RIP Frank Maloney

[Orangejet]

Just heard from several former teammates that Frank Maloney passed away at age 79 today. Coach Maloney was 37 yrs old in 1977, my freshman year at the CUSE, and he was a very good coach who had to put up with some of the worse football facilities in the nation and a blase fan base tired of losing. R. I. P. Coach Maloney!

 

[hungrychuck]

Ah, this is sad. Always liked Frank, and was really happy for him to be able to get to a bowl in a 1979 season played entirely on the road. Joe Morris, Art Monk, Bill Hurley, Craig Wolfley, Drew Gissinger - he brought in some players, just not enough of them.

Orangejet is right. If you want to talk about recruiting with a lack of facilities, THAT was your textbook case.

Good man, good football man, may he rest in peace.

 

[Dollar Dog]

Ah, this is sad. Always liked Frank, and was really happy for him to be able to get to a bowl in a 1979 season played entirely on the road. Joe Morris, Art Monk, Bill Hurley, Craig Wolfley, Drew Gissinger - he brought in some players, just not enough of them.
Orangejet is right. If you want to talk about recruiting with a lack of facilities, THAT was your textbook case.
Good man, good football man, may he rest in peace.

This is breaking news...do not see anything yet from SU or the wire services. Very sad to hear of Maloney's passing. Not only did he recruit some great players, but Frank had an eagle eye for coaching talent. In the picture above are future NFL head coach Tom Coughlin, college legend Nick Saban, plus NFL assistant Carl Battershell, and Chicago Bears GM Jerry Angelo.

Other years, he had Steve Szabo and Dennis Fitzgerald who had long college & pro careers. And he hired George O'Leary and Ivan Fears, who carried over after he left and became stalwarts of the MacPherson era.

Also, most people don't know Frank had a whole other career in MLB, as director of the Chicago Cubs ticket office for 27 years. He retired several years ago. Full life and by all accounts good man.

 

[sutomcat]

This is breaking news...do not see anything yet from SU or the wire services. Very sad to hear of Maloney's passing. Not only did he recruit some great players, but Frank had an eagle eye for coaching talent. In the picture above are future NFL head coach Tom Coughlin, college legend Nick Saban, plus NFL assistant Carl Battershell, and Chicago Bears GM Jerry Angelo.

Other years, he had Steve Szabo and Dennis Fitzgerald who had long college & pro careers. And he hired George O'Leary and Ivan Fears, who carried over after he left and became stalwarts of the MacPherson era.

Also, most people don't know Frank had a whole other career in MLB, as director of the Chicago Cubs ticket office for 27 years. He retired several years ago. Full life and by all accounts good man.

I think Frank alienated some fans by changing the uniforms and if I remember right, he did not set up strong ties with the old coaching staff and alums, preferring to do things his way,

In retrospect, he made some great hires on his staff and did a lot of good things and one could make a good argument that he deserved to recruit with the dome in place a few years to have a fair chance to show what he could do with competitive facilities.

I think Jake was hired in 1978. He saw the bad relationships between the community and Frank and the lack of support with the former players and staff and decided, probably wisely, that we needed to go in a different direction. Syracuse was Frank’s first head coaching job. He was only 33 when he was hired. He probably made a few decisions he wished he could have chosen differently if he could do it over again. For instance, one of the first things Coach Mac did was allow Coach Schwartzwalder access to practices again,

By all accounts, he was a good man and I think his players really liked and respected him. RIP Frank.

Maloney, Michigan Aide, Syracuse Football Coach (Published 1973)

www.nytimes.com

 

[xc84]

When I was in HS, playing CYO basketball, Frank was asked to speak at our sports banquet. He did and while I don't recall the exact speech, I have never forgotten that he took the time to speak to us. He seemed like a genuinely nice guy. He was sort of behind the 8 ball with facilities but was able to put together some good teams with exciting players. Guys like Morris, Monk, Wolfley, Hurley were exciting to watch. RIP Frank.

 

[OttoMets]

Sorry to hear that, he was supposed to be a great guy.

 

[OburgOrange]

Just heard from several former teammates that Frank Maloney passed away at age 79 today. Coach Maloney was 37 yrs old in 1977, my freshman year at the CUSE, and he was a very good coach who had to put up with some of the worse football facilities in the nation and a blase fan base tired of losing. R. I. P. Coach Maloney!View attachment 179017

He had some great players on that team. RIP Frank

PS - How was Dave Jacobs as a team mate?

 

[kuethstheman]

He battled many problems. Some self-inflicted (DWI and inability to deal with "advice" from Ben and alumni). Maybe his biggest problem was the reputation SU football had, concerning race.

 

[Orangejet]

He had some great players on that team. RIP Frank

PS - How was Dave Jacobs as a team mate?

He was okay but we never really associated with the kickers that much only until Gary Anderson came in. I was Dave Jacobs backup my freshman year in 1977.

 

[Orangejet]

He battled many problems. Some self-inflicted (DWI and inability to deal with "advice" from Ben and alumni). Maybe his biggest problem was the reputation SU football had, concerning race.

You are correct here except for the race part for Maloney loved all of his players, black & white. Never sensed a race issue at all.

 

[OburgOrange]

He was okay but we never really associated with the kickers that much only until Gary Anderson came in. I was Dave Jacobs backup my freshman year in 1977.

Ah, didn’t know you kicked. Interesting.

 

[TexanMark]

I agree that he had a great eye for talent. If he had the Dome for a few years earlier I bet he would have stayed on. I always thought he was given a bad deal. The '59 team didn't do him any favors.

RIP Coach Maloney

 

[TexanMark]

Ah, didn’t know you kicked. Interesting.

I can see it now. A flag being throw at Orange Jet...roughing the kick rusher

 

[kuethstheman]

You are correct here except for the race part for Maloney loved all of his players, black & white. Never sensed a race issue at all.

Didn't mean Frank, at all! I meant the problems Ben had near the end. We stopped pulling in top minority players for a while, spilling into Frank's tenure.

 

[MSOrange]

Frank was before my time as I was born in 1976. Compared to Coach Ben, his record wasn't good of course. But looking at it from today's perspective with our struggles since the turn of the century, he didn't do THAT bad. Just seemed to go back and forth from poor to a decent season.

1974	Syracuse	2–9
1975	Syracuse	6–5
1976	Syracuse	3–8
1977	Syracuse	6–5
1978	Syracuse	3–8
1979	Syracuse	7–5			W Independence
1980	Syracuse	5–6

 

[OrangeAl]

Frank did well in recovering SU from the trash heap. When you take over a program from an icon like Ben you have to be your own man. But when you're 33 years old that can be a tough road to navigate.

 

[Dick_in_MI]

Thanks for the classy post, Mike. I know that you and Frank butted heads a bit. When we met at the CMU game a few years ago you told me a great story that involved you, Art Monk, and Frank. I won't repeat it of course, but it was a cool story.

I don't see you in the photo...were you in the top row or weren't frosh in the photo?

Speaking of names, there were some serious players and coaches in that photo. Some of those guys had later careers that our current players would be lucky to match.

I was always sorry that Frank never got a chance to recruit with the Dome as a tool. Now we have the (renovated) Dome, the IPF, and membership in a P5 conference to sell. Frank had facilities that were decaying and truthfully, "decaying" exaggerates the opulence of what we had. On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 was a manure field and 10 was "decaying" we were about a 6.

Despite his defensive background, Frank's offenses with Bill Hurley were so much fun to watch. And for the folks not alive at the time, Orangejet put the hurt on his share of opposing QB's. Just thought I'd throw that in there.

Since his name was brought up, I never had a problem with Dave Jacobs. He was always fair to me. I will say that last Spring I was in there and he didn't have what I wanted but promised to call my cell phone after he checked "the warehouse". OK, he didn't call but it happens. As a result I went up to the bookstore in the Shine Center and their selection blows away the M Street merchants. They get all my business now.

I liked the Maloney-era unis. So sue me...

Quick totally unrelated question; a guy at my local sporting shoe store ran at SU and told me he never heard the term "M Street". It was just called Marshall Street, according to him. My Grandneice, Class of a few years ago, said the same thing. True? As a proud member of the Class of somewhere in the 1800's that saddens me.

 

[Orangejet]

Thanks for the classy post, Mike. I know that you and Frank butted heads a bit. When we met at the CMU game a few years ago you told me a great story that involved you, Art Monk, and Frank. I won't repeat it of course, but it was a cool story.

I don't see you in the photo...were you in the top row or weren't frosh in the photo?

Speaking of names, there were some serious players and coaches in that photo. Some of those guys had later careers that our current players would be lucky to match.

I was always sorry that Frank never got a chance to recruit with the Dome as a tool. Now we have the (renovated) Dome, the IPF, and membership in a P5 conference to sell. Frank had facilities that were decaying and truthfully, "decaying" exaggerates the opulence of what we had. On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 was a manure field and 10 was "decaying" we were about a 6.

Despite his defensive background, Frank's offenses with Bill Hurley were so much fun to watch. And for the folks not alive at the time, Orangejet put the hurt on his share of opposing QB's. Just thought I'd throw that in there.

Since his name was brought up, I never had a problem with Dave Jacobs. He was always fair to me. I will say that last Spring I was in there and he didn't have what I wanted but promised to call my cell phone after he checked "the warehouse". OK, he didn't call but it happens. As a result I went up to the bookstore in the Shine Center and their selection blows away the M Street merchants. They get all my business now.

I liked the Maloney-era unis. So sue me...

Quick totally unrelated question; a guy at my local sporting shoe store ran at SU and told me he never heard the term "M Street". It was just called Marshall Street, according to him. My Grandneice, Class of a few years ago, said the same thing. True? As a proud member of the Class of somewhere in the 1800's that saddens me.

Thanks for the note Dick and I remember talking to you at CMU. I am in row 7 between Fred Lang and Dave Farneski. Randy Edsall is also in pic with lots of great players of that time. Believe me, CUSE had a good team in 1977...outside of our first two games vs.. Oregon State and NC State.
My story that you are referring to happened in 1979, after the WVU game at Giants Stadium, for I was an idiot who broke team rules and I paid for it. When Frank was with the Cubs, I visited him many times at Wrigley Field, for I called on all the Chicago venues for Anheuser-Busch, and apologized for my past action. The silver-lining here was I came back in 1981 under Coach Mac, starting at ILB after game three with Tony Romano. Frank was a good man and I will never forget the years I played for the former HS head coach at Mt. Carmel in Chicago, Donavan McNabb's old school.

 

[JoeSU]

During the summer of 1979-80, I was playing in a SU faculty-staff summer softball league (for "Captain Z and the Great Ones"). I was playing 1st base, and Frank came up to bat. As I recall, he batted left-handed and I was guarding the line. He proceeded to absolutely crush a low line drive on one hop right at me. I instictively put my glove down, and was surpised when somehow the ball ended up in the webbing. Maloney (who was a large man) was barrelling down the line, and after touching the base, I had to quickly pull my foot back or he would have stomped on it. As he came by, he said in a low voice "nice play".

 

[cusefan88]

I see Mike Rotunda listed in that pic. IRS the wrestler? Didn't know he played football.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

I see Mike Rotunda listed in that pic. IRS the wrestler? Didn't know he played football.

Played for a few years.

Billy Fucillo also played for a few years too.

 

[cusefan88]

Played for a few years.

Billy Fucillo also played for a few years too.

that's a HUGGEEEEEE team (sorry I had to).

 

[RoysRunts]

Where is that Info?

 

[Bill Orange]

P-S story up. Former Syracuse football coach Frank Maloney dies at 79

 

[GreekFreak]

R.I.P. Coach.