Larry Napora

This is the fourth in a series of articles profiling the 2012 inductees into the Butler County Sports Hall of Fame. The Hall’s annual banquet is at 6:30 p.m. April 28 at the Butler Days Inn.STOW, Ohio — When his collegiate swimming career ended, Larry Napora was ready for it.“I put in 16 years and I was a distance swimmer,” he said. “When you’re a cross country runner, you run and run and run and run.“When you’re a distance swimmer, you swim and swim and swim and swim. Most of my vacation time in high school and college was spent in a swimming pool.“I was ready for those years to end. I got a little burned out. All I did was a little recreational swimming after that and that was it,” Napora added.But Napora left enough success behind to gain induction into the Butler County Sports Hall of Fame later this month.A 1978 Butler graduate, he lettered three years in swimming and swam a leg of the Golden Tornado’s 400-yard free relay team that earned all-state honors and set the school record.Napora swam the 200, 500 and 1,000-yard freestyle in high school.“My brother David and I learned how to swim at age 6 through (John) “Pump” McLaughlin at the Butler YMCA,” Napora said. “He wound up teaching my kids to swim as well.“Pump was a caring guy. You always felt comfortable around him. He’d make you feel good about your swimming, but he had a strong, strict side to him, too.”The late McLaughlin was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1984.While at Butler, Napora also won the John Mixer “Tiger” award for swimming. That honor went to the Tornado swimmer who was most dedicated and hardest working.“Believe me, I was very proud of that award. I still have it,” Napora said.He went on to Westminster College where he became a two-year NAIA All-American while again swimming distance events. He lettered four years and swam a leg of the 800-yard freestyle relay that set a school record.“When it comes to setting high school and college records ... The word is priceless,” Napora said. “Swimming, like any other sport, it makes you feel good about yourself.“You set and achieve goals. Breaking records were some of those goals for me.”While at Westminster, Napora served as the Towering Titan mascot at football games. When the Titans scored a touchdown, he rode around the field on a horse.At the first game one year, Napora was given a two-year-old horse to ride. That horse had never been in front of a crowd and got spooked when he heard a cow-bell ring from the stands after Westminster’s first touchdown.“The horse ran out to the 40-yard line, in the middle of the field and stopped,” Napora said, laughing. “I couldn’t get him to move. My father walked out on to the field to get him.”Now 52, Napora is the director of golf at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio. His kids grew up in South Butler and he was an assistant basketball and soccer coach for them.His son, Adam, is now 24. His daughter, Keriann, is 21 and a senior at Slippery Rock University, where she participated in The Rock’s nationally-ranked competitive cheerleading program.“I was always an assistant coach for their teams because I was never sure I’d have the time to be head coach,” Napora said. “As it turned out, I was always there regardless.”

Tickets for the Hall of Fame dinner are $20 and are available at Parker Appliances in Chicora, Moses Jewelers at the Clearview Mall, Bill’s Beer Barn or Snack n’ Pack in Butler, Maddalon’s Jewelers in Zelienople, Saxonburg Drug or at www.bcshof.com.