Frank Ori Jr.: friend, voice of Eagles

This archived article was written by: Scott Madsen

Frank Ori Jr., a former assistant coach for the USU Eastern baseball team, adjunct instructor and alumni, suffered a stroke at age 43 in December. He is recovering at Utah Valley University.
Ori was part of the USU Eastern baseball program for over 15 years.
He was also the voice of the Eagles athletics games on the radio for many years.  Even though he no longer is able to be involved as much as he would like to, he still makes an appearance whenever possible. 
He is known to many as Coach Frankie, PHAT Frank, Frank the Tank or Boss.  It didn’t really matter what you called him as long as you knew him as a friend. 
Ori has long been a smiling face for the USU Eastern Athletic community. His presence is felt by the players and parents that have been involved with the program and those players or parents that have never had the pleasure of meeting him. 
He is one of the most compassionate and understanding people around.  His attempts to make people laugh are still spoken of today. 
For instance, if you were ever in on one of his infamous professional field-goal-kicker pranks, or even him telling you about his days in the MLB, you know exactly what type of person he is.  Of course, if you were ever part of these pranks, you were then considered a best friend forever.  One of Ori’s favorite things to do is sit and talk about the old days around the ball field. 
On the baseball field, Ori helped hit fungo, throw batting practice, and was involved in with every aspect of the game.  He also has helped call pitches during the games, which most of the credit was given to the PlayStation for his success. 
He liked to keep the game as light as possible, that is until he disliked a call that was made, at which time he went behind someone else and began to express his disagreement.
Those that worked with him at Carbon County Recreation know that he would do anything he could to help them, even if that meant covering your shift for the night or just having you come help in order to get some hours for community service.  Ori always treats his employees with respect, and that is why everyone loves working with him.
Both Frank and his wife are alumni of College of Eastern Utah and he served as sports editor of The Eagle newspaper while a student.
“We are asking anyone who knows Frank to make a quick video with a message about the old days for him to see.  He is recovering in the hospital, and we want to show him how much we support him in his recovery,” Madsen said. You can send the message to [email protected] and Madsen will get it to him.
Thanks for your support for Frank and his family.  His niece Tanner Ori has also started a GoFundMe page where you may help financially. The page is located at https://www.gofundme.com/4t3yc4w.
A Bread ‘n’ Soup night is hosted by USU Eastern on Monday, Feb. 5 from 5-7:30 p.m. with all proceeds going to the Ori family. A silent auction and bake sale are part of the evening fund raiser.