Vince Julian, a longtime area football, softball and baseball umpire, is being honored with the Curbstone Coaches Hall of Fame’s Special Award this spring, the lone special-award recipient in this year’s induction class.
Born December 10, 1949, Julian is a 1968 graduate of Ursuline High School, where he was a three-year letterwinner for the Fighting Irish under head coach Tom Carey. A two-way player, he starred as a running back on offense and a hard-hitting cornerback on defense, earning all-City Series first-team honors as a senior and honorable mention as a junior.
His senior season in 1967 was the most memorable, as Ursuline reeled off a nine-game win streak spanning two seasons and finished 6-1 in the City Series, with the team’s only blemish a season-ending 8-8 tie. Over his 28 career varsity games, the Fighting Irish went 20-7-1 with nine shutouts.
After graduation, Julian played for legendary Youngstown State coach Dwight “Dike” Beede as a freshman and sophomore before joining the U.S. Air Force, where he played two years of service football while stationed at Chicksands Air Force Base in England, earning an honorable discharge in 1976 as a Senior Airman.
Upon returning home, Julian became one of the area’s most respected officials, a career now in its sixth decade. Encouraged by local grid arbiter Joe Meranto and mentored by the late Fred Vicarel, a Curbstone Coaches Hall of Fame Class of 1995 inductee, Julian will work his 48th season as a football official this fall, having been selected for 20 career playoff assignments. He is also in his 26th year as a softball umpire and his eighth year umpiring baseball.
Professionally, Julian worked 13 years for Santisi’s Produce and 26 years at Wheatland Tube. He and his wife, the former Jean Giampietro, will celebrate their 38th wedding anniversary on November 13 and reside in Youngstown. He is the father of nine children: Vince, Carmen, Scott (deceased), John, Anne, Joey, Tricia, and twins Tom and Celeste.
