When the phone rang and the caller said it was Alden High School, Frank Bundy figured someone wanted him to coach again. Instead, it was Athletic Director Jeff Hart telling him he’d been chosen for the Alden High School Athletic Wall of Fame. Bundy says he was so stunned he clammed up, and later called Mr. Hart back to apologize. “It’s a wonderful, wonderful honor for me,” he said.
Bundy, Class of 1977, was inducted on Oct. 16. WACS reporter Aleks Chwesik interviewed him in the dugout at Alden’s baseball field for his tribute video.
Bundy had moved to Alden from Tonawanda only a few months before he was called up to the varsity team as a freshman in 1973. He didn’t know anyone, and he didn’t realize what a big deal it was. He’d learned to pitch in his own backyard. As a kid, all his friends were a year older, and when they started playing ball he was too young to join, so his father taught him to pitch.
That arm carried Alden in the spring of 1976: a no-hitter in sectionals, then complete games on a Friday, a Monday and a Wednesday. “I wanted to be on the mound and try to win this championship,” he said. The Bulldogs beat Eden for the title at Hyde Park in Niagara Falls, and Bundy remembers his teammates carrying him off the field on their shoulders.
Over four varsity seasons, Bundy was a two-time first-team all-league pick, won three division titles and finished with 23 wins and a career ERA of 0.92. He says he didn’t know those numbers until he saw them on the gym wall. His best pitch was the slider.
He went on to captain the team at Niagara County Community College, where he led the team in wins in 1978, and later coached at Erie Community College. One of his ECC pitchers, Shawn Dubin, went on to pitch for the Houston Astros.
Asked who he’d like to recognize, Bundy didn’t hesitate: his father, who taught him to pitch and made him love it. His advice to Alden’s current players is simple: come to practice every day with one thing you want to get better at, and get better at it.
Video by Aleks Chwesik, WACS. Watch all four 2026 tribute videos and the full induction ceremony at youtube.com/@WACSNetwork.
