2015 Dedication

Charles W. Dunaway

Charles W. Dunaway was the living personification of a Pioneer at Butler County Community College (BC3). Dunaway not only started the athletic program at BC3, but also coached all of the teams in the first few seasons. When he was hired in the fall of 1967 to teach health science classes and run intramural programs, there were no plans to start intercollegiate athletics at BC3. Regardless, it didn’t take long for an interest in athletics to develop. The seed of intercollegiate athletics was planted at the Liberty School Gymnasium in Freedom, Pennsylvania on February 15, 1968. It was there that a team of handpicked intramural basketball players from BC3 played in the inaugural intercollegiate game against a team from the Community College of Beaver County. Golf and cross country competition soon followed and Pioneer athletics became official a few years later when Dunaway was formally named as the Athletic Director at the College. Dunaway presided over the program for 32 years starting and coaching many of the athletic teams including men’s basketball, golf, cross country, tennis, and baseball. Dunaway won conference Coach of the Year for golf in 1973, 1974 and 1987, and in tennis in 1978 and 1987-1989. Although he retired in 1999, Dunaway returned for a second stint in coaching as the co-coach of the golf team beginning in 2004.

Dunaway was not only a Pioneer at BC3, but also in the state of Pennsylvania. He helped found the Skyline Athletic Conference and the Pennsylvania Collegiate Athletic Association. These organizations brought structure to community college sports and provided guidance for emerging athletic programs in the state of Pennsylvania. As an active member in both organizations, Dunaway held many positions including his selection as the first president of the fledgling Skyline Athletic Conference.

A standout athlete at Connellsville High School, Dunaway played basketball, football, and tennis before moving on to Slippery Rock University. While at Slippery Rock, he was a three-year letter winner in football and four-year award winner and captain of The Rock tennis team. Dunaway was a 2000 inductee into the Slippery Rock Hall of Fame, 2001 inductee into the Butler Area Sports Hall of Fame, and a 2008 inductee into the National Junior College Athletic Association Region XX Hall of Fame. Not just an athlete, Chuck was also an accomplished faculty member who earned recognition for his academic contributions to BC3.

The Charles W. Dunaway Pioneer Hall of Fame is not only named after, but also dedicated to the pioneering spirit Chuck Dunaway contributed to the athletic program in his nearly 50 years of service to Butler County Community College.