BUTLER TWP — Linemen and Mark Farabee were inseparable at Butler High School for years.

They made for an effective combination, too.

Farabee coached more than 10 linemen who went on to attain major college scholarships and used some of their skills to help the Golden Tornado win WPIAL track and field championships.

Farabee's success as a football and track coach is landing him into the Butler Area School District Athletic Hall of Fame. He will join fellow inductees Shawn Bellis, Lyneil Mitchell, Annie Lowry, Mark Maier and Troy Mohney at an induction ceremony at 5 p.m. Sept. 5 in the high school cafeteria.

The inductees will also be honored on the field prior to the Golden Tornado's home football opener against Baldwin that night.

Farabee becomes the fifth male coach to gain induction, joining Art Bernardi, Paul Uram, Steve Heasley and Dave Barnes.

“I'm very honored and a little bit shocked,” Farabee said. “The bulk of my career was spent here as an assistant football coach.

“Moving up through the ranks there and in track ... I've worked with a lot of great people.”

Farabee has been a health and physical education teacher at Butler for 38 years. He was head football coach for six years, assistant coach for more than 25 years.

He served as head boys track coach for more than 10 years and coached WPIAL boys track team championship squads in 1989 and 1990.

“Those were fun times,” Farabee said. “Track is considered an individual sport, but we got the kids to buy into the team concept. We've been a successful program that way for years.”

Hall of Fame member Jeff McAnallen, who nominated Farabee for induction, described him as “being like a second father.”

“I was around him all year,” McAnallen, a former offensive lineman and Tornado head coach, said. “Mark coached the offensive linemen throughout football season, ran the weight room during the off-season and coached us in the throws during track season.”

McAnallen went on to a stellar football career at Tulsa. Among other eventual Division I collegiate linemen Farabee coached were Ross McDonald (Connecticut), Brian Posey (Cincinnati), Brian and Jason Minehart (Pitt), Bill McElroy (West Virginia) and Sam Cliquinoi (Minnesota).

“We groomed our linemen,” Farabee said. “We had an assembly line of guys going there for a while. I always made sure an older lineman would be paired up with a younger one to help him out, bring him along.

“We relied on our linemen. They were our bread and butter for a long time.”

When Farabee was head coach and the run of sizable Tornado offensive linemen was coming to an end, he put in a version of the spread, a new fangled high school offense that was a few years ahead of its time.

“(Offensive coordinator) Bill Tack sold me on it,” Farabee said. “It was a way to move the ball without large linemen. (Quarterbacks) Eric Christy and Justin Papania thrived on it.”

While only one of Farabee's six football teams reached the WPIAL playoffs, he had a few near misses.

“If they took four teams out of the section then like they do now, we'd have been there,” he said. “We came up one win short there for a while.”

Farabee has served as a member of the WPIAL track committee for more than 20 years and remains on that committee today. He coached one PIAA champion in track and field — Allison Sams in the shot put — but guided numerous athletes to the WPIAL and PIAA meets.

“There was a time we'd take nine kids or so to the WPIAL championships,” he recalled. “That evolved into taking two vans and a school bus full of people.”

Farabee's favorite part of coaching was developing relationships with the athletes.

“The linemen and myself developed friendships that last into this day,” she said. “Jeff McAnallen and I just went fishing together the other day.

“We always encouraged graduated players to come back and tell the younger kids what they know now that they wished they had known then. I saw a lot of loyalty that way.”