By Todd Hummel
For The Daily Item
June 07, 2008 07:36 am
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SELINSGROVE -- When Bob Pittello began his coaching career at Susquehanna University, there were only 400 students at the Selinsgrove school.
Now with over 2,000 students, a football stadium with FieldTurf and named after a former player that he coached, Pittello still prowls the sidelines as the offensive line coach for the Crusaders.
And on Friday night, Pittello was honored for his over 50 years of involvement with Susquehanna University with a dinner at the Susquehanna Valley Country Club.
Former players, teammates and coaches he worked under were all in attendance at SVCC and all had stories to tell about the Mount Carmel native.
Former Susquehanna coaches Jim Hazlett and Jim Garrett both spoke glowingly of Pettillo. Hazlett played with Pettillo back in the late 1940s when both were offensive linemen for Susquehanna.
"I look at the size of the kids today and I'm pretty sure Bob and I would be managers," Hazlett joked. "I was just glad to meet a man that has less common sense than I do."
Pettillo coached the offensive line and the defensive line under Garrett when the Crusaders went 39-4-1 over a four-year span in the early 1960s. Garrett was quick to point out that he was head coach in name only.
"We all coached our positions. There was no head coach. If you came to our practice you would have thought our manager was the head coach," Garrett said. "He was the one that had the practice schedule and blew the whistle when that portion of practice was over."
Over 40 years later after a stints in the NFL and the head coaching job at Columbia, Garrett still remembers his time at Selinsgrove fondly and can recall with near photographic memory his time at Susquehanna.
"We ran the ball 56 times per game and we used to hand out grades to all of the offensive and defensive linemen every week," Garrett said. "I don't think we had four missed assignments in that stretch. That's a credit to Bob's coaching."
Pittello left Susquehanna for several years before returning in 1992 when current coach Steve Briggs lost his offensive coach at the time.
"We had a meeting at B.J.'s and the first question I asked him was did he still think he could do it at his age," Briggs said.
That was 16 years ago and Pittello is still going strong and plans to be on the sidelines during the 2008 season.
Pittello has been active in 44 of the past 59 seasons at Susquehanna.
A starting guard for Amos Alonzo Stagg Jr. and Sr. at Susquehanna between 1948-50, he began coaching under Stagg Jr. in 1953. He continued as an assistant under five different coaches; 2008 will be his 38th year on the Susquehanna staff.
He's also coached at Columbia under Jim Garrett and for three years at Mount Carmel under Jazz Diminick.
Pittello has been active with Crusader football longer than anyone as either a player or coach and became the first person in program history to have his jersey number retired. The school retired his number 66 in a ceremony prior to the 1998 Homecoming game vs. Allegheny.
In 2001, the Crusader locker room was formally named in his honor with a commemorative plaque posted outside the room.
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