Indiana, PA –– Frank Cignetti Sr., who won 182 games as IUP football coach and served for more than a decade as the university's director of athletics, died Saturday morning in the Pittsburgh area after an extended illness. He was 84.
 
Cignetti, a 1960 graduate of IUP, came back to the university in 1982 as athletics director and then became the head football coach in 1986. In his 20 seasons leading IUP, he took the football program to the national stage, with 13 NCAA Division II playoff berths, 14 PSAC West Division titles, and two trips to the national championship game––in 1990 and 1993.
 
"Coach Cignetti meant so much to IUP, and I know IUP meant so much to Coach Cignetti," said IUP President Michael Driscoll. "He always strove to help the university any way he could and served as an outstanding ambassador for IUP and its student-athletes. The number of lives he impacted is too great to count, but it's easy to be seen by those who played for him, coached with him, or worked alongside him.
 
"We offer the Cignetti family our condolences and sincere gratitude for the way they all have always stayed close to IUP."
 
A native of Washington Township, Westmoreland County, Cignetti was born October 8, 1937.
He was a star in basketball and football at Indiana State Teachers College, and after earning his degree in biology he became a teacher and football coach at Leechburg High School. After two successful seasons there, he caught the attention of the University of Pittsburgh, and he joined the program as an assistant.
 
In 1969, he became an assistant coach at Princeton, and in 1970 he went to West Virginia, where he was an assistant for Bobby Bowden. In 1975, after Bowden left for Florida State, Cignetti was elevated to head coach. While guiding the Mountaineers for four seasons, Cignetti battled a rare form of stomach cancer that nearly took his life.
 
In 1982, he came back to IUP and began the career that would help elevate IUP's athletics department to becoming one of the best in the northeast in NCAA Division II.
 
"Frank Cignetti's impact on IUP Athletics is profound," said Todd Garzarelli, IUP's director of athletics. "He made it his goal to make IUP Athletics one of the best in the country by giving its student-athletes a first-class experience that helped set them up for life after sports. Any tribute we have ever given him doesn't match the impact he had on all IUP student-athletes, even the ones who came after his time at IUP ended."
 
Cignetti was inducted into several halls of fame, most notably the College Football Hall of Fame, in 2013. IUP named the football field in his honor that same year. It is now Frank Cignetti Field at George P. Miller Stadium.
 
Cignetti's legacy can also be seen in the numerous coaches who played or coached with him and who have gone on to successful coaching careers. That list includes his sons, Curt, who was also the head coach at IUP from 2011 to 2016 and is now at James Madison University, and Frank Jr., who played and coached for his father at IUP and is now the offensive coordinator at Pitt.
 
Funeral arrangements will be announced after they are released by the family.