Harvard Says Goodbye to a Football Legend

The first thing you notice about Harvard Coach Joe Restic is The Nose. Large, long, and crooked as a crag, it functions in conversation as a kind of vagrant puppy dog, pursuing your glance with friendly persistence. You squirm and wiggle in your chair, brush imaginary lint from your shirt and tie your shoes a couple of times to avoid its forthrightness, but it's no use. Slowly, surely, you settle into your chair, turn to The Nose and submit to his intent eyes.

I'm sitting in Coach Restic's plain, slightly-cluttered office in Dillon Field House on a cold, ugly November day. I've covered the football beat all season, attending all the home games and traveling as far as Williamsburg, Va. and Ithaca, NY to see the 3-5 Crimson. Now, I am going to get my due: for the first time all season, I'm going to conduct a long, in-depth personal interview with the greatest football coach in Harvard history and one of the greatest innovators in the history of the sport.

I have big plans. I am going to start from his very first memory and move through his 66 years with the fastidiousness of a Philadelphia trial lawyer. Early influences. Formative moments. Biggest secrets. Greatest experiences. I will tease and tug until they are all mine, and they will all fit together in one perfectly neat history. All the while, I will remain wholly detached and, above all else, completely in control. No concessions. No regrets.

"O.K. Coach, how did you get started in coaching?"

He smiles, clears his throat.

"I think--for anyone--it's a matter of where you played and how much the game has meant to you," he said. "I've been fortunate to have had a great life with football.

"You know, there's a lot more to coaching than you'd think," he says suddenly, abruptly leading the conversation away from his past and into a discussion on the forces presently stultifying the joy of coaching.

I cringe.

Three minutes into the interview and I'm already out of control.

To say that Restic has a history to tell is like saying that Elvis was a rock musician, Ernest Hemingway was a novelist and Marilyn Monroe was a woman. Framed by the three formative events of his generation--The Great Depression, World War II and post-war prosperity--the myriads of interesting details in Restic's life make it prime movie material.

It all started in the small town of Hastings, Pa, about 110 miles east of Pittsburgh. There, Restic was one of 10 children born to Louis Restic, a Ukrainian-born coalminer, and his Polish wife. He attended a one-room red schoolhouse in the city where all eight grades were taught by a Mrs. Mary Kline, a woman crippled by polio. Every day for all of Restic's eight years at the school, she would painstakingly write lessons on the board with her crippled right arm.

Restic began working in the coal mines when he was 15. According to Pennsylvania state law, you were supposed to be 17, but because his boss was a family friend and because his family needed money, Restic was hired. Thus, while many students his age spent their time after school at the drugstore drinking sodas, Restic spent his shoveling sand out of 45-ton boxcars.

This tough balance between school and hard, hard labor worked to mature Restic very quickly, a fact evidenced by his volunteering for the Army Cadet Program in 1943 at the age of 16-and-a-half. Because of the different nationalities of his parents and the ethnic variegation of Hastings in general, Restic was proficient in three languages: Slovak, Russian and Ukrainian. This background made him an ideal candidate to be a Special Agent in the European Theatre of Operations.

So, at age 17, when kids today are just old enough to get in to see R-rated movies, Restic became a special agent. Working mostly alone, he penetrated enemy lines, merged with the masses of Europeans fleeing Hitler's terror, and relayed information back to the Allies. Putting his life on the line several times while dealing with double agents, the brave, hardworking youngster earned the overwhelming respect of his superiors.

After the war, Restic went to college. Discovered by Jim Leonard, the head football coach at St. Francis College in Loretto, Pa. while kicking a football in his barefeet in his yard, Restic went on to play for Leonard at St. Francis and later at Villanova as a receiver and a defensive back. He starred for both teams, earning the nickname "Razor" from his teammates for his 6-4 195 pound frame, lightning speed, and hard-hitting tendencies. Restic received his degree from Villanova in 1952.

During the summers between his college years, Restic was a pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies organization. Playing for a farm team in Salina, Ks., a medium-sized city about 15 miles from Ike Eisenhower's hometown, he had the experience of striking out Mickey Mantle, then a player for the Yankees' Joplin, Mo. farm team. Unbeknownst to him, however, his pro play was illegal given his school-year activities at Villanova, an infringement he paid for by forfeiting two years of eligibility at the college.

After graduation, he decided to give professional football a try. He made the 33-man Philadelphia Eagles roster and became a solid receiver for the team--when a teammate stepped on his hand during a pileup, breaking his fingers. It was then, after getting married, that he decided to give coaching a try.

In 1954, he began coaching on the high school level. That year he signed on at Wicomico High School in Salisbury, Md, before making the transfer the next year to Neptune High School in Neptune, N.J.

Impressed by his performance at those schools, Brown Coach Alva Kelley hired him as an end coach and as head scout for the Bears in 1956. There, he helped Brown to three consecutive winning seasons (5-4-0, 5-4-0 and 6-3-0), no small feat considering that the Bears had gone 2-7-0 in 1955 and have traditionally been an Ivy League doormat.

After the 1958 season, Restic followed Kelley to Colgate where he served as the coach's first assistant and defensive coordinator. There he served through the 1961 season in his only stint as a defensive coach (he has since dealt mainly with the offense and, in particular, the offensive backfield).

As if Hamilton, N.Y., was not exciting enough, Restic made the jump to Canadian professional football and the Canadian Football League's Hamilton Tiger Cats in 1962. That year, he served as a backfield coach under Jim Trimble. In 1963, after Trimble left, Restic stayed at Hamilton under Ralph Sazio as first assistant and offensive coordinator. There, in 1968, he got his first head coaching opportunity with the Tiger Cats.

Restic's head coaching career in Hamilton lasted only three years, but it was nonetheless impressionable. Engineering a highly-explosive Tiger Cat offense, he compiled a 22-17-3 record--excellent by Hamilton standards--and captured an CFL Eastern Division Championship with an 8-5-1 mark in 1970.

Then, in the spring of 1971, a position atHarvard opened up.

O.K. It seems that I've gained some controlover the situation now.

After listening to Restic enthusiasticallydiscuss in brief his love of the game, theimportance of people in making coachingworthwhile, and the number of ways that moderncollege sports--in their desperate pursuit of winsand money--have reneged on their obligations todevelop young athletes as human beings, I'vefinally managed to drive him into talking abouthis war years.

"What the service did for me was it made melearn to survive," Restic says. "I spent most ofmy time with myself behind the lines. It was toughbut I got through it.

"The game will teach you how to survive," hesays, again eluding discussion of himself. "Itwill give you lessons. The fact that youparticipated, the fact that you allowed it totouch you, the fact that you took the challenge,you were tested, and you survived, that means alot."

Not being able to restrain myself, I ask himabout something that has been pestering me allday.

"You know the head coaching offer thePhiladelphia Eagles gave you in 1976?"

He nods.

"Why didn't you take it?"

"You have a copy of my bio, don't you?" heasks. Point taken.

When Joe Restic came to Harvard in the fall of1971, he had the intention of lighting a fireunder the seat of John Harvard's pants.

Restic's predecessor, John Yovicsin, hadrescued Harvard football from the depths ofdespondency in the late 1950's by reorganizing italong conservative lines. Influenced by the likesof Woody Hayes and Vince Lombardi, he instilled asimple off-tackle left, off-tackle right,third-down-and-a-long-pass-to-a-receiver type ofoffense. And it worked: Harvard had just fourlosing seasons in 14 years and Yovicsonestablished himself as the winningest coach inHarvard history.

But Restic thought the Crimson could do better.From Canadian football--with its longer and widerfield, three-down concept and 12th man--Resticbrought a riskier, wider-open offense. He calledit the "Multi-Flex."

The Multi-Flex is an offensive festival. Runcorrectly, usually by a highly experiencedquarterback, it is one of the most excitingoffenses ever created.

The term "Multi-Flex" is simply the conflationof the words "multiple set" and "flexibility."Simplified, it is the philosophy that the more ateam moves around and switches offensive setsbefore snapping the ball and the more wide-openthe number of plays a team can run, the moreconservative and tentative the defense.

"The offense should be the aggressor," Restictold the Louisville Times in 1977. "You have tocome out and confuse them, make them hesitate."

In Harvard's Multi-Flex, the Crimson usuallystarts in a full-house T formation and then shiftsto another formation. Over the years, Harvard hasrun zero-back, single-back, double-back, andthree-back sets in such varying formations as thefull-house T, the power I, the solid I and thewishbone.

In all, the formation is geared toward givingthe Crimson the advantage against teams equal oronly slightly more talented.

"If you have superior personnel, you'll beat meno matter what offensive I use," he told TheTimes. "But if we are equal or if you are only alittle better, I will beat you with theMulti-Flex. I think that's the edge."

For the first few years of his tenure atHarvard, Restic struggled to implement thecomplicated offense. In 1971, the Crimson went anaverage 5-4, and in 1972 Harvard went a meager4-4-1 and lost to Yale, 28-7. Both years theCrimson finished closer to the bottom than to thetop in the Ivies.

Then things started to click. In 1973, theCrimson went 7-2 and flew from fifth to second inthe league. In 1974, Restic took a team picked tofinish in the middle of the Ivies and directed itto an Ivy co-championship--and a win over Yale.And in 1975 the Crimson won an undisputed Ivycrown.

Restic was rolling--his teams had wonback-to-back league titles, he had wonback-to-back league Coach of the Year prizes andhis teams were winning with offensive panache. The1973 team set a new Harvard record for passes andcompletions. The 1974 team set a new Harvardrecord for touchdown passes. And the 1975 team seta new total offense record with 3,370 yards.

After that season, with his value rising,Restic realized a college coach's dream: hereceived a head coaching offer in the NFL withsame team he had played for over 20 yearsbefore--the Philadelphia Eagles. After their topchoice for the job, Frank Kush of then-nationalchampion Arizona State, opted to stay at thecollege level, the Eagles went to Restic in thehopes of reviving their hapless offense.

Restic, typically prudent and in love withHarvard, set up a trip to Philadelphia and made nopromises. Meanwhile, the Eagles, so confident thatthe native Pennsylvanian would take the job,scheduled a press conference to announce hisacceptance on the day of his trip. Alarmed by thispresumptuousness and taking his family and thepeople at Harvard into consideration, Resticrespectfully declined the offer.

"I found that they had scheduled a pressconference for me at 3 p.m. [the day of arrival]to announce my signing," Restic told The PatriotLedger in 1976. "From that point, I didn't thinkthe job was for me."

That year, as Dick Vermeil assumed command ofthe Eagles, Restic guided the Crimson to itsfourth straight winning season. Harvard went 6-3and beat Yale 21-7.

Restic is on a roll now. After the commentabout the sports bio, he is absolutely adamant onkeeping the interview both 1) philosophical, and2) in the now.

He continues on his favorite theme of how greedand materialism are destroying college athletics.

"We must protect the integrity of the game orelse everything that we've accomplished infootball all these years will be gone," he says."As administrators and coaches, we've got to beable to take the same test that we're making ourathletes take. We've got to be able to stand upand say what is right."

"The thing I like to compare it to is theWatergate scandal," he says. I edge forward. Nowthis is getting interesting. "That's a goodexample of basically goodA-6Crimson File Photo