Al Mancheski Obit - by Janson Mancheski
ALVIN MANCHESKI, HALL OF FAME FOOTBALL COACH, IS DEAD
Alvin “Doctor Al” Mancheski, the football
coach who built winning programs at Sturgeon Bay High School in the 1950s, then
at Green Bay East in the 1960s, passed away peacefully in his sleep Wednesday
night at his home in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Dr. Mancheski (a former optometrist,
as well as a high school teacher, wrestling, baseball and football coach), was
96 years old, and had been in failing health for the past six months.
Born in nearby Denmark Wisconsin on
February 23, 1921, the Mancheski family moved to Green Bay when Al was ten.
Like East High’s Curly Lambeau before him, if there was one word that would
summarize the next 50 years of his life, that word would be “Football.” Al
became an outstanding athlete at East High in the late 1930s and 1940, where he
was all-conference running back in both his junior and senior years, leading
the Fox River Valley conference in rushing. He played under legendary East High
and former Packers’ top assistant coach Tom Hearden, whom he viewed as both a mentor and substitute father figure.
Besides playing football, Al
lettered in baseball and was an outstanding basketball player. He was also a
champion pole vaulter and placed second at the 1940 Wisconsin state high school track meet.
Al went on to attend the University of Wisconsin, where his football coach was the
former quarterback of Notre Dame’s fabled Four Horsemen, Harry Stuhldreher.
When World War II broke out, Al joined the Army Air Corps, and spent most of
the time in the Pacific Theater as a medic and physician’s surgical assistant. Back from the war in 1946, Al was
named the most valuable player on the Badgers’ newly-formed JV squad. He joined Coach
Stuhldreher’s Wisconsin football staff in 1947. Al’s coaching lineage was
notable now, with two Hall of Fame coaches (Hearden and Stuhldreher) having
served as his mentors. It was time for Coach Al to head a program of his own.
Using his apprenticeships at Wisconsin as a springboard, Al was hired as head coach of the Sturgeon Bay Clippers in 1948. He found immediate success, winning conference championships in '48 and 1950. Along the way, Al also coached wrestling and baseball, while teaching chemistry and physical education at the high school.
But Al decided to leave coaching football when the GI bill offered him a chance to return to school. His service record as an Army medic gave him impetus toward the medical field. Al had been accepted to medical school at UW-Madison but lacked a single required course in either Spanish, French, or Latin. Even though Al spoke fluent Polish, he was turned down for entry. Thus Al enrolled at Illinois College of Optometry in Chicago, and graduated with an Doctor of Optometry degree two years later.
Moving back to Green Bay, Al signed on as an assistant football coach with Green Bay Catholic Central, under the outstanding tutilidge of Head Coach Ted Fritsch. Ted was a former Hall of Fame fullback for the Green Bay Packers, and local football legend. Al and Ted became close friends and Al was quick to learn a number of new tricks from another master of the game. Ted had played the bulk of his career under Curly Lambeau, and was known as a clever and savvy football mind. Yet after his stint at Catholic Central, Al still longed to run his own program. He jumped at the chance, one year later, to return to the Sturgeon Bay Clippers.
Almost immediately, Al was able to rekindle the success the Clippers had experienced during his first stint with the program. They steadily regained their winning traction and finally became dominant in their final three seasons. Al's teams at Sturgeon Bay won championships in 1948 – 50, and 1958 – 59, at one point going 20 – 1.
Now it was time for Al to take on an even larger challenge. Relocating back to his home town, Al took over the reins at his Green Bay East alma mater in 1960 – 68, where his undefeated team won the Fox River Valley Conference championship in 1965. The Red Devils earned the state’s highest rankings in both the AP and UPI polls. That same year, Coach Al was named the Wisconsin Football Coach of the Year. He also won the Fox Cities Sports Award. His COTY award was presented by college football legend Woody Hayes.
After leaving East High to devote time to his growing optometric practice, Al remained an assistant coach at Premontre High School (formerly Catholic Central) for the next five years. He afterwards served as a long-standing member of the WISAA Football Championship Selection Committee. In 1965, Al was honored as a charter member of the Wisconsin Football Coaches Hall of Fame.
In a coaching career that spanned 25 seasons, Al Mancheski won multiple accolades as a great
motivator. He was considered an innovator in his time, and among the first to
implement weight training for high school players. He also taught his players “vision/quickness”
reaction training, and supplied them with contact lenses in lieu of glasses while
playing.
So what made Al such a successful football coach? Several factors went into creating his formula for winning; and much of it was formed by taking bits and pieces from the coaching masters he had played under, and learned from. Al had learned, first, how to motivate players through speeches from the great Curly Lambeau, passed along to him via Lambeau's protege: Tom Hearden. Also from Lambeau, Al learned to be innovative. Curly Lambeau dominated the NFL by emphasizing the forward pass (Arnie Herber to Don Hutson), and how speedy running backs (Johnny Blood McNally) could then flourish in a spread open offense.
Second, Al learned his misdirection offense from both Tom Hearden at East, and Harry Stuhldreher at Wisconsin. These mentors had both played for legendary Knute Rockne's (Four Horsemen) Notre Dame-era championship teams. The emphasis was on variations of the Notre Dame box and single-wing offense, where a direct center snap to the running backs created a multitude of variations, all designed to confuse the defense.
But Al added his own flare to his winning philosophy. He created a version of the single-wing, which he called the "Twing" offense. (The press called it the "Go" offense.) This set the four ball carriers in a straight line behind the center, where each back was equally likely to receive the hike. When the ball was snapped, the backs all moved in different directions, some spinning or taking juke steps, crossing one another, sometimes with their backs completely turned to the defense. The result was defenders had to guess who the true ball carrier was -- often guessing incorrectly. This resulted in numerous plays each game where the defense ganged-up on one presumed target, only to find the real ball carrier sprinting down the opposite sideline and outrunning the confused defenders for gashing gains of thirty, forty, or fifty yards ... quite often sprinting untouched across the goal line.
The third aspect to Al's coaching philosophy was what he called "the edge." This was a combination of psychological ploy and physical execution. Again, he learned this technique passed down from Knute Rockne (see "Gipper" speech) via Harry Stuhldreher; and from Curly Lambeau (little Green Bay underdogs), as well as from Tom Hearden (everyone's against us!). Al's variation was by giving his players something the other team's didn't have, and it instilled a sense of confidence that spread through the entire team. Initially Al did this with weight training. In the summers, he had his players lifting weights together in the park across from the high school. This was in 1960, long before team training with weights was in vogue. Not only did it foster team unity, but also made his players stronger and more developed, presumably, than many of their opponents.
Even back in the late 1950s, Al instituted "vision reaction training" for his entire team. This was a series of techniques he had learned in optometry school, which involved teaching players visual cues, which then allowed their bodies to react quicker, and respond faster, to stimuli. An early proponent of this technique was the legendary Cleveland Browns' founder and coach, Paul Brown. Coach Brown also believed in quickness training, advocating that "the eyes lead the body." Thus the faster your brain could process what you're eyes were seeing, the quicker your body could react.
Every time Al's teams took the field, his players believed they held not only a motivational edge, but also a physical advantage over their opponents as well. In short, Al's players knew they were stronger, faster, and quicker than anyone they were playing. And with their Twing offense, which confounded defenses, they also likely thought they were more clever. What a huge advantage!
On the defensive side of the ball, Al's Sturgeon Bay and Green Bay East teams played a "combination" defense. This was a philosophy of man-to-man defense up front, where each lineman's job was to defeat the player across from him. The scheme allowed linebackers and defensive backs to play their own match-up assignments on the opponent's skill players -- similar to stiff man-to-man defense in basketball. With his Clippers' and Red Devils' players stronger and quicker than most opposition players, Al's defenses could smother their opponents by winning at every position, on nearly every play.
The fourth aspect to Al's winning philosophy was the "Kiss Method." (Decades before it became popular in today's sports lexicon.) Keep-it-Simple-Stupid! This meant that his strategy kept things simple so players' mistakes were reduced to practically nill. Fumbling the football was a mortal sin; and the same went for penalties. Al's teams played with great discipline. This aversion to making mistakes, however, did have its drawbacks. Even though Al's teams had great athletes, and excellent punters and place kickers, they rarely attempted field goals. Mostly for fear of having the kick blocked; and yet, Al always reasoned that with his deceptive offense, his teams were just as likely to make first downs on fourth downs, no matter how great the yardage. Why settle for three points, he reasoned, when the odds are just as likely you will score six?
The same thing went for passing the football. Al's desire to reduce mistakes created a reluctance to put the ball in the air. Yet this ultimately worked to his team's advantage. Al stacked the deck with his passing attack, by using it sparingly. With all the misdirection running plays his offense created, when his quarterbacks did pass, they usually found their receivers wide open against unsuspecting defensive backs. By lulling the defenders into passivity, Al's teams used their passing attack as a fatal weapon. When they did spring an unexpected pass, the plays were so well-designed and cleverly disguised, that they usually met with a near-perfect execution.
This modest passing attack, while not amassing a volume of receptions, nevertheless made a national high school All American out of East High's fabulous tight end, Pat "Bone" Harrington. And if not for a freak injury in college at Northwestern, Harrington was well on his way to collegiate All-American status, and a lengthy career in professional football.
So what made Al such a successful football coach? Several factors went into creating his formula for winning; and much of it was formed by taking bits and pieces from the coaching masters he had played under, and learned from. Al had learned, first, how to motivate players through speeches from the great Curly Lambeau, passed along to him via Lambeau's protege: Tom Hearden. Also from Lambeau, Al learned to be innovative. Curly Lambeau dominated the NFL by emphasizing the forward pass (Arnie Herber to Don Hutson), and how speedy running backs (Johnny Blood McNally) could then flourish in a spread open offense.
Second, Al learned his misdirection offense from both Tom Hearden at East, and Harry Stuhldreher at Wisconsin. These mentors had both played for legendary Knute Rockne's (Four Horsemen) Notre Dame-era championship teams. The emphasis was on variations of the Notre Dame box and single-wing offense, where a direct center snap to the running backs created a multitude of variations, all designed to confuse the defense.
But Al added his own flare to his winning philosophy. He created a version of the single-wing, which he called the "Twing" offense. (The press called it the "Go" offense.) This set the four ball carriers in a straight line behind the center, where each back was equally likely to receive the hike. When the ball was snapped, the backs all moved in different directions, some spinning or taking juke steps, crossing one another, sometimes with their backs completely turned to the defense. The result was defenders had to guess who the true ball carrier was -- often guessing incorrectly. This resulted in numerous plays each game where the defense ganged-up on one presumed target, only to find the real ball carrier sprinting down the opposite sideline and outrunning the confused defenders for gashing gains of thirty, forty, or fifty yards ... quite often sprinting untouched across the goal line.
The third aspect to Al's coaching philosophy was what he called "the edge." This was a combination of psychological ploy and physical execution. Again, he learned this technique passed down from Knute Rockne (see "Gipper" speech) via Harry Stuhldreher; and from Curly Lambeau (little Green Bay underdogs), as well as from Tom Hearden (everyone's against us!). Al's variation was by giving his players something the other team's didn't have, and it instilled a sense of confidence that spread through the entire team. Initially Al did this with weight training. In the summers, he had his players lifting weights together in the park across from the high school. This was in 1960, long before team training with weights was in vogue. Not only did it foster team unity, but also made his players stronger and more developed, presumably, than many of their opponents.
Even back in the late 1950s, Al instituted "vision reaction training" for his entire team. This was a series of techniques he had learned in optometry school, which involved teaching players visual cues, which then allowed their bodies to react quicker, and respond faster, to stimuli. An early proponent of this technique was the legendary Cleveland Browns' founder and coach, Paul Brown. Coach Brown also believed in quickness training, advocating that "the eyes lead the body." Thus the faster your brain could process what you're eyes were seeing, the quicker your body could react.
Every time Al's teams took the field, his players believed they held not only a motivational edge, but also a physical advantage over their opponents as well. In short, Al's players knew they were stronger, faster, and quicker than anyone they were playing. And with their Twing offense, which confounded defenses, they also likely thought they were more clever. What a huge advantage!
On the defensive side of the ball, Al's Sturgeon Bay and Green Bay East teams played a "combination" defense. This was a philosophy of man-to-man defense up front, where each lineman's job was to defeat the player across from him. The scheme allowed linebackers and defensive backs to play their own match-up assignments on the opponent's skill players -- similar to stiff man-to-man defense in basketball. With his Clippers' and Red Devils' players stronger and quicker than most opposition players, Al's defenses could smother their opponents by winning at every position, on nearly every play.
The fourth aspect to Al's winning philosophy was the "Kiss Method." (Decades before it became popular in today's sports lexicon.) Keep-it-Simple-Stupid! This meant that his strategy kept things simple so players' mistakes were reduced to practically nill. Fumbling the football was a mortal sin; and the same went for penalties. Al's teams played with great discipline. This aversion to making mistakes, however, did have its drawbacks. Even though Al's teams had great athletes, and excellent punters and place kickers, they rarely attempted field goals. Mostly for fear of having the kick blocked; and yet, Al always reasoned that with his deceptive offense, his teams were just as likely to make first downs on fourth downs, no matter how great the yardage. Why settle for three points, he reasoned, when the odds are just as likely you will score six?
The same thing went for passing the football. Al's desire to reduce mistakes created a reluctance to put the ball in the air. Yet this ultimately worked to his team's advantage. Al stacked the deck with his passing attack, by using it sparingly. With all the misdirection running plays his offense created, when his quarterbacks did pass, they usually found their receivers wide open against unsuspecting defensive backs. By lulling the defenders into passivity, Al's teams used their passing attack as a fatal weapon. When they did spring an unexpected pass, the plays were so well-designed and cleverly disguised, that they usually met with a near-perfect execution.
This modest passing attack, while not amassing a volume of receptions, nevertheless made a national high school All American out of East High's fabulous tight end, Pat "Bone" Harrington. And if not for a freak injury in college at Northwestern, Harrington was well on his way to collegiate All-American status, and a lengthy career in professional football.
Yet all things considered, Al Mancheski's greatest attribute was perhaps in taking losing programs and turning them into winners. Both Sturgeon Bay and Green Bay East were downtrodden programs when Al arrived on the scene. They were both high-success, championship programs when he departed. Al's career winning record as a head coach for thirteen years at Sturgeon Bay and Green Bay East high schools combined, stands at 61 - 27 - 7.
A lifelong Packers and Badgers fan,
Al often told stories of himself in high school, practicing on the East High field while Curly Lambeau’s Packers warmed up
outside the Old City Stadium fence. The fact that Al’s long-time mentor and
friend, Tom Hearden, played and coached with Curly Lambeau, allowed Al into the
Packers’ inner circle. When Hearden was nearly named the team’s head coach for
the 1958 season, he assured Al that he’d place him as an assistant on his new coaching staff. But alas Tom Hearden's health took a tragic turn before named as the Packers' head coach.
Throughout his life, Al maintained close friendships with a number of his assistant coaches. In particular, Gene and Faye Bray (and family), and Tom and Betty Van Lieshout (and family). And also with his neighbors and good friends Don Johnson and Gene Van Hout. Al relished his trips back to Sturgeon Bay, where he was honored multiple times by the athletic department, Clippers' Nation, and the local community for helping put Sturgeon Bay athletics on the map during his long tenure with the football program. Many of Al's former players at both Sturgeon Bay and Green Bay East, in later years, kept in touch with Coach Al and revered him as a friend and mentor.
Throughout his life, Al maintained close friendships with a number of his assistant coaches. In particular, Gene and Faye Bray (and family), and Tom and Betty Van Lieshout (and family). And also with his neighbors and good friends Don Johnson and Gene Van Hout. Al relished his trips back to Sturgeon Bay, where he was honored multiple times by the athletic department, Clippers' Nation, and the local community for helping put Sturgeon Bay athletics on the map during his long tenure with the football program. Many of Al's former players at both Sturgeon Bay and Green Bay East, in later years, kept in touch with Coach Al and revered him as a friend and mentor.
In his later years, having retiring
from coaching as well as his optometry practice, Al turned to book authorship.
He conveyed his personal story about Tom Hearden’s life to his son, Janson, and
together they co-authored the novel Shoot
For the Stars – The Tom Hearden Story. It tells the remarkable tale of one
man’s life in football, much the same way Al’s own story reads. The book has received rave reviews since it's publication in 2015, and is considered by football and non-sports fans alike as one of the finest sports-themed novels ever written.
Al is survived by his wife, the
former Dawn Marie Trask, whom he married in 1951; his sons Janson, Mark, and
Randall, all of Green Bay, daughters Nancy (Nubs DeCleene, deceased) and Amy (King) and her husband Paul, along
with grandchildren Chase and Somer DeCleene.
A funeral has been scheduled for 10 A.M. Monday at St. Mary of the Angels church. It is the same small Polish parish on the East Side of Green Bay, where at the age of ten, Al Mancheski first learned how to play the game of football.
