Pettine Sr.’s life to be celebrated
Coach to be memorialized Saturday at CB West
Family, friends, former players, fans and the community will come together Saturday in Doylestown to celebrate the life of one of best high school football coaches in Pennsylvania history.
Mike Pettine, Sr., who led Central Bucks West to extraordinary success on the gridiron over 33 seasons, will be memorialized at a “Celebration of Mike Pettine” which will be held in the CB West High School Auditorium from 2-4 p.m.
Pettine, Sr. died Feb. 24 off a heart attack while playing golf in Land O’Lakes, Florida. He was 76.
“I think if he had to script how he wanted to go, this would’ve been it — just not for 10 or 15 years,” said Pettine, Sr.’s son, Mike
Pettine, Jr., to
Tom Moore in an interview Wednesday.
As head coach of Central Bucks West from 1967-1999, Pettine, Sr., who was also a social studies teacher at the school, made the Bucks a premier program in the state and amassed a career record of 326-42-4 — a winning percentage of .876.
Central Bucks West reached five PIAA Class AAAA finals under Pettine, Sr. — PIAA not starting a football championship until 1988 — with the Bucks claiming state crowns four times — the first coming in 1991 with West capturing three straight titles f rom 19971999.
Pettine, Sr. capped his coaching career with 45 consecutive wins — his last victory coming in the ‘99 state title game, a touchdown off a blocked punt late in the fourth quarter lifting the Bucks over Erie Cathedral Prep 14-13.
Central Bucks West kept the win streak going in 2000, extending it to 59 games — a state record before Clairton eclipsed it in 2012 — under longtime Pettine, Sr. assistant Mike Carey before falling to Cathedral Prep in that season’s PIAA final.
The Bucks also had a 53game win streak under Pettine, Sr. from 1984-1988 which ended with a 14-14 tie to Central Bucks East in their ‘88 Thanksgiving game. West beat Plymouth Whitemarsh in the 1989 opener for the last win in a 55-game unbeaten run.
Pettine, Sr. faced Pettine, Jr. and his North Penn team twice in 1999, the Bucks taking each (21-7 in the regular season, 21-0 in the District 1 final) as Pettine, Sr. went 5-0 coaching against his son. The two teams were both featured in documentaries — CB West in “The Last Game” and North Penn in ESPN’s “The Season.”
Pettine, Sr. joined his son’s coaching staff at North Penn in 2001 — the Knights went 9-3 that year — before Pettine, Jr. stepped down at NP to become a video assistant with the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens. Pettine Jr. rose up the league’s coaching ranks with the Ravens then New York Jets and Buffalo Bills before becoming head coach of the Cleveland Browns for two seasons (2014-2015).
The CB West lineage continued at North Penn in 2002 under Dick Beck, who played at West under Pettine, Sr. Beck and the Knights won the PIAA 4A title in 2003 and have continued to be one of the area’s top programs, having won their seventh District 1 title under Beck in 2016.
The Pettine, Sr. coaching tree can also be found at Wissahickon in former CB West player Randy Cuthbert. Cuthbert also coached CB West from 2001-2004 before his eight seasons at Pennridge and then three at Emmaus.
Pettine, Sr. is survived by his wife of 55 years Joyce, his three children — son Mike, daughters Linda and Sandra — and seven grandchildren. Donations to the Mike Pettine Memorial Football Scholarship Fund can be make c/o Central Bucks West High School, Guidance Office Awards Committee, 375 W. Court Street, Doylestown, PA 18901.