Love, respect and humor make Bill Gutbrod tribute memorable

In 1987, the year he was one of the charter inductees into the St. Joseph High School Hall of Fame, legendary coach Bill Gutbrod mentioned that he’d turned down a number of college coaching opportunities because “I just didn’t want to leave.”

The school’s first head football coach, who spent 40 years at St. Joe’s, then added: “This place kind of gets to you -- the school spirit, the unity, the togetherness.”

All three of those ingredients were on full display last month when a crowd of nearly 500 people, including many former Viking gridders, turned out for the April 8 tribute dinner honoring perhaps the most beloved figure in the history of the school, now VASJ.

The event, held at the Croatian Lodge in Eastlake, featured speakers representing five decades, from Joe Topoly of the Class of 1954, the first St. Joe graduating class, to Rick Finotti (’91) who is now head football coach at St. Edward. Their common themes included respect, gratitude, and, perhaps most important, love.

Making a surprise appearance was Desmond Howard (’88) who once scored five touchdowns in a single game for the Vikings. He went on to win a Heisman trophy while playing for Michigan and a Super Bowl MVP award as a member of the Green Bay Packers.

During his remarks Howard, who now works as an ESPN football analyst, turned to his high school mentor and declared: “Coach, not only are you loved, but you are appreciated and respected.” Citing Gutbrod’s ability to inspire his charges, Howard noted that “great leaders are able to pull something out of you that you didn’t know you had in you.”

Another characteristic of a great leader, he added, is the ability to instill the desire to succeed. “I never wanted to disappoint Coach Gutbrod on the football field.”

Howard wasn’t the only ESPN broadcaster to appear at the event. Also among the speakers were emcee Bob Golic (St. Joe class of ’75), who played in the NFL for the Cleveland Browns, and his brother, Mike Golic, who now stars on ESPN’s “Mike and Mike in the Morning.”

Mike Golic (’81), who followed his brother to Notre Dame and later played for the Miami Dolphins under Don Shula, proudly recalled that he was on the Viking squad that gave Coach Gutbrod his 200th victory. “I often get asked which of my coaches was the most influential,” he said. “And people expect me to say Don Shula. But, immediately, I say, ‘Bill Gutbrod.’ His values were passed on to us, whether in football or in life.”

The evening included a balance of seriousness and humor. Mike Moran (’69), the former Viking basketball coach now at John Carroll University, hailed Gutbrod as “by far the greatest motivator I’ve ever been associated with. At one pep rally, he reached into his pocket and pulled out what he said was a letter from the star player for the team we were getting ready to play. Then he grimaced and said, ‘I can’t read it to you -- for your own welfare.’”

More than one speaker kidded Gutbrod about his exhortations to his players to “draw blood,”either the opponents’ or their own. Bob Mullin (’88), now the Vikings’ head wrestling coach, recalled one halftime speech where Gutbrod told his players that they weren’t bloodied enough. “Then he pulled out a huge bottle of ketchup and we got rained on with ketchup,” Mullin chuckled.

Don Dailey, co-captain of the 1970 St. Joe team, offered another “ketchup” story involving a hot afternoon practice session before a game against Euclid. “There wasn’t enough blood on our uniforms, so out came the ketchup, and we went into the game that night not only looking like blood, but also smelling like blood.”

Appropriately, the dinner’s souvenir table decorations were large bottles of ketchup with humorous labels.

On a more serious note, Dailey announced plans to establish a Bill Gutbrod Scholarship program that would award four renewable $1,000 scholarships annually to current or incoming VASJ students. “Every dollar we raise,” he said, “will be passed on to students to honor a man who has touched all of our lives in a positive way.”

Bob Golic echoed that them when he stated: “Seldom do you encounter someone who inspires the kind of confidence in yourself that lasts for the rest of your life. But Coach Gutbrod was that kind of person.”

Rick Finotti, who guided St. Edward to a Division I state championship last fall, described the guest of honor as “the best coach at one of the greatest schools in history. You have to understand that it wasn’t only his great locker room speeches, but things like seeing Coach at Mass on Sunday…. As a kid, it was my dream to play for Coach Gutbrod. Growing up, he was a legend in our household…. We love you, Coach.”

That word “love” kept bubbling up all evening long.