Chaminade Holds Memorial for Former Football Coach

Not everyone is eulogized by a co-owner of an NFL team or a two-time Tony award winner of both stage and screen, even if it is just by letter.

The remarks of both Dan Rooney and Brian Dennehy were read to a crowd 160 strong last Saturday at where a memorial Mass was held in Darby Auditorium for former Flyers football coach Joseph F. Thomas, who passed away on Jan. 6 at the age of 91.

During his four decades at the school until his retirement in 1988, Thomas compiled a 120-46-7 record during his time as the varsity head coach from 1948-69 – 18th all-time in Nassau County history and 32nd in Long Island history – seven Catholic High School Football League Championships – including an undefeated season of 8-0-0 in 1961 – and was named CHSFL coach of the year seven times.

“Joe Thomas has been a powerful part of my life for over 60 years now and that’s not going to change now because of his passing,” Dennehy, one of the “pillars of strength” of the 1956 football team, wrote. “I can’t think of another man whose impact was more powerful in my life. The essential purpose of the man, his rock-solid character, his profound faith, his love for and dedication to the young men he worked with, his enthusiasm for football – for all sports – and for life in general made him a great teacher and an extraordinary example of how life should be lived.”

Rooney, the American ambassador to Ireland, wrote of Thomas that “he did so much for me as a young man playing football at North Catholic, as he did for all the players and students he instructed. No one other than my parents did more to motivate and push me to the right path to become a man of integrity, character, honesty; Joe was that person.”

Thomas left school in his sophomore year to work on a milk wagon during the Great Depression before finally graduating from St. John the Baptist High School in Philadelphia and given a full scholarship to the University of Dayton by Harry Baujan, who had once played for Knute Rockne.

“He knew what he could do,” Thomas’ son Joseph “Jeff” Thomas Jr. said of Hoskunk’s view of his father who became the star quarterback of what became known as the Quaker State Express.

Thomas also worked as the North Catholic basketball coach before leaving for WWII. The junior Thomas quipped that the other coaches couldn’t figure out his dad’s zone defense who told them to “use it until you lose... and they never lost,” going 28-0  and winning the state championship.

“You do not coach lacrosse, you coach young men,” Chaminade coach Bob Pomponio said, recalling Thomas still doing laps in the pool at 60. “It doesn’t matter what sport it is, what matters is you coach the young men.”

Thomas’ son Joseph “Jeff” Thomas Jr. told a story of how his father went to Art Rooney, telling the Steelers’ owner that he had no uniforms for the North Catholic High School football team, and ended up getting the practice uniforms of the Steelers, which the high school players used in in 1946-47.

The entire memorial service was coordinated within two weeks after Thomas’ death by the school.

“I’m sure my father would be surprised and delighted to see you all,” the younger Thomas said. “My family greatly appreciates your hospitality.” Also present were Coach Thomas’ three sisters from Philadelphia as well as nine grandchildren and five great grandchildren.

“Dad did not just have a daughter and two sons,” Thomas Jr. said. “He had a daughter and 10,000 sons and he knew you all and he remembered names and places and events and plays and who did what, where and when.”

The Gospel reading that night was Matthew 5:3-10, better known as the Beatitudes.

“They fit so well for Mr. Thomas,” Fr. James Williams, S.M., said in his homily. “God calls all of us to be a superhero and Mr. Thomas heard that call. Wasn’t he a man detached from worldly honor? Wasn’t he a man who avoided money or pleasure or power as his top priority? Wasn’t our experience of someone who brought out mercy whose God’s will was most important?”

Fr. Williams also read from several letters from former students, including one that stated “it seems clear to me that you were placed, indirectly, in the perfect spot where you could be a beacon of light and provide such a powerful image for so man thousands of young men,” and “football or not, academics always came first.”

The younger Thomas also recalled an incident where his father was cut off on Hempstead Turnpike in Levittown by another driver which he felt summed up his persona.

“There wasn’t anywhere in his body for negativity. I never saw my father angry,” he said. “The perception was always in that vein of positive energy. He was one who understood on a fundamental level that what you keep in your head is what you get in your life.

Recalling his father’s half-time talks to the teams, Thomas Jr. said that they were “so powerful I didn’t want to interfere for fear he might hold back because I was in the room – and never with foul language, never with some of the stuff you see today. He helped people believe in who they could be and what they could be.”