Football Time!
Covered the first game last night of what one hopes will be a long - and successful - era at McCaskey for new football coach David Given.
As a proud J.P. alum [Class of ‘69. See everybody at the reunion on Oct. 24!] It would’ve been nice if the Red Tornado had won, but hey, you can’t have everything.
Besides, going back a generation or two, McCaskey coaches winning their debuts isn’t exactly commonplace.
Forty years ago this month, after a summer of barely contained anticipation, Jack Cassebaum’s first team walked quietly, a closed-ranked football phalanx packed shoulder-to-shoulder, into the quaint depression-era cage that was Coatesville’s former home field.
And left, bloodied, 55-0.
In fact, McCaskey’s highly-touted, and new-fangled, Run-&-Shoot offense wouldn’t find the endzone until the end of the month as the Tornado followed with losses to Steel-Hi (63-0) and John Harris (81-0).
That’s right. Despite recent revisionist history, McCaskey didn’t go back-to-back with the infamous 80-0 & 81-0 losses to Harris. There was a 40-0 loss [in ‘68] in the middle there.
Not that that matters. Just sayin’.
And, by the way, the 55-0 loss to Coatesville was significant, at least momentarily, because over the previous two seasons, 1967 & 68, Coatesville was the only team McCaskey defeated!
Again, just sayin’.
In 1972 George Burke lost his first game, to Berwick, 34-28.
In the wake of Burke’s unprecedented mid-season firing, in October of ‘75, Gordie Kraft’s first game as interim coach was a 21-7 loss to Wilson.
Norbie Danz’s first team fell to Harrisburg, 19-7, in 1976.
A 7-0 loss to Carlisle inaugurated the Jack Neal era in 1986.
Only Scott Feldman got off on the good foot, posting a 38-15 victory over Allentown Allen in his 1998 debut.
So anyway, Big Red opens the Given Era with a 41-27 loss at E-town that had the feel of many losses of the past.
Saw an electrifying offense that put points up at will. And a defense inclined to surrender points at will.
In that defense of the defense, Given revealed after the game that four starters were sidelined due to adademics.
The cynic in me wanted to say, “Welcome to McCaskey!”
But the Ringside doesn’t do hate, and going negative is so … negative. I kept a civil tongue.
Given appears to have an idea and, more importantly, the kids believe he has an idea. Which can’t be a bad thing.
