Valley grad B.J. Flenory inducted into New Hampshire's Diversity Hall of Fame

Baron “B.B.” Flenory’s namesake is following his father’s legacy.

But in a different sort of way.

B.B. Flenory, the former Duquesne University basketball star whose life experiences continue to amaze, is himself amazed at the path his son, Baron “B.J.” Flenory, a former University of New Hampshire football star, has taken.

“He prepared for life after football. That’s why I’m so proud of him,” B.B., the father, said of B.J., his son, both of whom are Valley High School alums.

B.J. Flenory, founder of the innovative offseason training platform known as Pylon 7on7 Football, returned to New Hampshire in September as part of the latest group of inductees to the UNH Diversity Hall of Fame.

The 2005 New Hampshire graduate, who earned FCS All-America honors as a defensive back for the Wildcats, was cited by the university as a “Black Pioneer.”

“I do feel good about it, but I’m not too much interested in talking much about it,” B.J. said. “My dad is very proud, and it is newsworthy. Yes, we’ve accomplished a lot.”

B.J., though, chooses to remain close to his Alle-Kiski Valley lunch pail values.

In a 2017 TribLive report detailing his induction into the A-K Valley Hall of Fame, B.J. said: “Growing up in the Alle-Kiski Valley was awesome because everybody in the community fights and works hard for everything they have.

“It’s blue-collar, and it’s gritty. You had to be hard-nosed at life to be successful.”

Flenory remains humble knowing that rule-of-thumb applies to the present day, he said.

“Looking at the other (UNH Diversity Hall of Fame) panelists in it before now … to realize some of the people that have gone to the University of New Hampshire and are minorities and doing things that’s maybe not famous but have made them super successful is gratifying to say the least,” B.J. said.

One such “pioneer” is Pittsburgh native John Laymon, who earned degrees in 1973 from New Hampshire and in 1978 from Pitt.

Laymon, like B.J. Flenory after him, is an entrepreneur who founded Pittsburgh-based JRL Enterprises in 1987. The company has specialized in building and reconditioning transit vehicles, such as subways, trolleys and “people movers” in airports.

Dallas-based Pylon 7on7 Football, for which B.J. Flenory serves as CEO, employs two others — managing partners Erika Jackson, the company’s chief operating officer, and Joshua Borne, a business developer.

B.J. founded the company in 2006 and began pairing individual skill-position players on teams from various states. The platform steadily has been expanding, growing to more than 2,000 teams from around the U.S., as well as Canada, Mexico and Germany.

“If you know my son, he doesn’t do anything that’s not top shelf,” said B.B. Flenory, a member of the Duquesne Athletics Hall of Fame who went on to become the final cut among rookies in the Boston Celtics’ 1980 training camp.

“He doesn’t do anything half-heartedly, even when we go to dinner. I want to go to McDonald’s, and he wants to go to the best restaurant in the city.”

Incidentally, one rookie who managed to make the cut at that Celtics training camp nearly 45 years ago was a fellow by the name of Larry Bird.

So many stories, so much inspiration swirled in B.J. Flenory’s mind while he was growing up.

And today, he’s head of a company that has hosted six of the past 10 Heisman Trophy winners, while the 2024 NFL Draft saw 12 of 17 Pylon 7on7 Football skill-position alums drafted in the first round.

“The reason I had the ‘ah-ha moment’ to start the company is funny,” B.J. Flenory said. “I was all-state in high school (at Valley), and I was being recruited by a number of D-I schools — Pitt, North Carolina, Ohio State, Penn State, Akron … — and I ran a bad 40-(yard dash). That was when I noticed the interest wasn’t there anymore from those schools. I was incensed because I felt I was better than a lot of the other guys.”

But B.J. Flenory, 42, insisted he has grown up, so to speak.

“When I look back at it, it makes total sense to me,” he said. “I understand the God-given abilities can trump the skills, but it doesn’t always work out at the major-college level. Sometimes, guys are just bigger, stronger and faster.”

B.J. Flenory — who, like his father, is a member of the Alle-Kiski Valley Hall of Fame — took his passion from the football field after a decorated career at FCS member New Hampshire, where he earned All-America honors as a safety, and channeled it into an entrepreneurship that has flourished in time.

“It’s been a culmination of a lot of hard work,” he said. “If you wake up every day and do what you’re supposed to do, accolades and things you’re recognized for eventually will come.

“I appreciate the people who’ve given me that perspective.”

Come to think of it, his dad, the inimitable B.B. Flenory, just might be at the top of the list.