big-man-back-on-hernando-campus
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the fourth in a series of stories highlighting Hernando High’s 2011 Sports Hall of Fame inductees.
During his four years at Hernando High, Frank Vohun garnered 15 varsity letters across four different sports.
The 1965 graduate received college offers in baseball, basketball and football, accepting a scholarship from Florida State University in the latter.
Save a couple of years in the U.S. Army, this marks one of the few seasons Vohun hasn’t spent on the gridiron in some capacity since he joined the Leopards as a freshman.
There are several credentials that make 64-year-old former educator now living in Villa Rica, Ga. worthy of Hall of Fame consideration.
On Thursday they’ll all come back to the forefront when he joins seven others as Hernando High Sports Hall of Fame inductees.
“It’s a great honor, especially for a guy like me with some of the youngsters that have come out of that area,” Vohun said, rattling off names such as Tom Fisher, Fred Abbott and Jerome Brown. “Those guys were hero-type people and I don’t consider myself in the same realm to be associated with them.”
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He may not put himself on such a pedestal, yet when Abbott spoke about his own Hall of Fame induction he pointed to Vohun as one of his athletic idols and expressed excitement about seeing him for this event.
Indeed it would appear Vohun had a presence on campus that matched his considerable stature. At 6-foot-3, he said he weighed in at around 240 in high school.
He played center on the basketball team. He played catcher for the baseball team. He threw shot put and discus and “ran when they made me” in track and field.
Yet football, a sport which he hadn’t even participated in until ninth grade, became the passion for the young man from a family of chicken farmers in Masaryktown.
“Once I learned to put the pads on, I was OK,” Vohun said.
Offensively he played some fullback and made his greatest contributions as a tight end. He spent time at defensive tackle and linebacker on defense.
“I think like most guys I thought I was doing great and sometimes I did great and sometimes I didn’t,” Vohun said. “But the older you get, the better you played.”
Twice garnering All-Conference honors in all three sports would suggest Vohun isn’t necessarily a victim of a fuzzy memory. Neither would the multiple college opportunities he received.
Florida State, though, came knocking first with a chance to join the Seminole football squad. Vohun liked the school and decided to go in that direction.
He had never envisioned himself playing college football until his junior year when FSU began showing interest. His father had suffered a stroke, forcing the rest of the family to pick up the slack on the farm.
Some days Vohun would awake at 3:30 a.m. to feed chickens, then go to school, practice for whatever sport was in-season, then return home and mix in homework with further chores.
“When it got to that point, I didn’t really want to stay right at home,” Vohun said. “But I didn’t want to go too far to where I couldn’t get home, either.
When Vohun arrived in Tallahassee, he quickly got a rude awakening that he was no longer one of the biggest guys around.
“I got on the field and got smacked on the head a time or two. I wasn’t sure I wanted to stay there,” Vohun said. “But I was more scared of going home.”
Freshmen were ineligible to play in those days, and he redshirted as a sophomore. Then he became a three-year starter at defensive tackle.
He participated in three bowl games while with the Seminoles, earned Associated Press Lineman of the Week laurels and was selected to play in the 1969 Blue-Gray Football Classic
“It was a great experience to do things I had never done, like fly and be part of that type of environment,” Vohun said.
His biggest highlight came his junior year in a game against North Carolina State. He intercepted a screen pass and ran roughly 20 yards for a touchdown, the only one of his college career.
While thinking back upon that moment, he chuckled about keeping the football as a keepsake. The team was penalized for his actions, and coaches subsequently made him run in practice as punishment.
“I don’t know if I won that battle or not,” Vohun said. “But I’ve still got the football.”
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Vohun had some conversations with the Pittsburgh Steelers, but with the Vietnam War in its latter stages, a draft number of 16 and a commitment to ROTC, playing professionally was never a realistic option.
Following his graduation from FSU, Vohun spent the next two and a half years in the U.S. Army.
“I wish I had at least a chance to try to see how I could have done (in the NFL),” Vohun said. “At the same time, I knew it wasn’t in the numbers, so I went in the military.”
Though he originally had orders to go to Vietnam, he never made it to that warzone. Instead he ended up as a transportation officer for an armored division out of the U.S. European Command in Germany.
“I had a good time in the military, but I wanted to coach,” Vohun said.
He was supposed to take the helm of a football team in the 1st Armored Division, however division-level sports were disbanded by the U.S. Army.
When that happened, Vohun applied for an early release. By the time it was granted, he had reached the rank of first lieutenant and was four months shy of achieving captain.
After completing his active duty, Vohun returned to school and earned a master’s degree in physical education and health from Florida A&M. At the same time he was a graduate assistant back at FSU.
He went on to become a defensive line coach for two years at Eastern Kentucky, an offensive line coach at Jacksonville State for five years, and a defensive coordinator then eventually head coach for four years at West Georgia.
From there he moved on to the prep level, coaching as a variety of high school.
“We built several teams that weren’t winning into teams that were consistently winning and getting into the playoffs,” Vohun said.
In 2010 he officially retired from teaching and coaching, though he partook in both on a part-time basis last year. He now delivers school buses and drives tractor-trailers around the country.
“It’s different,” Vohun said. “Football is so structured. Now things aren’t structured. I think the biggest thing I miss is the relationships with coaches and kids.”
He did have the opportunity to coach all four of his sons — Brent, 35, Caleb, 35, Jess, 34, and Matthew, 20. Caleb worked as his defensive coordinator, and the father and son coached a weightlifting team that included Matthew to a state championship three years ago.
With all that now in his rearview mirror, Vohun, along with his wife of 21 years, Debbie, and a few of his sons, is returning to Hernando County for his Hall of Fame induction.
Some of his family still lives in the area, and he said he tries to pay a visit every other year or so. This trip, though, certainly has a little extra meaning.
“It’s something you’ve got to cherish, because it doesn’t happen every day to everybody,” Vohun said. “It’s exciting to think about the things you’ve done years and years ago being recognized now.”
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