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Crescent City has its share of hall of fame greats
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By Ron Brocato, Sports
Clarion Herald
On a balmy November 1950 afternoon on Philadelphia’s Franklin Field, two future NFL greats invited their high school coach to join them on the football field for a special tribute.
Before the kickoff of the game, won by the host Eagles, retired Warren Easton coach Johnny Brechtel was escorted to the 50-yard line, where he was greeted by two of his former players, who introduced him to the spectators as “the man who taught us football.”
Those two grateful pros were Steve Van Buren, who set an NFL rushing record during his playing years of 1944-51 with the Eagles, and Eddie Price, who broke Van Buren’s rushing mark while starring for the New York Giants (1950-55).
A Honduran whose family moved to New Orleans, Van Buren was an end for Brechtel’s 1938-39 Easton team, and although his prep career was relatively non-distinctive, Brechtel recommended him to LSU coach Bernie Moore because of his size and speed. He became an All-American halfback and the No. 5 pick by the Eagles in the ’44 draft.
Price led Easton to the Class AA state championship (so far, its last) in 1942, then went on to become an All-American fullback at Tulane. His college career culminated with the Giants making him their second-round pick.
The 2024 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame induction last week in Natchitoches called to mind the 61 athletes from New Orleans’ three parishes who have been given the state’s highest honor for sportsmen.
This year’s class honored three men with local ties: former St. Charles Catholic coach and AD Frank Monica, Saints’ All-Pro quarterback Drew Brees and former Tulane basketball coach Perry Clark among the class of 12 inductees.
The two deceased Eastonites are among 19 HOF football greats from the talent-rich Crescent City area, which includes Peyton and Eli Manning, John and Richie Petitbon, Rich “Tombstone” Jackson, Steve Foley, Roosevelt Taylor, Reggie Wayne, Marshall Faulk, Aeneas Williams, Gary Barbaro, Neil Smith, Isaiah Robertson and pioneers “Peggy” Flournoy, Hank Lauricella, Claude “Monk” Simons and Lester Lautenschlaeger.
Although he has yet to be honored by the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, Brechtel was nevertheless responsible for the development and success of productive players as well as future head coaches during his coaching tenure at Behrman and Easton. Most importantly, Brechtel was a key figure in the creation of the New Orleans Recreation Department (NORD).
Hall of Fame prep coaches Johnny Altobello and Alex “Greek” Athas played for him.
Jesuit’s greatest coach, G. Gernon Brown, opposed his teams in three sports and sat at his kitchen table during the framing of the NORD model.
The Crescent City is a cradle of knowledge passed down by hall-of-fame mentors like Louis “Rags” Scheuermann, Ed Tuohy, Otis Washington, Tad Gormley, Larry Gilbert, Ron Washington and now Frank Monica.
If there were a field of dreams at one of the city’s long-forgotten baseball parks, Will Clark would have the spirits of Mel Ott, Rusty Staub, Mel Parnell, Connie Ryan, Jim Malarcher, Howie Pollet, George Strickland and Zeke Bonura with whom to play pitch-and-catch.
If the past is any indication as time marches on, the future of sports – as the immortal sports writer N. Charles Wicker might have written – “is ahead of us.”
But then the city had real newspapers in those remarkable eras.
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