A Cougar fan at the core

By Dave Fawcett

Published: May 19, 2008

Frankie Dingus was easy to spot at Manassas Park. 

If he wasn’t humming along on the orange Kubota tractor he used to maintain the school system’s athletic fields, he could be found either leaning against his truck out beyond the left field fence, watching the varsity softball team play a game, or in a coach’s classroom, talking about Manassas Park athletics or sports in general.

At some point in his 53 years, Frankie became a fixture here at this Group A school and not just because he was the guy who mowed the grass or painted the football field before a game. 

Frankie was the Cougars’ biggest sports fan, a fun-loving, mild-mannered homebody who earned the title “Mr. Manassas Park.” Where his beloved Cougars went, he went, even if it meant taking a three and a half hour bus ride to see the boys basketball team play in a regional basketball game like he did in February.

It was that love for Manassas Park athletics that makes his absence now so noticeable for so many who remember what Frankie meant to this tight-knit community tucked away from the hustle and bustle of Northern Virginia.

Frankie died just over two months ago of an apparent heart attack, but he left behind a void that is unmistakable. Even now, people still find themselves looking for Frankie in one of his familiar spots, only to catch themselves and realize he’s not there anymore.

“He viewed this as his home,” said former Manassas Park High School head football coach Jeff Lloyd. “He genuinely cared about this place. It was not just a job to him. It was more than that.”

For the most part, Frankie had always been around here. Although born in southwest Virginia, he moved to the Manassas area when he was a young boy and grew up in a family with six other siblings.

Frankie eventually graduated from Stonewall Jackson High School and became a part of the local scene. Everyone knew Frankie.

Like his mother Alice, who worked for many years as a custodian for the Manassas Park schools, Frankie liked to talk, laugh and enjoy life.

He was the type of guy who made you feel welcome, especially if you were new to the area. Gerry Campbell received that treatment when he moved to Prince William County in 1983.
One of the first people he met was Frankie. It was through softball. The two played on the same team and quickly became best friends.

It was through Campbell that Frankie learned of an opening within the Manassas Park school system. In 2002, Manassas Park needed a full-time groundskeeper. When Campbell heard that, he suggested to Jim Rowe, the school system’s maintenance coordinator, that he give Frankie a shot.

The request made sense.

Rowe, who has lived in Manassas Park since 1972, had known Frankie since Frankie’s playing days in the Manassas Park/Yorkshire Little League.

“He worked on weekends, whatever it took, to make sure those kids could play on the fields,” Rowe said.

The Manassas Park athletic complex has become the crown jewel of the Bull Run District and the envy of many other high schools who are taken aback when they see the impressive layout for such a small school.

There are eight fields, two for baseball, two for softball and four total for football and soccer. All of them have a clean, tidy look, something Frankie took pride in.
Of course, Frankie maintained more than just the fields. He was on critter patrol as well.

Last summer, he removed a copperhead snake that had been lying under a old practice net near the baseball field.

He also helped Manassas Park athletic director Mike Peters out of a jam after Peters and his new cross country coach drove over a beehive.

Both Peters and the coach flew off the vehicle they were in and took off running before Peters called Frankie.

Frankie arrived and calmly took care of the problem.

Then in March, Peters discovered a slew of goose droppings all over the football field. Unsure of how to remove it, Peters turned again to Frankie for help.

Frankie took the drag from the baseball and softball fields, put it behind the tractor and let it break down the components. That same night, it rained.
And the next day, everything had washed away.

“I would have never thought of that,” Peters said.

If Frankie had one other source of pride besides Manassas Park athletics, it was his 26-year-old son Kevin.

Campbell recalled one rainy Friday night when he and Frankie were driving up to Musselman High School in West Virginia to see Kevin play high school football. Despite the conditions, they pulled up just in time to see Kevin run for a touchdown.

“We were soaked, but he was so tickled to see him play,” Campbell said.

Kevin was the one who found his dad.

The two lived in the same apartment complex in Leesburg with Frankie living one floor right above his son.

It was spring break for both of them and Kevin initially paid little attention when he saw his dad’s truck parked in the same spot each day. He figured with the time off and schedules more
flexible the two might not see much of each other.

But on March 21, Kevin heard a fire alarm go off in his dad’s apartment around 1:30 in the morning.

After getting the landlord to open the door to his dad’s apartment, Kevin went inside and called out for his father, but there was no response. Kevin then walked into his dad’s bedroom and saw his dad leaning on his side in the bed. Frankie had been dead for almost a week.

“I will see him again in heaven and I will focus on the good memories, but it was hard to see something like that,” Kevin said.

The day of the funeral, people honored Frankie in a number of special ways. Kevin placed a highlight film of his playing days at Musselman in his dad’s casket, along with a miniature Tony
Stewart racing car.

Manassas Park’s softball team, meanwhile, had a home game that same day against Dominion. Usually, the Cougars chanted 1-2-3 Cougars before a game, but on this day, they chanted 1-2-3 Frankie.

The team also attached the number No. 44 to their wristbands. Forty-four was Frankie’s favorite number in honor of Reggie Jackson.

“He was a true Cougar fan,” Campbell said. “He’d fight you if you said anything bad about Manassas Park.”

He was first in line to get his Manassas Park baseball cap and shirt from Lloyd for the upcoming season.

While working the chains at Cougar home football games, he was also the guy who had to be reminded to keep his opinions to himself by the officials when he disagreed with a call,

But nothing made Frankie smile more than a compliment about the fields.

“Just to hear it, he loved it when people said the fields looked like new,” Campbell said. “It meant a lot to him.”

On one level, it would be easy to overlook the number of little things Frankie did.

It wasn’t glamourous or high-profile. It was day to day stuff.

But to Frankie, it was part of something more, part of giving back to a community that meant so much to him.

It didn’t matter what the task was, Frankie was always willing to chip in, whether he had to or not.

Rowe remembered how anytime there was an impending snow storm on the way, Frankie would stay at school and sleep there instead of going home so he could be ready first thing in the
morning to assist in the snow removal.

How could he do otherwise? This was his school and duty called. Only one thing was expected.

“He was here,” Rowe said.

David Fawcett is the sports editor of the Potomac News & Manassas Journal Messenger. Reach him at (703) 878-8052 or at .