Wally Posted December 16, 2007 Share Posted December 16, 2007 http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2007/1...a3419323844.txt Pelini holding on to his roots BY BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star Saturday, Dec 15, 2007 - 11:38:29 pm CST This is before the San Francisco 49ers called and before he met Pete Carroll, before there were T-shirt slogans built around his name. This is before he sat in a room, a 26-year-old missing his fiancee, passing the hours with a guy named Ray Rhodes, watching film, talking football, taking notes. Scribble down enough lessons, learn enough things, and one day, other people are writing down your wisdom. This is before the “We Want Bo!” chants, a token interview and a moving van aimed for Oklahoma, before the “BEAUX TIGERS” signs in Louisiana. This is a story that goes back to Youngstown, Ohio. “Hard-working people, that’s home,” Bo Pelini says. “Yeah, that’s home for me. That’s where I grew up. That’s where I learned everything.” He may seem like he is Nebraska’s now, the people’s new hope, their football coach, but everything he brings here goes back to that town 900 miles away. Youngstown is where Mark became Bo, where Bo met Mary Pat, he the quarterback, she the cheerleader. “Started dating senior year of high school,” he says. Twenty-some years and three kids later, he calls her his “best friend.” It is where Pelini scored more than 1,000 points at Cardinal Mooney High School with a left-handed jump shot, and it is the place where his football skills caught the recruiting attention of an Ohio State coach named Earle Bruce. Youngstown is where he goes back to every year, because once a Mooney kid, always a Mooney kid. “I can give you one story about Bo,” the old high school coach says on the other end of the phone. Don Bucci coached football at Mooney for 34 seasons, won four state titles. He coached four Stoops boys and five Pelini boys, tough kids from the south side of town. They gave him plenty of stories, stories that still travel around the hallways today. Many kids play high school football. A few still get talked about 20 years after they walk out the door. “We were playing a team,” Bucci continues. “Bo was at quarterback and we were running what we called a stacked-I offense. So Bo pointed to one of the linebackers and told them we’re going to be running the ball right here, off the right tackle. The fullback was yelling at Bo to shut up, stop telling them the play. But Bo told the guy, ‘We’re going to run the ball here and it’s up to you to stop it.’ Well, we ran the ball right there. Got about 10 to 15 yards, too. That’s the whole story of Bo Pelini. That’s Bo.” *** Anthony and Mary Catherine Pelini had eight kids, five boys and three girls, and every one of them earned a college degree. Nancy was the oldest child and Mark was the youngest, though rarely did anyone call him Mark. The Pelinis lived in a five-bedroom house. Actually, it was more like a three-bedroom house, but ingenuity applied here. A walk-in closet could become a bedroom for two. Much of Youngstown was made up of families who had been in the United States for less than two generations. It was a town for a long time dominated by steel mills until they went under in the ’70s, not a place for pretty boys, better suited for Springsteen lyrics: “Well my daddy worked the furnaces / Kept ’em hotter than hell ...” Mostly, the parents of Youngstown hoped that their children would have it better than they did. Anthony Pelini fought in World War II and went to Ohio State on the GI bill. He was not an athlete like his sons, but still, he never missed one of their games. “They sacrificed everything for us,” Bo says of his mother and father. “He didn’t push us into anything. We played when we wanted to play, but if we were out there, we better conduct ourselves the right way. We better act a certain way. If we didn’t, that’s when we heard it, and he’d get that fixed in a hurry.” Before finishing school at Ohio State, Anthony Pelini was hired as a pharmaceutical salesman, a profession he’d keep for more than 30 years. He settled his family in a house with a square driveway on a corner lot. Since it was on the corner, it had a slightly bigger yard than many houses in the neighborhood, a space that was well-utilized. If a game was too big for the yard, the street soon was filled with a collection of sneakers — a football game breaking out between the mailboxes. “We competed against each other on a daily basis, whether it was basketball, football, baseball, board games, it didn’t matter,” Carl Pelini says. “But we were also very supportive. At the end of the day, everyone was pulling for each other. You’d be playing a Little League baseball game, look up in the stands and all your brothers were there.” Sometimes they’d play a game in the front yard in which Carl would get on a knee and try to lead block against his brothers or neighbors. The youngest Pelini played the part of running back and he’d try to dive over the bodies for an imaginary six points. Though his mom and dad kept calling him Mark, most everyone else took to calling him Bo. It was a tag derived from a Cleveland Browns running back of the day named Bo Scott — tough guy, cool name. Bo. Bo Pelini. It just sort of stuck. *** Well, of course, this happened. That’s what they all say now. Of course, Bo Pelini became a head football coach. People saw the leadership in high school. “He had overwhelming confidence and it sort of rubbed off on the whole team,” Bucci says. They saw the signs at Ohio State, where Pelini played as a defensive back from 1987-90. “You could just tell he was kind of a born leader, a Youngstown, Ohio, guy. If you see who’s been successful from Youngstown, there’s quite a few,” says Greg Frey, a former Buckeyes quarterback who was a captain alongside Pelini. “Bo is the type who wears his emotion on his sleeve.” John Cooper had faster and more talented players at Ohio State, but the former coach says you could always count on Pelini for toughness, for playing football the right way. “He never made any mental mistakes.” His confidence is what seems to strike people the most. Bucci thinks of a conversation he had with Pelini four years ago, shortly after he was passed up for the Nebraska job in favor of Bill Callahan. Bucci remembers Pelini saying, “I’m not going to let it bother me. I’ll be a head coach somewhere in a few years.” Being a coach wasn’t necessarily in the plans back in 1992, when Pelini had just completed a master’s degree in sports administration from Ohio University. He worked as an assistant coach at Mooney in 1993, but admittedly things were “kind of at a lull.” He was sending out coaching resumes, pondering taking a sales job with Nike. Then came a call from Dwight Clark of the 49ers. “Want to be a scout?” Pelini didn’t really have ambitions to be a scout, but the 49ers don’t call every day, and so he made the trip to San Francisco. It possibly didn’t hurt Pelini that Eddie DeBartolo Jr., then the 49ers owner, and Carmen Policy, then the chief executive officer of the team, were both Youngstown guys, too — Mooney grads even. “Only guy in America that went from an assistant high school coach to the 49ers,” Bucci says with a laugh. It didn’t take very long for Pelini to impress, going quickly from 49ers scout to assistant coach. Just weeks after his arrival, he was being recommended by assistant coach Rhodes as a strong candidate for an assistant defensive backs coach position in the organization. Those nights of watching film and football chatter had provided more than just entertainment. It was the jump-start to a career. Pelini was with the 49ers when they won the Super Bowl in 1995. He soon moved to New England to coach with Carroll, then to Green Bay to coach with Mike Sherman, then came a call from Frank Solich. Pelini came to Nebraska an unfamiliar face. He left several months later as the people’s choice, having transformed a Husker defense from mediocre to something that evoked pride again. They cheered his name as he left the field as NU’s interim coach after a 17-3 Alamo Bowl win against Michigan State. He was just 36. Tom Osborne was 36 when Bob Devaney handed him the keys. Pelini interviewed with Steve Pederson to be Nebraska’s permanent head coach. The interview didn’t last long. A 41-day coaching search ended with Pelini nowhere in sight. His career continued to roll anyway, with Pelini showing up in Oklahoma, assisting a Youngstown friend and Mooney grad, Bob Stoops. Bob’s dad coached Pelini in high school. “They’re like brothers to us,” Pelini says of the Stoops. After a year at Oklahoma, Pelini moved again, this time taking over as defensive coordinator at LSU, his job for the last three years. “The unique thing about Bo, and I give him credit for this — because a lot of guys hang around a school as a grad assistant or maybe stay local — but when Bo left (Ohio State), it’s almost like he disappeared,” Cooper says. “To his credit, he went out on his own. He got into coaching and moved up the chain quickly.” Now, in a story that would sound ridiculous if it weren’t true, Pelini has the job he wasn’t given four years ago. They’re selling “Bo Big Red” shirts to prove it. A couple weeks ago, with speculation swirling about him coming back to Nebraska, Pelini told his LSU players it was his “dream job” to coach the Huskers. “When he said he got his dream job, he wasn’t just talking,” Carl Pelini says. “He did, and it’s not just because it’s a great BCS school. It’s because it’s Nebraska, and I know how much he wanted to coach there the first time.” Not surprisingly, Bo asked his brother, the same one who used to block for him in the front yard, to join him on his coaching staff. It’s no easy job, but a couple of guys from Youngstown probably wouldn’t want it any other way. “I can’t even express the excitement,” Carl Pelini says. “As you go through your career, you want to reach the pinnacle. You want to work for one of the great tradition-rich programs. “And you always want to work with someone you trust and that has the same values you do, the same philosophies you do. It’s even better when it turns out that person is your brother.” Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7439 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com. Quote Link to comment
trouble Posted December 16, 2007 Share Posted December 16, 2007 Well... That almost brought a tear to my eye. Good story. Quote Link to comment
Touchdown Tommie Posted December 16, 2007 Share Posted December 16, 2007 Great story...thanks for posting! Quote Link to comment
benjibean1 Posted December 16, 2007 Share Posted December 16, 2007 I love it. "We are going to run the ball right there", "it is up to you to stop it" Man it will be a nice change to have that attitude back again. Quote Link to comment
DJR313 Posted December 16, 2007 Share Posted December 16, 2007 I love it. "We are going to run the ball right there", "it is up to you to stop it" Man it will be a nice change to have that attitude back again. Sounds similar to "we'll take what we want." Quote Link to comment
MCAT800 Posted December 17, 2007 Share Posted December 17, 2007 Thanks for posting. Great story Quote Link to comment
DaveH Posted December 17, 2007 Share Posted December 17, 2007 I love it. "We are going to run the ball right there", "it is up to you to stop it" Man it will be a nice change to have that attitude back again. Sounds similar to "we'll take what we want." Yea, but dude, it's different. It' FRIGGIN BO!@!!!!! Quote Link to comment
huskermez9674 Posted December 17, 2007 Share Posted December 17, 2007 Great story. One question though. If someome were to say call him Mark would he come after you? Quote Link to comment
Wally Posted December 17, 2007 Author Share Posted December 17, 2007 Great story. One question though. If someome were to say call him Mark would he come after you? I wouldn't risk it if I were you. Quote Link to comment
ssfranny Posted December 17, 2007 Share Posted December 17, 2007 http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2007/1...a3419323844.txt Pelini holding on to his roots BY BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star Saturday, Dec 15, 2007 - 11:38:29 pm CST This is before the San Francisco 49ers called and before he met Pete Carroll, before there were T-shirt slogans built around his name. This is before he sat in a room, a 26-year-old missing his fiancee, passing the hours with a guy named Ray Rhodes, watching film, talking football, taking notes. Scribble down enough lessons, learn enough things, and one day, other people are writing down your wisdom. This is before the “We Want Bo!” chants, a token interview and a moving van aimed for Oklahoma, before the “BEAUX TIGERS” signs in Louisiana. This is a story that goes back to Youngstown, Ohio. “Hard-working people, that’s home,” Bo Pelini says. “Yeah, that’s home for me. That’s where I grew up. That’s where I learned everything.” He may seem like he is Nebraska’s now, the people’s new hope, their football coach, but everything he brings here goes back to that town 900 miles away. Youngstown is where Mark became Bo, where Bo met Mary Pat, he the quarterback, she the cheerleader. “Started dating senior year of high school,” he says. Twenty-some years and three kids later, he calls her his “best friend.” It is where Pelini scored more than 1,000 points at Cardinal Mooney High School with a left-handed jump shot, and it is the place where his football skills caught the recruiting attention of an Ohio State coach named Earle Bruce. Youngstown is where he goes back to every year, because once a Mooney kid, always a Mooney kid. “I can give you one story about Bo,” the old high school coach says on the other end of the phone. Don Bucci coached football at Mooney for 34 seasons, won four state titles. He coached four Stoops boys and five Pelini boys, tough kids from the south side of town. They gave him plenty of stories, stories that still travel around the hallways today. Many kids play high school football. A few still get talked about 20 years after they walk out the door. “We were playing a team,” Bucci continues. “Bo was at quarterback and we were running what we called a stacked-I offense. So Bo pointed to one of the linebackers and told them we’re going to be running the ball right here, off the right tackle. The fullback was yelling at Bo to shut up, stop telling them the play. But Bo told the guy, ‘We’re going to run the ball here and it’s up to you to stop it.’ Well, we ran the ball right there. Got about 10 to 15 yards, too. That’s the whole story of Bo Pelini. That’s Bo.” *** Anthony and Mary Catherine Pelini had eight kids, five boys and three girls, and every one of them earned a college degree. Nancy was the oldest child and Mark was the youngest, though rarely did anyone call him Mark. The Pelinis lived in a five-bedroom house. Actually, it was more like a three-bedroom house, but ingenuity applied here. A walk-in closet could become a bedroom for two. Much of Youngstown was made up of families who had been in the United States for less than two generations. It was a town for a long time dominated by steel mills until they went under in the ’70s, not a place for pretty boys, better suited for Springsteen lyrics: “Well my daddy worked the furnaces / Kept ’em hotter than hell ...” Mostly, the parents of Youngstown hoped that their children would have it better than they did. Anthony Pelini fought in World War II and went to Ohio State on the GI bill. He was not an athlete like his sons, but still, he never missed one of their games. “They sacrificed everything for us,” Bo says of his mother and father. “He didn’t push us into anything. We played when we wanted to play, but if we were out there, we better conduct ourselves the right way. We better act a certain way. If we didn’t, that’s when we heard it, and he’d get that fixed in a hurry.” Before finishing school at Ohio State, Anthony Pelini was hired as a pharmaceutical salesman, a profession he’d keep for more than 30 years. He settled his family in a house with a square driveway on a corner lot. Since it was on the corner, it had a slightly bigger yard than many houses in the neighborhood, a space that was well-utilized. If a game was too big for the yard, the street soon was filled with a collection of sneakers — a football game breaking out between the mailboxes. “We competed against each other on a daily basis, whether it was basketball, football, baseball, board games, it didn’t matter,” Carl Pelini says. “But we were also very supportive. At the end of the day, everyone was pulling for each other. You’d be playing a Little League baseball game, look up in the stands and all your brothers were there.” Sometimes they’d play a game in the front yard in which Carl would get on a knee and try to lead block against his brothers or neighbors. The youngest Pelini played the part of running back and he’d try to dive over the bodies for an imaginary six points. Though his mom and dad kept calling him Mark, most everyone else took to calling him Bo. It was a tag derived from a Cleveland Browns running back of the day named Bo Scott — tough guy, cool name. Bo. Bo Pelini. It just sort of stuck. *** Well, of course, this happened. That’s what they all say now. Of course, Bo Pelini became a head football coach. People saw the leadership in high school. “He had overwhelming confidence and it sort of rubbed off on the whole team,” Bucci says. They saw the signs at Ohio State, where Pelini played as a defensive back from 1987-90. “You could just tell he was kind of a born leader, a Youngstown, Ohio, guy. If you see who’s been successful from Youngstown, there’s quite a few,” says Greg Frey, a former Buckeyes quarterback who was a captain alongside Pelini. “Bo is the type who wears his emotion on his sleeve.” John Cooper had faster and more talented players at Ohio State, but the former coach says you could always count on Pelini for toughness, for playing football the right way. “He never made any mental mistakes.” His confidence is what seems to strike people the most. Bucci thinks of a conversation he had with Pelini four years ago, shortly after he was passed up for the Nebraska job in favor of Bill Callahan. Bucci remembers Pelini saying, “I’m not going to let it bother me. I’ll be a head coach somewhere in a few years.” Being a coach wasn’t necessarily in the plans back in 1992, when Pelini had just completed a master’s degree in sports administration from Ohio University. He worked as an assistant coach at Mooney in 1993, but admittedly things were “kind of at a lull.” He was sending out coaching resumes, pondering taking a sales job with Nike. Then came a call from Dwight Clark of the 49ers. “Want to be a scout?” Pelini didn’t really have ambitions to be a scout, but the 49ers don’t call every day, and so he made the trip to San Francisco. It possibly didn’t hurt Pelini that Eddie DeBartolo Jr., then the 49ers owner, and Carmen Policy, then the chief executive officer of the team, were both Youngstown guys, too — Mooney grads even. “Only guy in America that went from an assistant high school coach to the 49ers,” Bucci says with a laugh. It didn’t take very long for Pelini to impress, going quickly from 49ers scout to assistant coach. Just weeks after his arrival, he was being recommended by assistant coach Rhodes as a strong candidate for an assistant defensive backs coach position in the organization. Those nights of watching film and football chatter had provided more than just entertainment. It was the jump-start to a career. Pelini was with the 49ers when they won the Super Bowl in 1995. He soon moved to New England to coach with Carroll, then to Green Bay to coach with Mike Sherman, then came a call from Frank Solich. Pelini came to Nebraska an unfamiliar face. He left several months later as the people’s choice, having transformed a Husker defense from mediocre to something that evoked pride again. They cheered his name as he left the field as NU’s interim coach after a 17-3 Alamo Bowl win against Michigan State. He was just 36. Tom Osborne was 36 when Bob Devaney handed him the keys. Pelini interviewed with Steve Pederson to be Nebraska’s permanent head coach. The interview didn’t last long. A 41-day coaching search ended with Pelini nowhere in sight. His career continued to roll anyway, with Pelini showing up in Oklahoma, assisting a Youngstown friend and Mooney grad, Bob Stoops. Bob’s dad coached Pelini in high school. “They’re like brothers to us,” Pelini says of the Stoops. After a year at Oklahoma, Pelini moved again, this time taking over as defensive coordinator at LSU, his job for the last three years. “The unique thing about Bo, and I give him credit for this — because a lot of guys hang around a school as a grad assistant or maybe stay local — but when Bo left (Ohio State), it’s almost like he disappeared,” Cooper says. “To his credit, he went out on his own. He got into coaching and moved up the chain quickly.” Now, in a story that would sound ridiculous if it weren’t true, Pelini has the job he wasn’t given four years ago. They’re selling “Bo Big Red” shirts to prove it. A couple weeks ago, with speculation swirling about him coming back to Nebraska, Pelini told his LSU players it was his “dream job” to coach the Huskers. “When he said he got his dream job, he wasn’t just talking,” Carl Pelini says. “He did, and it’s not just because it’s a great BCS school. It’s because it’s Nebraska, and I know how much he wanted to coach there the first time.” Not surprisingly, Bo asked his brother, the same one who used to block for him in the front yard, to join him on his coaching staff. It’s no easy job, but a couple of guys from Youngstown probably wouldn’t want it any other way. “I can’t even express the excitement,” Carl Pelini says. “As you go through your career, you want to reach the pinnacle. You want to work for one of the great tradition-rich programs. “And you always want to work with someone you trust and that has the same values you do, the same philosophies you do. It’s even better when it turns out that person is your brother.” Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7439 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com. Awesome...the story where hes QB and tells the LB where exactly hes going to run it is awesome. Scott Quote Link to comment
hskrmama Posted December 17, 2007 Share Posted December 17, 2007 Cool. Is it September yet? Quote Link to comment
Drowning_in_the_Sea_of_Red Posted December 17, 2007 Share Posted December 17, 2007 Neat story. I didn't know he went to the same high school as Stoops. Playing Oklahoma in the coming years should be interesting... Quote Link to comment
kjstrouble Posted December 17, 2007 Share Posted December 17, 2007 Great story. One question though. If someome were to say call him Mark would he come after you? I wouldn't risk it if I were you. Ya got that right. Quote Link to comment
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