Former WPIAL executive director Larry Hanley dies

By: Chris Harlan
Monday, April 14, 2025 | 11:49 AM

Larry Hanley, who served a nine-year stint as executive director of the WPIAL, died Saturday. He was 83.

Hanley was the league’s top administrator from 1997-2006 and was inducted into the WPIAL Hall of Fame in 2008. He was the league’s second full-time executive director and brought a more diplomatic approach than his predecessor.

The WPIAL announced his death Monday. No cause of death was disclosed.

Hanley was remembered for his willingness to delegate authority and entrust others in the decision-making process. He also sought to raise the prominence of WPIAL sports beyond football and basketball and aspired to make the league’s board more representative, said Pam Cherubin, a longtime WPIAL board member.

“One of the most important things Larry did was he brought women to the forefront,” said Cherubin, who first joined the WPIAL board in 1998 as a representative for game officials.

“When I got on the board of control, women didn’t have a vote on the board,” Cherubin said. “There was a girls athletics rep, but she was there for information only. … Larry wanted people represented on all counts. That says a lot about him.”

Hanley, of Trafford, served the WPIAL in various roles before becoming executive director, including 16 years as a board member. He was the WPIAL president for six years and previously vice president for six.

The board appointed him as executive director in 1997, giving him the tough task of replacing Charles “Ace” Heberling, who’d successfully built the WPIAL into a prominent league. While Heberling was sometimes said to run the WPIAL with an iron fist, Hanley took a different approach to his tenure.

“With Ace, there was one way — Ace’s way — and absolutely, Larry was much more diplomatic,” said Tim O’Malley, who succeeded Hanley as WPIAL executive director from 2006-20.

When Hanley was running the WPIAL, O’Malley worked closely with him as the board president.

“He was a good man,” O’Malley said. “He was a good father and a good husband.”

Hanley and his wife, Jane, who died in 2019, were married for 54 years. He’s survived by daughters Deanne Bauer and Janene Clark. A son, Brian, died in January.

Hanley resigned as executive director shortly after Brian was hit and seriously injured while riding a bicycle in February 2006. Brian sustained a traumatic brain injury and was confined to a wheelchair after the collision, which happened a day before the WPIAL basketball pairings meeting that winter.

O’Malley said he received a call from Hanley that day saying he couldn’t attend the meeting and was headed to North Carolina to take care of Brian. O’Malley praised Hanley’s commitment to his family.

“His willingness to do what he needed to do and take care of Brian was something people don’t always do — and Larry did,” O’Malley said. “You commend him for that. … When you talk about Larry Hanley, you talk about someone who was a good person.”

Lawrence Philip Hanley was born Aug. 17, 1941.

A 1959 graduate of Crafton High School, Hanley earned college degrees at IUP and Duquesne. He worked 33 years in the Gateway School District, where he started as a junior high social studies teacher. He later became assistant principal and athletic director in 1973.

Hanley served stints as an assistant baseball and football coach at Gateway. As athletic director, he was credited with helping to add boys and girls soccer, boys and girls volleyball and girls track and cross country to the school.

Gateway inducted Hanley into its sports hall of fame in 2001.

In a statement, the WPIAL said: “Hanley is remembered for his tireless efforts to improve interscholastic athletics for all student-athletes in Western Pennsylvania.”

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: Gateway