FRANK SOLICH: A Kid With the Right Priorities

In the last few years of my tenure at Holy Name High School in Cleveland, Ohio, I became a fan of the University of Nebraska for the sole reason that Frank Solich played football there.

I first met Frank when he was a junior at Holy Name where I was at the time a priest and principal. A personable young man and an outstanding football player, Frank took academically challenging courses in high school. He was not a “jock.” He could carry on an intelligent conversation on a wide variety of subjects.

In his senior year just about every head football coach from the major universities came to the school to recruit Frank even though he stood only 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed about 160 pounds. But he could run like a deer, and on defense he was not afraid to tackle an opposing player who outweighed him by 50 or 60 pounds. Not surprisingly, Holy Name won the City Championship in 1961, defeating its arch rival Cathedral Latin, mainly because Solich played an outstanding game.

Local sportswriters used every adjective to describe this talented athlete. But success did not go to Frank’s head. He was the same polite, unassuming kid he had always been.

In December of that year, we scheduled closed retreats for the seniors, which meant that they could not leave the premises of their retreat location. Senior boys were sent to the Jesuit Retreat House, and senior girls to the Diocesan Retreat House. Seniors who would need to leave the premises to work after school were told they could make their retreat with underclassmen at the school.

About a week before the retreats were to begin, I got a phone call from the president of the Cleveland Touchdown Club. Members were having a dinner at the Cleveland Athletic Club to honor three outstanding athletes in the area: one from the Cleveland Browns, one from a college, and one from a high school. The committee had unanimously selected Frank Solich as the outstanding high school athlete in the area.

I told the gentleman that Frank had signed up for a retreat, but I thought I he would be willing to make a retreat with the underclassmen when he learned he was being honored by the Touchdown Club. I underestimated Frank. He told me, “Father, I have been planning on making that closed retreat for a long time. I need to get away and do some serious thinking about my life. Ask one of the coaches to go in my place.”

“ But, Frank,” I said, “there will be about 500 people at that banquet, and they will be expecting you.”

“ Sorry, Father,” Frank said, “I’m going to make that closed retreat. Ask Coach Falivene to go in my place and pick up my trophy.” And that’s what I did. Frank made the closed retreat.

A couple of years later when Frank was a sophomore at the University of Nebraska, the cover of a September issue of Sports Illustrated featured Frank Solich. At a student assembly I brought in a copy of Sports Illustrated and told them that retreat story. Then I read how the author emphasized how small Solich is. To me, I said, Frank Solich is about nine feet tall, a giant among men. Would that more of us had the courage of our convictions.

Solich succeeded Tom Osborne as head coach at Nebraska. He is now head coach at the University of Ohio at Athens.

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