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Profile: Villanova Asst. Track Coach Jack Pyrah By James H. DeLorenzo [Originally published in the Gloucester, NJ Catholic Star Herald in April, 1995, a freelance article commissioned by their Sports Editor, Sam Bonavita, when I wasn't sure where my next job would be!] They'll be running the University of Pennsylvania Relay Carnival for the 101st time this month. It's doubtful that there are many who have been to more runnings of the Penn Relays than Gloucester's Jack Pyrah. This year will mark his 62nd consecutive trip to the Penn Relays, either as a spectator or a coach. Pyrah will be there this year in his role as "assistant coach emeritus" of the Villanova University Wildcat men's and women's track teams. Pyrah began his collegiate coaching career at Villanova in 1966, and retired from full-time coaching at the Philadelphia school in 1991. During his tenure, Pyrah served as an assistant to legendary coach James "Jumbo" Elliott, and his successors, Charlie Jenkins and Marty Stern. He now will act as a mentor to the newest Wildcat track coach, former Villanova Olympian John Marshall, who is in his first year at the helm. It was in the spring of 1981 that Pyrah answered his greatest career challenge. Then still an assistant to Jumbo Elliott, Pyrah held the Wildcat men's track team together in the weeks following Elliott's death on March 22, 1981. Part of that challenge was guiding the 'Cats through the Penn Relays, where they captured Championship of America titles in the distance medley relay and the 6000m relay. Pyrah guided Villanova to their first-ever Big East Conference outdoor track and field championship a week later, and then stepped back at the end of the season to return to his familiar assistant coach role. Yet when asked what his favorite memory of his first 61 trips to the Penn Relays could be, the St. Mary's parishioner recalls the 1968 running. "For pure thrills, I always come back to watching Larry James help Villanova win the mile relay with a 43.6 anchor leg," Pyrah said. "He got the baton behind Rice University's relay team, and beat their anchor man, Dale Bernauer with about 25 yards to spare. I was sitting with Jumbo, timing Larry. He went on to the Olympics later that year." When he's not out on the Main Line working with the Wildcats, Pyrah is working as a volunteer official at several South Jersey high school track meets. Originally from the Germantown section of Philadelphia, Pyrah and his wife, Jean, have lived in Gloucester since their marriage in 1957. Pyrah's coaching career actually began with Philadelphia's Shanahan Catholic Club in 1942, and continued until the club disbanded in the early 1960s. He then coached with the Delaware Valley Athletic Association until he joined Jumbo Elliott's Villanova coaching staff in the fall of 1966. He succeeded Jim Tuppeny as Elliott's assistant, after Tuppeny was named head coach at the University of Pennsylvania. (Oddly enough, Tuppeny, who later went on to serve as director of the Penn Relays from 1970 through 1987, is now the assistant head coach for Villanova's track program. He and Pyrah have a contest going -- Tuppeny will be attending the Penn Relays for the 61st straight year, trailing Pyrah by one trip). With the Wildcats, Pyrah was head coach for the men's cross country team for several seasons while Jumbo Elliott concentrated on indoor and outdoor track and field. Pyrah's harriers won eight IC4A team championships (including six straight from 1966-1971), and four NCAA National Championships (1966, 1967, 1968, 1979). This year at the Penn Relays, Pyrah is hoping for the Wildcats to once again increase their overall number of victories. Villanova University has won 106 Championship of America titles, 87 by the men's team and 19 by the women. Both totals far outdistance those of any other college program that has ever competed at the Penn Relays. During Pyrah's active tenure as an assistant coach at Villanova, he helped the Wildcat men win 54 of those titles.
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