Frank Farwell - Meritorious Service

Those were the days. Those were the times that Frank Farwell looks back on fondly as the years that helped shape his life as a football player at Glendale College in 1982-83 and as an assistant coach from1994-2009. All those home games for the Vaqueros that were actually short road trips to Glendale High, where so many memories of playing and coaching for Glendale are still so vivid for him.

There is nothing more important to Frank Farwell than family. His own, the people he works with and manages at Southern California Edison and those that that have come and gone in an over 30-year relationship with Glendale College.

He considers himself dedicated to all three, tireless in his love and devotion as a family man, employee manager and former football player, coach and supporter of Glendale College Athletics.

In the matter of Glendale College, Farwell has not coached since 2009 but has continued to support all sports at GCC through his own donations that are matched by SCE which he has done since 1994, the first year he came back to coach the defensive backs. He smiles when asked why he still gives back but it’s obvious his commitment to helping support GCC Athletics is as strong as it ever was.

“I give back because of what Glendale College has meant to my family, where my wife Tami was a cheerleader, where my sons Torey and Tanner were ball boys and Tanner was a player and coach. I still give back because I know the financial support helps all sports in a much-needed way’’ Farwell said. “I’m still in shock about going in the Athletic Hall of Fame. I have been to many ceremonies and watched people being honored and I still can’t see myself standing up there that way. But I’m very humbled to be honored.’’

It is football season again, the best time of year for the Farwell family but something and someone is missing. The heart and loving soul of the family, the wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt, grandmother and best friend to many, Frank’s wife Tami, passed away in July after a valiant 18-month battle with cancer. The family named the battle Tami Tough, where the Farwells dug in together against all odds, much like how an offensive lineman battles a defender in matters of protection.

In August, hundreds of people gathered to celebrate Tami’s life, alternately smiling and crying and shaking their heads at the thought that someone so vital could be taken so young at just 49. But what is left is like the worn projector remote in Frank’s office, a reminder of coaching with men he revered like Jim Sartoris and John Cicuto, a reminder that you can rewind your memories and think about what has been beautiful in your life and go forward because that is what Tami would have wanted.

She should be at the HOF because the Farwells earned this meritorious honor together. Giving back can now give way to paying it forward and living life in her honor, just the way it should be.