Logue influenced Delco’s coaches

Logue, 83, who had been in poor health for several years, died early Tuesday morning.

“You don’t have enough ink at your paper to list all the people he touched as a teacher and a coach,” said Joe Carroll, who played at West Chester University after graduating from St. James and has been head football coach at Chester and West Chester East High School.

Carroll was one of many former St. James players who turned to coaching. Ray Gionta (Marple Newtown) and Joe Gallagher (Haverford High) earned All-Delco honors playing for Logue and are head coaches in Delaware County.

Chichester head coach Joe LaRose also played for Logue. John Leary, who stepped down as Penn Wood’s head coach two years ago to become the school’s principal, played under Logue.

George Stratts, who retired from coaching at Cardinal O’Hara in 2003 and won Catholic League championships at both Cardinal Dougherty and O’Hara, was an All-Delco lineman at St. James when Francis “Bean” Brennan was head coach and Logue was the line coach.

Bob “Sparky” Faries, the former head coach at Monsignor Bonner, was another St. James All-Delco under Brennan and Logue.

“Joe Logue’s coaching legacy lives on,” said Gionta. “The coaches who played for him continue to teach the things he taught us as players. I think one of the best things he taught us was the way to treat the kids who play for us.

“Joe Gallagher and I talk all the time and compare the way we do things with the way he did things. He was tough, he was fair and he was always concerned about his players.”

Carroll was both an assistant coach and head coach at Chester when the Clippers played St. James each Thanksgiving Day.

“I remember (Logue) from the time I got to ninth grade,” Carroll said. “I remember his demeanor and his style. He was always impeccably dressed. Over the years he touched a lot of people.”

After attending St. Robert’s High School in Chester, Logue was a tank commander under Gen. George Patton during World War II. After he left the service, he attended Pennsylvania Military College and joined the staff at St. James as a physical education teacher and assistant football coach.

Logue was an assistant under Brennan for 15 years, then spent 12 years as head coach at St. James, beginning with the 1965 season. His overall record was 74-56-5.

His 1972 team, led by Gallagher, quarterback Kevin Dare, running backs Tony Serge and Dave Lansberry, receiver Dave Kasarsky, defensive back Bill O’Connell and a line that was bigger than the lines at a lot of colleges, finished with a 12-0 record.

That Bulldogs team, which many consider the best Delaware County high school football team, beat Bishop Kenrick to win the Catholic League championship before 12,000 fans at Villanova University, then rolled past Public League winner Frankford, 42-0, in the City Title Game at Franklin Field.

A year later, Logue had to suspend a number of players for violating school and team rules and was criticized by many. His players stood behind their coach’s decision.

“He was a man who lived by the principles he believed in, and he wasn’t about to change,” Gionta said.

LaRose said he continues to use some of the coaching strategies and practices he learned from Logue.

“He taught us to play hard,” LaRose said. “But he also taught us that we had to have class.

“I remember the day I made a pretty good play and he came over to me on the sideline and said, ‘nice play, Joseph, but you need to tuck your shirt in.’ He was always concerned about the way we looked. He would get after guys all the time to buckle their chin straps.”

LaRose said that no matter how a game turned out, Logue made it a point to talk to each of his players afterward.

“He’d line us up after every game,” LaRose said. “He always told us that he’d be the first one to yell at us out on the field, but he’d also be the first one to shake our hands when the game was over.

“I saw him during my first year as head coach (at Chichester) and he said, ‘you’re still shaking their hands, aren’t you son?’”

Logue, a bachelor, lived in Chester all of his life. His funeral mass will be at noon Saturday at St. Katharine Drexel Church, 20th & Providence Avenue, Chester.

Calling hours at the church begin at 9 a.m. Saturday.

Contributions in Logue’s memory can be sent to the St. James High School Alumni Association Scholarship Fund, 1499 E. 9th St., Eddystone, PA 19022.