Coach Ed Rutherford

I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I have just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well."– Diane Ackerman

On Sunday, November 4, we had a group run and I mean a group. For example our group today comprised of Secretariat and Debbie Brickel, Diane and Randall Harris, Matt and Farah Avasarala, Marty Cullenward, Chris Turney and me. Today’s trail run started at my home and proceeded in the direction of Brown’s Bar on the Western States Trail.

In the lead, were Secretariat, Matt and Farah. Marty ,Chris and I were in the second tier until Marty picked up the pace and ran in front of Chris and me. Shortly, Chris and I arrived at Brown’s Bar. The plan, at this point, was for Matt and me to make a right turn and run a longer loop which we did. We ran down Brown’s Bar, past Maine Bar on the way and up the American Canyon section of the trail and then back to my home for about a 14 mile or so loop. I wanted to run that distance because  then  my week  totaled over 50 miles of trail running. It’s been a good 2 ½ to 3 months since I’ve totaled that many miles in a week. I did not experience any Achilles discomfort to speak of on this run and therefore plan to continue to increase my mileage even though I’m still receiving physical therapy treatment.  I am pleased about my running progress  so far.

Ed Rutherford

The rest of this post is devoted to my coach Ed Rutherford who recently passed away.

I just received word from Larry Hudas that Coach Ed Rutherford passed away .This sad news takes me back to Denby High School in Detroit, Michigan in the year 1954 when I was a freshman. As a freshman I went out for football. There was a freshman team, a reserve team and a varsity squad. I was on the reserve team in 1954 and the varsity in 1956 in 1957. Coach Rutherford was the head football coach and  Jack Rice the line coach.

It was in 1954 playing on the reserve team that I met Ed Budde. At the time Ed was an eighth-grader.  Ed’s older brother Bob, a member of the reserve team, procured a football uniform for Ed. Ed practiced and was there for a couple of days on our football team.

In 1956, I was playing middle linebacker on defense working my way up towards first string when I broke a bone in my heel that sidelined me for the rest of the season. That year our team went on and won the public school city championship in Detroit and then played the parochial champion in the annual  Goodfellow  game held at Tiger Stadium. Unfortunately my Denby team lost to De La Salle 26 to 20. Steve Schwartz was an all star running back and went on to receive a football scholarship at the University of Detroit. Junior Ron Transik was the starting middle guard on defense for our team.

After that football season, my heel healed and I was taking a health/phys ed class under Jack Rice. In that class, I performed about 50 to 60 push-ups in a minute along with 25 to 30 chins or pull ups. My demonstration of physical strength in that class was obviously passed along to Coach Rutherford. During our preseason football game with Mackenzie High School, Coach started me at middle guard while Ron Transik was switched to middle linebacker.

Part 2   To Be Continued