heard about it. But, he had a heart of gold, and he could never keep that in his soul — being mad at you for something.”
“I can’t tell you how many boys he influenced in the 1970s, whether it was on the football field or baseball field or as a teacher,” said Dave Marx, of North Fayette, a 1977 North Catholic graduate whom Mr. DiLallo coached in baseball for six years, starting in eighth grade.
“He took an interest in me and got me a tryout with the Pittsburgh Pirates,” said Mr. Marx, who went on to play professional softball with the former Pittsburgh Hardhats and who now owns an indoor baseball facility in Carnegie.
Mr. DiLallo also was his high school history teacher, Mr. Marx recalled.
“He was known as a disciplinarian at school,” he said. “I always took his classes even though there was an easier way out, because he held you accountable, and I needed that at the time.”
Mr. Colbert, who graduated from North Catholic in 1975, played football when Mr. DiLallo was an assistant coach and had Mr. DiLallo as a U. S. history teacher as well.
“He was a great man and a great teacher,” said Mr. Colbert, who returned to North Catholic as an assistant coach after graduation. “He was demanding but fair, and he taught you a lot of life lessons.”
Mr. DiLallo often went the extra mile for students, including going to bat for kids in trouble and visiting colleges with promising young athletes, his friends and family said.
“He looked out for the kids,” his son said. “He would stick up for them and go to the principal for them to get them a second chance.”
“I remember he brought prospects to Ohio Wesleyan University when I was there,” recalled Mr. Colbert, who served as backfield coach and recruiting coordinator at Ohio Wesleyan University between 1981 and 1983.
“He took me in eighth grade to try out for the Pittsburgh Little Pirates,” Mr. Marx said. “They picked me up in 10 minutes.”
When his children were young, Mr. DiLallo served as a volunteer basketball and baseball coach, and he continued coaching even after he retired, his son said.
Later in life, he especially enjoyed spending time with his grandchildren and became less gruff and more sentimental, Mr. DiLallo Jr. said.
“His heart came to the outside the older he got,” he said.
To Mr. Marx, his former coach and teacher will be remembered as a pivotal part of growing up and succeeding in life.
“He wasn’t just teaching me baseball every day,” he said. “He was teaching me life.”
Along with his son, Mr. DiLallo is survived by his daughters, Theresa Emery, of the North Side, and Nancy Fitzgerald, of Kirtland, Ohio; and six grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife of 47 years, Eleanor Fabiszak DiLallo; his son Patrick; his sisters, Gilda Valeriano and Dolores Ewing; and his companion Mary Kraus. His funeral was July 12. Memorial contributions may be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital at stjude. org.