Dixie State Hall of Famer Sark Arslanian remembered fondly by many
By the time Sark Arslanian returned to St. George many years after taking the Weber State football coaching job in 1965, he was a well-traveled man.
Football coaching stops at Colorado State, the Canadian Football League, Italy, Japan and Pine View High followed his World War II service, his impactful time at Dixie State College and his eight years as WSU's coach.
Arslanian died Sunday at the age of 92 and leaves behind a unique legacy in St. George and the dozens of places he lived and coached throughout the years.
He graduated from Dixie State College in 1949, where he played football, basketball, ran track and served as student body president.
In 1955, he returned to DSC to become the school's athletic director and head coach in football, track and baseball.
Throughout the many places Arslanian has lived and coached at, he's remembered fondly.
"He was the ultimate people person, which certainly benefited him as a football coach but especially as a human being," said Phil Tuckett, assistant professor of communication at Dixie State.
Tuckett played football for Arslanian at Dixie State College in 1964, then he went up to Weber State and played from 1966-67 while Arslanian was the Wildcats' head coach.
"With the greatest coaches in the history of college football, if they came recruiting to your house, they wouldn’t have made you more special than Sark did recruiting to a junior college in the desert," Tuckett said.
More recently, Tuckett and Arslanian lived five doors apart in St. George and were LDS home teaching companions. Tuckett says Arslanian had a knack of making anybody feel better about themselves no matter who or what it was.
"I can't remember ever being with him when I didn’t walk away feeling better about myself and the situation and things I was doing," Tuckett said. "He cared enough about other people that he wasn’t stingy with his love and consideration. He just radiated it. To me, that’s why today hundreds and hundreds of his former players have similar fond feelings of him as I do."
After Arslanian's numerous coaching stops, he took over the reigns at Pine View in 1998. There, he brought in a defensive coordinator named Ray Hosner, who's now been the Panthers head coach for 16 years.
Hosner says there were initially around 20 kids on the football team, so he and Arslanian went door-to-door to get kids to come out and play football.
Arslanian stepped down as the head coach of the program in 2000, but he never fully stepped away from the program.
At least once a year, Arslanian came and spoke to PV football team, including this November when he spoke to the team the week of the state championship game.
Hosner said that the wins and losses weren't as important to Arslanian. It was about the journey, and he wanted to make football fun again.
"It was pretty cool to watch, because I think Pine View had won a few games in the last two years before he got there and immediately changed the culture," Hosner said.
Tributes for Arslanian have poured in since his death on Sunday.
Dr. Jon Poole, a professor in the Department of Health and Human Performance at Radford University in Virginia, wrote to The Spectrum about Arslanian during his time at Colorado State.
"He was an amazing man who truly changed my life when he plucked me out a large group of aspiring placekickers to play for Colorado State in 1980. It is clear that he was dearly loved by many and his impact on many generations will not be forgotten," Poole wrote.
For many people, a part of their legacy can come from the success of their children.
"These Arslanian sons are a real credit to their parents. This speaks volumes about Sark and his role as a dad as well as a coach," Steven D. Bennion wrote in an email message to The Spectrum.
Arslanian had six children: three sons and three daughters. Two of the sons, Dave and Paul, coached in football. Dave was the head coach at Weber State for several years, where his 53-47 all-time record broke Sark's career wins record (50-26-1) there.
Paul was a defensive coordinator for the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League and coached in the 2004 Grey Cup. He also coached at San Jose State, Utah State and Northern Arizona.
Sark Arslanian was inducted into the Dixie State Hall of Fame in 1999 and the inaugural Dixie State Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2007.
Funeral arrangements for Arslanian will be announced in the coming days.
Connect with reporter Patrick Carr on Twitter @PatrickCarr_ and on Facebook at Facebook.com/PatrickJosephCarr1/ or call him at (435) 231-3834.