Phil O'Hara played in just two games in the 1945-46 season, failing to score. It would be easy, perhaps, to dismiss this as a brief biography of the man. But O'Hara's story deserves a closer look.

Born in Niagara Falls, NY, O'Hara was a three sport athlete at St. Mary's High School and a prodigious student, graduating high school two years early at the age of 16. Too young for wartime duty, he enrolled at Georgetown in 1944, where he served as freshman class vice president, junior class president, and a year on the basketball team while earning a double major in pre-med and philosophy.

Following college, he served six years in the U.S. Marine Corps, where he was a combat fighter pilot in the Korean War. After the war, he flew internationally for Pan American World Airways, and then settled in Pittsburgh in 1962 to work as a regional manager for the Connecticut General Life Insurance, where Phil and his wife, Joan, raised 15 children, all of whom went to Catholic schools. Six of his eight sons served in the Marine Corps.

Upon retirement from Connecticut General in 1985, the O'Hara's moved to the Virginia Beach area, where O'Hara was a parish volunteer and an owner of thoroughbred horses for the next three decades.

"Phil was a fighter to the very end," read his obituary at the age of 89. "Although he won a few earlier battles with cancer, his most recent battle began at the end of October and ended in the hospital, unable to recover from pneumonia. On Sunday, December 31, 2017, Phil took communion for the last time and watched his Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Cleveland Browns in the final game of the season. He cheered on his team surrounded by many of his children and suited up in his Steelers jersey. It was his final request of the doctors. He passed away peacefully on January 2."

O'Hara was survived by his wife of 67 years, 15 children and their spouses, 34 grandchildren, and 17 great-grandchildren. His obituary noted that "Phil was often overheard saying that he was the most fortunate and blessed person in the entire world," and in retrospect, he might have been right.