Frank Ryan’s greatest run
Frank Ryan’s greatest run? That’s a tough one. Some may argue it came on a Catholic League football field around Philadelphia. Some down south would argue it came in the vicinity of Durham, N.C. But I would argue it came in Ridley Park. I know. I saw it. It happened on Jan. 14, 1992. That was 25 years after his final carry as a tailback at Duke University … 29 years after a Daily Times writer called Frank Ryan “the finest shake, rattle and roll artist this county has seen since Bill Haley and his Comets.”
It may seem strange that St. James’ arguably greatest football halfback of all time made his greatest run long after his play on a football field. But he did. I know. I saw it. Maybe we need to back in time to look Frank’s greatest runs.
It’s probably most appropriate to begin with a quote from the Oct. 31, 1961, edition of the Delaware County Daily Times where a sports scribe quoted St. James High School then-assistant coach Joe Logue, “In Frank Ryan, St. James has its most elusive runner since Ray (Butch) Linden.” That’s a pretty nice compliment coming from a coach who saw the Bulldogs go at over the years have names like Linden, Dick Christy, Jimmy Christy, Joe Ward, Chick Epright, and Allen Haley in its backfields. In the following years Ryan would prove Logue right and take his proper place alongside those named in this paragraph. There could be a Mount Rushmore of St. James’ greatest backs built along the entire stretch of 21st and Potter streets and Frank Ryan would be one of them.
But, what was Frank Ryan’s greatest run? In those early 1960 years, there were plenty of them. And whether they were at PMC Stadium, Villanova Stadium, 59th and Elmwood or wherever in the Catholic League, there was his family army in the stands watching him. That included his parents, the late Sonny and Anne Ryan, his brothers John and Eddie, his sister Mary Jo and one other person. That would be his aunt, Gen Kerns, widow of Art Kerns, a pretty good football player himself from Chester and who was killed in World War II. It’s important to remember Frank’s Aunt Gen because she not only saw her nephew’s greatest runs. She was part of one. I know because I did see it. But we will come back to that.
Two candidates for Ryan’s best run happened in the fall of 1963. In early October of that year against a good Roman Catholic team, he was Butch to John Esher’s Sundance Kid on the opening kickoff that Esher fielded, began to run and then fired a cross-field lateral pass to Ryan who scooted 90 yards to open the scoring in the game. Ryan would score the game’s only other touchdown in the Jimmies 12-0 victory. But it was more than the score or the game itself. It was the electricity that he brought to the game and to the St. James followers that meant most.
Almost a month to the day later, it was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid all over again at Villanova Stadium against Bonner High School. Once again, Esher fielded the opening kickoff and again unselfishly, cross-reversed with Ryan, handing him the ball and blocking for him along the way to an 86yard touchdown. St. James would go on to score 28 points that day on their way to victory. Frank Ryan scored 22 of them.
Electric. Every one of them as he dashed off to First Team All Delco, All Catholic and Second Team All State honors that year before heading south to become a Duke Blue Devil after weighing nearly 30 football scholarship offers. And the list of greatest runs would continue.
In the years 1965, 1966 and 1967, Ryan would rush for 5.5, 4.1 and 4.6 yards per carry, the 1967 average being of particular note since he ended up finishing second in the ACC that year in yards per carry. And who knows if that may have been better for a number one ranking if his season had not been interrupted by a late-season injury?
The press in Durham loved him as much as the Delco group did. Citing the Virginia game, a local writer noted that “there was a world of pressure on Frank’s shoulders (and) he responded the way he has for three years … a consistently fine performance.” Another local writer noted, “Ryan has proved he can run with the best.”
There are other runs we could mention as well, runs that may not necessarily have come on a football field. There was a baseball diamond as well. He was a key for all Coach John Mooney’s superb St. James baseball teams throughout his high school years and had excellent runs in the Delco Baseball League where he was a masher with a bat in his hand. Maybe he was our earlier version of Bo Jackson because at Duke, where he played football and baseball, he hit for .305 in his final year and starred in the ACC. That was quite a run in and of itself.
Then there was his run at Malvern Prep where he spent nearly 40 years as a teacher, a coach, dean of students and athletic director. He was beloved at the school and certainly his time there would qualify as one of his greatest runs in life. Personally, I would like to recall his greatest run to be a day back in 1962 where he was visited at his Garden City home by friends to go out with them but he chose to stay at home with his 9-year old cousin … just to throw a football with. A 9-year old never forgets.
So how does one decide which one was Frank Ryan’s greatest runs? It’s not easy but it’s one we haven’t even addressed. And that came on Jan. 14, 1992, at St. Madeline’s Church in Ridley Park. On that day, the family of Gen Kerns came to that beautiful church to lay to rest the aunt who idolized “her Frank.” She had always been in those stands during those St. James football games. And it was all these years later that “her Frank” rose up at the end of the service, walked up the aisle and took the microphone. Back in those days, eulogies were not as common as they are today but here was a good woman laid to rest and once the service was over, only one arose to make sure that nobody forgot her. That was Frank Ryan. Calling his Aunt Gen his “fairy godmother who was always there for all of us,” he made sure that his greatest fan have been.
That … was Frank Ryan’s greatest of runs. I know. I saw it. And Mike Pousner of the Duke Chronicle was right back in October 1967.
“Frank Ryan, he’s the player who always comes up with the big play.”
A 9-year old boy never forgets. Neither does a 62-yearold man. in life was immortalized, as she should