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Sports

The Wait Is Over for St. Ed's Alum Dan Coughlin

Longtime Northeast Ohio media personality celebrates school's first state football title.

Six decades of frustration finally turned to unbridled joy at St. Edward High School, which is celebrating its first football championship.

Dan Coughlin, among the school's most successful alumni, if not its most boisterous, was there when the all-boys parochial school opened in 1949. The veteran sportswriter and sportscaster endured all the near-misses that mounted through the years.

"I was there from the start," Coughlin said. "Well sort of there. I was a sixth grader and delivered newspapers to the school."

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Coughlin then attended St. Edward, Notre Dame, served in the U.S. Army, and spent 46 years as Northeastern Ohio's bon vivant of the sportswriting set until retiring from WJW-TV earlier this year.

He was at freezing Fawcett Stadium in Canton on Dec. 4, when the Eagles finally won the big one. St. Edward rallied from a 21-7 deficit to beat Huber Heights Wayne 35-28 in a swirling snow to capture its 41st state title -- but first in football.

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"I died a thousand deaths before it was over," Coughlin said. "It had been that way for 50 years and this one wasn't any different in that regard. When we won, then it was really different.

"For years, I covered the tournament for The Plain DealerCleveland Press and then Channel 8. I would always put on a happy face and smile for people I didn't even know. I had to do it. It was my job. When we won, it was like, 'Thank God, finally my team wins it' and the smile was genuine."

St. Edward finished 15-0, but the Eagles had gone to the title game undefeated before and returned home empty-handed. They had been regular-season powerhouses many times, but always lost somewhere along the playoff road.

Their first two title-game losses were due to missed extra points. It nearly happened again.

"You better believe that was on my mind," Coughlin said after the Eagles were called for a holding penalty that made them have to attempt a 34-yard kick into a gusting wind for a measly yet precious extra point during a fourth-quarter rally.

"Not like this, please, not on an extra point," head coach Rich Finotti said he told himself.

Eagles fans were filled with agonizing irony when Mike DiNunzio's long-distance attempt was blown right, leaving St. Edward with a 27-21 lead. Sure enough, the Warriors came right back as Ohio State quarterback recruit Braxton Miller led them to a tying touchdown. Wayne's successful extra-point kick made it 28-27.

"The first time we went to the title game, we lost 14-12 to Cincinnati Moeller at the Rubber Bowl in Akron," Coughlin recalled. "That was 1975. We missed a 2-point conversion and trailed 7-6. They scored again and so did we, which meant we had to go for two again and missed that, too. Game over.

"Eleven years later, at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, we lost to Fairfield 21-20. Another missed extra point.

"But not this year. This year's quarterback, Kevin Burke, had ice water in his veins. Half the crowd did, too, from sitting out in the cold. But that kid said afterwards he was glad Wayne took the lead because he knew he had a great 2-minute drill and wanted to run it. He sure did."

Burke led them 60 yards in 56 seconds, with Terrell Bates scoring on a 17-yard run. Burke passed to Quincy Jones for a 2-point conversion to make it 35-28. When a last-ditch pass by Miller was intercepted by Cory Blackstock a few plays later, Eagles fans began to celebrate.

"The kids at school had shirts made up, 'Make History,' " Finotti said. "I told our guys, we're going to change history. We did. This is for all the players that came before them."

OHSAA All-Time State Football Tournament Results



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