Railroaders' Trivisonno featured in Coughlin book
Editor’s Note: The excerpts included in this report are published in the Observer with the permission of Dan Coughlin, who has been making many appearances—including a recent stop at Muldoon’s Saloon on East 185th Street, to promote his book, “Crazy, With the Papers to Prove It.” He has also scheduled a book-signing event at Jack Murphy’s Tradewinds Lounge on East 200th Street for Nov. 23, at 7:30 p.m. Accompanying Dan will be Plain Dealer writer Michael Heaton who also has a new book out.
Many older area residents, or former residents, may remember the days when Joe Trivisonno starred on the gridiron for the Collinwood High Railroaders. As veteran sportswriter Dan Coughlin recounts in his new book, “Crazy, With the Papers to Prove It.” Trivisonno played on Collinwood’s 1951 East Senate championship team and scored both Railroader touchdowns in the 21-14 loss to Rhodes in the Charity Game at old Cleveland Stadium.
“He was a genuine hometown hero,” Coughlin points out.
In college, Trivisonno played for Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. Later on, he returned to Collinwood as head football coach and, in 1967, led the Railroaders to nine straight victories, including an 18-14 triumph over Euclid and a 6-0 win against Cathedral Latin.
That was the year that The Plain Dealer Sports Editor Hal Lebovitz decided to conduct a Favorite Coach contest to help boost circulation, Coughlin notes, with ballots printed in the PD sports section several times a week. The winning coach was to get an all-expenses paid trip with his wife to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.
“All the forces converged,” Coughlin writes. “The Collinwood neighborhood was in a frenzy to send its coach, Joe Trivisonno, to Pasadena.”
The ballots began rolling in and, at one point, the PD circulation department “reported the disappearance of entire bundles of papers from Collinwood street corners, discovered later blocks away with the ballots ripped out of them. Trivisonno supporters were working a second shift,” Coughlin recalls. “The owner of the LaSalle Theatre on East 185th Street was a huge Trivisonno fan. Anyone who brought a ballot for Joe to the theatre got into the movies for free.”
“That might have won it for me,” Trivisonno told the author some years later. “The LaSalle was right up the street from St. Joe’s and St. Joe Coach Bill Gutbrod finished second, as I recall.”
Although Collinwood lost to St. Ignatius in the city championship game, Trivisonno won the Favorite Coach contest and The Plain Dealer flew Joe and his wife Sally out to Pasadena to see the Rose Bowl. However, on New Year’s Eve, the coach called the paper’s sports department. “We’re having a good time,” he said. “Everything is fine. Nice hotel. But I have a question. Where are our tickets to the game?”
Coughlin explains: “A travel agent arranged every phase of the trip, including the game tickets. [But] where are you likely to find a travel agent on New Year’s Eve? Probably on a cruise…. [So] The Plain Dealer sent Mr. and Mrs. Joe Trivisonno to the Rose Bowl game and they ended up watching it on television in their hotel room.
“The travel agent had included Joe and Sally with a group who rode together to the game on New Year’s Day morning in a bus, expecting tickets to be waiting for them at the stadium. The driver went to Will Call and came back to report that there were no tickets for anybody on the bus.”
“Hal Lebovitz wanted to make it up to me,” Trivisonno told Dan afterward. “He wanted to take me to the Super Bowl with him, but I didn’t want to go. Instead The Plain Dealer sent our entire family to New York. Everything turned out great.”
“The Coach of the Year,” Coughlin sums up, “actually got two trips—one to each coast. Plus, he got into the movies free.”