IUP Athletic Hall of Fame
The above hometowns past and present indicated for this 1935 Indiana State Teachers College graduate eclipse an odyssey that has been one of accomplishment and reward, both for the man himself and for everyone with whom he has been associated.
For initial achievements that bring Michael Gendich into the realm of the IUP Athletic Hall of Fame's inaugural class, the timing goes back 60 years, when the football running back established a reputation that would be recalled in 1960 when sportswriters selected an all-time Indian grid team.
His senior season (1934) saw what was then Indiana State Teachers College post an undefeated, six-win season in which the Indians scored 128 points and gave up only 17. Coach George Miller's team remains IUP's only undefeated and untied team in history. Gendich also played basketball and competed in track.
After teaching chemistry, physics, biology and geography and coaching  for five years at Moon High School in Pittsburgh's west suburbs (he was its first football  coach), Gendich moved to Detroit in 1940 to become a tool designer/ engineer and, ultimately, a highly successful industrialist.
Vice President and general manager for Ryan Industries in Detroit for 16 years ( 1940-55), he became president and general  manager of Manor Industries in 1956. He received the IUP Alumni Citation in 1959.
He has  also  been director of Detroit's  Economic Development Corporation, which promotes new industry in the city and contributes to that area's public library system, zoos, museums, churches, Boys Club activities and sports leagues. He donates all vegetables grown on a Northern Michigan farm to the needy.
In his philanthropic interests, Gendich has been similarly mindful of his alma mater, establishing, for example, an endowed scholarship for IUP student-athletes.
Well before the university began to engage in organized fund raising as it is now known, Gendich spontaneously forwarded its most substantial unrestricted gifts. He later sponsored a matching gift program that challenged IUP alumni to make first-time gifts of at least $100 or to increase their gifts by $100.
The Gendichs, Michael and Mary, are the parents of two sons (Michael III and David) and a daughter, Judith.
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