Long-lost video resurfaces in time for Gutbrod tribute

The date was Nov. 25, 1989. The St. Joseph Viking football team was trailing, 14-7, at halftime of the state football championship game against Fostoria in the “Horseshoe” at Ohio State University. 

But, as he had done many times before, veteran Coach Bill Gutbrod found a way to get his gridders charged up--and they went out and won the game, 21-14. (It was the last football game ever played as the “St. Joseph Vikings.” The merger with Villa Angela Academy took place the following year.)

What did Coach Gutbrod say in that halftime pep talk? Well, hundreds of alumni and other supporters of the East 185th Street school might find out on Friday April 8, when the school—now VASJ—hosts “Coach Bill Gutbrod Night” at the Croatian Lodge in Eastlake, beginning at 5 p.m. Former NFL player Bob Golic, a 1975 grad, will serve as master of ceremonies.

Just in time for the tribute to the storied coach, who devoted 40 years to St. Joe’s, a long-lost videotape recording of that final halftime pep talk has turned up.

Tim Ryan, a professional photographer who filmed many of the Vikings’ football games, recently stumbled across the video in his archives while searching for something else. “I had been looking for that tape for 20 years,” he says, “but I couldn’t find it because it was mislabeled. Until now, no one has ever seen that tape.”

Making good use of his discovery, Tim (Class of ’61) has been working with Cinecraft Productions to process the tape into a video presentation that should be a major highlight of the April 8 event. Cinecraft is headed by Neil McCormick, also a St. Joe grad. The full video production, Ryan notes, will include a few plays from the championship game in which quarterback Tony Miller led the come-from-behind victory.

Tickets for “Coach Bill Gutbrod Night” are $35 and, reportedly, have been selling fast. For ticket information, contact Mary Paxton at VASJ at: 216-481-8414, ext. 259.

John Sheridan is a retired journalist who has lived in Euclid for almost his entire life. He is a graduate of St. Joseph High School and John Carroll University.