SweetwaterNOW congratulates the Class of 2019 Rock Springs High School Hall of Fame inductees. We will feature each inductee throughout the week leading up the banquet on Saturday, September 7. Profile features are made possible by Tanner Family Dentistry.
Stan Pivic – Outstanding Athlete
Stan Pivic cannot remember a time when he wasn’t interested and competing in all sports. Little League sports, as we know it today, wasn’t available to him when he was in elementary school.
Born in Rock Springs in August of 1931 to Lawrence and Mary Pivic. He attended Lowell and Washington Elementary Schools as well as Rock Springs Jr. and Sr. High Schools. Stan graduated from Rock Springs High School in 1950.
He began his career in sports during is the 8th grade year. Stan made the 8th grade team in 1946, and played four years in high school from 1947-1950. He made the varsity team as a sophomore, and started for the Tigers as a junior and senior.
Stan was a member of the 1950 state championship team and was selected to the All-State team along with Danny Belvins, The Tigers were coached that year by Mack Peyton.
College Standout
Stan received scholarships to Casper College and later Colorado A&M in Fort Collins. He decided to attend A&M where freshmen at the time were not eligible to play varsity sports. Stan still became a starter on the freshmen team his first year in school.
Stan (left) excelled at many sports including baseball, basketball and football. 
He was a member of the 1950 state championship basketball team and was also an All-State selection that year.
He played three years of varsity basketball under tonight’s fellow Hall of Fame inductee Bill Strannigan where he was a starter all three seasons. A&M won the conference title in 1954, the first in the history of the school.
The team also made the NCAA tournament playing in Corvalis, OR. Stan was selected as captain by his teammates, and he continued to play competitive recreational basketball into his 50s.
Diamond Days
But basketball wasn’t the only sport Stan excelled in. He joined the local American Legion baseball team sponsored by the Fraternal Order of Eagles in 1946. Stan started as the team’s second baseman for three seasons and was a member of the 1947 state championship team.
That team played in the regional tournament in York, Nebraska against teams from Denver, Omaha and Albuquerque. Stan made the all-state team that year along with Wayne Johnson and Hugh Friel…that team was coached Beano Ruggura.
The next season the team fell just short of another state title losing to Cheyenne in 11 innings. Stan played for one season in the men’s league at the end of his junior year for Alex Clark.
He continued his baseball career at Colorado A&M playing three seasons of varsity baseball, mostly as a 1st baseman, and occasionally at third.
Gridiron Greatness
Keeping with his love of competition, Stan also played football in high school for four seasons, and started as the Tigers quarterback during his junior and senior year.
Stan also competed in track during his senior year at RSHS. His events included the high jump, long jump and pole vault. The Tigers won the state title during Stan’s lone season on the team, and he contributed points at the state meet in the long jump and pole vault.
Beyond The Fields of Play
Stan has a long list of accomplishments in his career including his election to the Jefferson County Schools Athletic Hall of Fame as a contributor to the overall athletic program. He was selected as the Colorado Elk of the year in 1989-90.
Stan was drafted into the army, serving from January 1955 to January 1957. During that time he was stationed in Fort Ord, California, For Lee, Virginia, and Fort Carson, Colorado.
He began his teaching career in Brush, Colorado in the fall of 1957 then later moved to Arvada, Colorado in 1959. He taught P.E., Sciences and World Geography at the junior high level. During this time he also began working on his master’s degree at Colorado State University.
Later, Stan became the assistant principal in 1964 at Drake Junior High in the same school district. It was during this time that his two children, Carolyn and David were welcomed into the family. In 1968, Stan became the principal at Drake Junior High where he remained until his retirement in 1986.
Stan married Louise Hayes in 1954, and they remained together for 47 and a half years until her passing in January 2002. In March of 2003, he married Patricia Scott Sutton, a classmate of Stan’s from the fifth grade through graduation. They currently live in Lafayette, CO enjoying their time together.
Stan and Patricia are snowbirds, spending five months a year in the Phoenix area, and seven months in Colorado. In his retirement, Stan enjoys extensive traveling around the US and abroad. He enjoys playing golf, fishing, woodworking and spending time with his three grandsons.
