“Who took the Lord’s name in vain!”
--Jim Algeo, Sr., first-year Lansdale Catholic Football Head Coach, 1968
“And [Coach Algeo] stopped us right there (during practice) and proceeded to explain what Lansdale Catholic football was going to be from now on. That everything we did on that field down there—on the practice and game gridirons—was for the glory of God. Everything we did down there was not about us. We were to respect each other, respect our parents, our coaches, and our teammates, our opponents. If we won, we won with our heads held high. If we lost, we congratulated our opponents. We held them with high regard because they beat us. If we were doing our best, they beat us as the better team. And that was the beginning of The Rare Breed.”
--Patrick O'Hara, former Lansdale Catholic student athlete (LC Class of '70) and assistant football coach, 2008
As a young sportswriter for The Reporter (then known as The North Penn Reporter) fresh out of Temple University in the winter of 1977-78, I had the good fortune to meet and cover Lansdale Catholic High School head football coach Jim Algeo, Sr. My position also enabled me to spend several years covering many of his children's athletics exploits. I am proud to say that I also became friendly with the family away from the football and baseball fields and basketball court.
Before I moved to the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex to pursue and achieve the next leg of my life, Coach Algeo became one of the most significant individuals whom I have interviewed and written or provided commentary about during my sports journalism career that has spanned five decades. I watched and covered him as he made a significant and long-lasting impact on his student athletes right here, in the suburban Philadelphia borough of Lansdale, Pennsylvania.
Nearly 40 years later, I have joyously reconnected with the Algeo family. And our bond is so strong that M. Bridget Algeo, the fifth oldest of Jim and Mickey Algeo's nine children, asked me to write the foreword to her moving memoir, Football Family (BookBaby). The work is available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The printed version is $16.99, and the E-book is $9.99, plus shipping.
I was more than thrilled to “tackle” this assignment, because Coach Algeo made a lasting impact on me. For example, I learned a great deal about the intricacies of organized football during my days at The Reporter by asking a multitude of questions. I also saw first-hand the positive and long-lasting effect he had on countless student athletes at Lansdale Catholic High School by combining a sense of urgency with patience. He could successfully use his unbridled passion with a fatherly arm around the shoulder, and a gruff, intimidating growl with the soft voice of one-on-one teaching.
I was extremely amazed that Jim Algeo, Sr. could maintain his patience and remain in control while—at the same time—explosively emote with a strong passion for teaching. As an example, I recall him tutoring a player about a blocking, then a tackling technique as he yelped an individual who was struggling to perform that task. Then he would quietly encourage that same individual.
In addition to making me a better football writer, it also provided me with a successful approach to teaching, one that helped me years later when I made the transition from the business world into a middle and high school English Language Arts instructor.
Football Family is a 289-page emotive, colorful, fast-paced and extremely well-written football and faith-based recollection of the Algeo family and the unique Rare Breed mindset of toughness, determination and commitment made by student athletes and coaches involved with the Crusaders’ football program.
As the excerpt introducing this article above and appearing in its entirety on page 62 will attest, the Rare Breed mindset was first instilled as the new, prevailing culture of the Crusader football program by Coach Algeo when he took over the program in 1968, after an exhaustive and often demoralizing search for a head coaching position.
The Algeo family soon followed, settling into their new home on Columbia Avenue in the borough's West Ward. At LC, Coach Algeo mentored all three of his sons on the gridiron, while his daughters assisted the program as scorekeepers, statisticians, etc., while also pursuing their own achievements in other sports such as basketball and lacrosse.
This wild, roller coaster of a ride reflects what makes this “football family” so unique—particularly their ability to remain close while jubilantly sharing triumph as well as remaining emotionally dependent upon one another in the stark face of horrible tragedy.
And, each family member has become an outstanding teacher, coach, and/or an active community contributor who is proud to serve others. They have touched and continue to positively impact (through the Algeos' children and grandchildren) so many others' lives to make a profound, lasting and positive impact on literally tens of thousands of young people across three generations.
This work is a true celebration of a devout Catholic man who realized that God’s plan for him was to serve others, not as a person of the cloth, but as a giving, loving individual who used other types of “pulpits,” including classrooms where he taught economics, accounting, and personal finance, on the gridiron, and in the community to make a significant difference in peoples’ lives.
I have seen first-hand how Coach Algeo made a profound impact on his student athletes, helping them to become successful throughout their high school careers, and on into their college years and adult careers. As a result, he has earned and has been recognized with a multitude of impressive honors that are well documented in Football Family.
For example, the same year his 2004 Lansdale Catholic Crusaders gave the local area something significant to celebrate, he was inducted into the Pennsylvania Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame. His 295 victories in 44 years at Lansdale Catholic rank Coach Algeo among the top 20 coaches in the entire state of Pennsylvania.
Football Family pays homage to each of the students who practiced and played football under Coach Algeo's sometimes harsh and emotive, oft-times father-like and reassuring leadership and guidance. In fact, each player's name is listed by year from 1968 through 2011.
In addition to the players, Ms. Algeo spotlights the multitude of assistant football coaches who have served student-athletes, as well as the Three Green Fields adjacent to the school where the team continues to practice. She proudly celebrates her family's rich Irish-Catholic and Irish-American heritages through their unwavering support, an inclusiveness that extends to non-family members, and musically-propelled celebrations and gatherings.
A lacrosse player at Ursinus College who was a member of the school's 1989 NCAA Division II championship team, Ms. Algeo recalls her most memorable and favorite sports films as a means of introducing certain anecdotes and topics. She bookmarks the passage of time through a multi generation roller coaster ride by reminding us what a home or a dozen eggs were selling for during the year in question.
See also:
MOMBINE Event To Benefit Local Charities
Souderton High School To Host Iverson Roundball Classic
'Pit Lane Parley' Podcast Gaining International Traction
Local Man Coaches Flag Football Team to World Championship
NPHS Swimming Coach Named National Coach Of The Year
