Zack Czap and Joe Lumbis (A www.LycomingFootball.com file photo) |
(A www.LycomingFootball.com file photo) |
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations in Joe’s name may be made to support Cancer Research at Geisinger Health System by sending checks, made payable to GHF, to: GHF, MC 25-76, 100 N. Academy Ave., Danville, PA 17822, or memorial donations may also be made online at https://donate.geisinger.org/.
(A www.LycomingFootball.com file photo) |
Lumbis joined the athletic department in 1990 after working as a security guard on campus for a number of years. Lumbis, with his ever-present mustache and Lycoming College hat, immediately fit in. He was there as the football team made its way to Florida for the 1990 Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl, the Division III national championship. In 1997, he sowed Stagg Bowl patches onto the uniforms of the whole team during a short time period when it made a repeat appearance in Virginia.
Early in his career, he picked up another unofficial role when Chris Ditzler became the head softball coach in 1993. For the duration of her 16-year tenure, Lumbis was a reliable presence in the dugout, keeping the official scorebook for the team. He watched as the team won a Middle Atlantic Conference title in 1995 and four years later, when the softball field was built in the Northeast corner of the Shangraw Athletic Complex, it was Lumbis that took the care and time to keep the infield in top shape.
Glenn Smith and Joe Lumbis (A www.LycomingFootball.com file photo) |
For long hours, while the laundry was working its way through the washer and dryer, Lumbis would sit and read books by the handful in his offices in the Shangraw Athletic Complex and Lamade Gym. He became a self-taught expert in the Civil War.
He enjoyed Americana and beyond, creating a collection of antiques and he had an extensive collection of Aladdin oil lamps.
(A www.LycomingFootball.com file photo) |
His connection to the student-athletes was admirable. A link to an earlier era at the college, Lumbis is almost always one of the first people that former athletes asked about when they returned to the school. For his part, Lumbis enjoyed working with the young adults, unless he didn’t. He used to like to comment, “Most of the kids are fine, but if they bug me, that’s when I have to put them in their place.”
(A www.LycomingFootball.com file photo) |
The effect of Lumbis’ caring devotion to the athletic department is hard to quantify. However, within two days of his passing, the social media posts with pictures of Lumbis are already the most shared in the history of the lycoathletics Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts.
A 1970 graduate of South Williamsport Area High School, he also earned a degree from the Pennsylvania College of Technology in 1972.
Surviving are his mother, Jane, of Duboistown; his sister, Dolores (Mark) Conrad, of Cogan House; and his brother, Anthony (Bibianna) Lumbis, of Watertown, N.Y.