WPIAL Mourns Jim Collins

By: Bruce Markey
Tuesday, March 29, 2016 | 3:47 PM

Administrators, athletic directors, coaches and long time associates of the WPIAL are morning the loss of Assistant to the Executive Director Jim Collins, who unexpectedly passed away early Monday morning at the age of 74. Collins spent Easter Sunday with family before retiring to bed early because he was not feeling well. He was taken to Allegheny Valley hospital overnight where he later passed away.

WPIAL Executive Director Tim O’Malley said Collins would be impossible to replace because he did so many things for the district and did them all with great passion.

He chaired the WPIAL Hall of Fame Committee, he was in charge of the league’s corporate sponsors, he helped run various district playoffs including the recently completed wrestling postseason, he put together all of the district postseason programs and negotiated many of the WPIAL’s various contracts. He was instrumental in MSA Sports exclusive audio and video streaming contract when both the network first started as the Nauticom Sports Network in 1999 and when it re-started in 2001 under the Management Science Associates Sports Network, a relationship that has continued strong for over 15 years.

During his long administrative career that began in the late 1960’s, Collins was a coach, athletic director and principal at Deer Lakes High School and Thomas Jefferson High School before ‘retiring’ to work for the WPIAL.

Visitation is Thursday from 2:00pm to 4:00pm and from 6:00pm to 8:00pm at Duster Funeral Home, 347 East 10th Avenue in Tarentum. A funeral Mass will be on Friday morning at 10:00am at Holy Martys Catholic Church, 344 West 9th Avenue in Tarentum.

Collins is survived by his wife Doris, his two children Brian Collins and Leslie Craven and his four grandchildren.