Burke always beat Oxford Tech. He has the same record against them Redchickens as Got Frank. From memory, that's 5-1. Burke's teams usually faded in the latter part of the season. He had a horrible temper that was a problem on more than one occasion. My impression of this coaching ability was that he was a better coach than a recruiter. For all his problems, he does not deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Old Nasty or PapaL, who had an even worse on the field record than Nasty. However, PapaL, from all I've heard, was a man of integrity. Knorr, too, was an honest man who worked his hardest but was just not ready to be a head coach at that point in his career.
I think what separates Bill Hess, Jim Grobe and Frank Solich from the pack is that they are all excellent football coaches as wall as men of integrity.
I can't really comment on the integrity issues with earlier coaches as they were either before my time or coached when I was too young to know that kind of detail. I will say that I heard only the best about Caroll Widdoes and Don Peden. The stories I heard about Peden made him sound like a cross between Knute Rockne and Marvin Wood, the coach of the real Milan High School (Hoosiers).
Last Edited: 9/28/2011 11:17:28 AM by OhioCatFan