RIP Frank Kush

Old-school. RIP.

Kush, coach of Sun Devils and Colts, dies at 88

 

Played an indirect part in changing NFL history by being a key reason that John Elway refused to sign with the Colts.

 

If I remember the 30 for 30 on that draft correctly, Elway never mentioned Kush. Demoff did only when saying Kush was cool with trading the pick but Irsay turned it down. Rageaholic drunks don't make good owners.

 

Denver Post story quotes Elway
John Elway has star role in ESPN documentary about 1983 NFL draft – The Denver Post

 

One year, after the Heisman Awards, I'm at a private dinner hosted by the President of the Downtown Athletic Association.

I'm seated next to Frank Kush (and across from Mike Rozier).

I tell Kush that his name is familiar to me, but I can't quite place him. He tells me the field at ASU is named in his honor. I tell him that's not why I'm familiar with him.

He tells me he's famous for having coached in the NCAA, NFL, CFL, and USFL. No. That's not his.

Finally -- completely innocently, I really couldn't remember -- I ask him if he was known for one thing, maybe something infamous. So, he tells me -- all while talking with his hands and holding his steak knife -- that he was fired for punching a player.

That's it!

God did I feel like an idiot.

Rozier told him he'd heard he was tough to play for. Kush, tells him, he would have been better off if he had played for him. Rozier agrees that he was probably right.

 

All true. But the inference I took from the program, which I have seen more than once, is that Elway was more worried about Irsay than Kush. I don't care how hidebound a coach might've been, they weren't going to be mean to John Elway.

 

A great story YF. In one of Reggie Jackson's two or three autobiographies, I forget which, he says he kind of liked/respected Kush.

 

It ranks up there with when I ran into OJ -- pre murders -- in a billiard table store. The employees were fawning over him, and he was showing them his Hall of Fame ring.

I ask him, "where's your Super Bowl ri.. (oh shit)?"

OJ looks at me like I'm fucking crazy, and kicked me. The kick was sort of exaggerated, and playful, but he kicked me about waist high.

 

I've heard it was a minor miracle that no players died in his preseason camps.

Kush's. Not OJ's.

 

I kind of see how that might happen.

 

As a kid, I attended Colts practices when they were open to the public in Baltimore. One day, there's Reggie, who had been recruited to ASU by Kush. They had apparently stayed in touch.

 

From every account I ever read, a miserable excuse for a human being. Too many coaches who treat their players like human beings have won a helluva lot more than he did to excuse his behavior. Fuck him.