Ohio St. coaches clinic to honor Ironton’s Lutz

Published 12:00 am Sunday, April 6, 2014

Former Ironton Fighting Tigers’ head football coach Bob Lutz will be honored at the Ohio State University coaches’ clinic. (Kent Sanborn of Southern Ohio Sports Photos)

Former Ironton Fighting Tigers’ head football coach Bob Lutz will be honored at the Ohio State University coaches’ clinic. (Kent Sanborn of Southern Ohio Sports Photos)

Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

 

COLUMBUS — Bob Lutz is retired, but not forgotten — especially by the Ohio State coaches’ clinic.

The 83rd annual Ohio State University football coaches’ clinic scheduled for Thursday through Saturday, April 10-12, will honor several legendary coaches including former Ironton Fighting Tigers’ head coach Bob Lutz.

The clinic will honor Lutz — Ohio high school’s all-time winningest coach with 381 wins — and college football’s all-time winningest coach by percentage Larry Kehres of Mount Union.

Lutz retired with a record of 381-91-5 for a career that spanned three years as the head coach at Ironton St. Joseph and 39 at Ironton. His record at St. Joseph was 20-8-1 and 361-83-4 at Ironton.

His teams at Ironton qualified for the postseason playoffs 28 times and his playoff record was 43-26. Lutz coached Ironton to state championships in 1979 (Class AA) and 1989 (Division III). He had six teams finish as state runners-up (1973, 1982, 1988, 1992, 1993, 1999) and 10 teams were state semifinalists.

Kehres went 332-24-3 in 27 years for an amazing .929 winning percentage. He won 11 national titles.

The clinic features several guest speakers including Cincinnati Bengals’ head coach Marvin Lewis at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Cleveland Browns’ head coach Mike Pettine at 10 a.m. on Friday, and Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer at 9 a.m. on Friday.

Also speaking will be Ohio State assistants Tom Herman, Luke Fickell, Tim Hinton and Chris Ash along with numerous high school coaches.