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Thursday, September 12, 2002

By Ray Fittipaldo, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Frank Solich watched with interest when the nine coal miners in Somerset County were trapped underground for three days. Like anyone who comes from a mining family, he knew what the families were going through.

Frank Solich: 45-9 as head coach at Nebraska. (AP photo) UP CLOSE: FRANK SOLICH Born: Sept. 8, 1944, Johnstown, Pa. High school: Holy Name, Cleveland. Education: Nebraska, B.S., 1966; Nebraska, M. Ed., 1972. Coaching experience: Holy Name (Neb.) High School (1966-68); Southeast (Neb.) High School (1968-79). Nebraska freshman coach (1979-82); running backs coach (1983-97); assistant head coach (1991-97); head coach (1997-present). Record: 45-9 since replacing Tom Osborne with the Cornhuskers in 1997.

The inspiring events of the Quecreek Nine took Solich back in time. About 50 years ago, Solich and his family lived in Johnstown, where his father worked as a coal miner. Frank Solich Sr. worked in the mines in Southwestern Pennsylvania from the age of 16 until he developed black lung disease in the 1950s.

"Their job and what they do is extremely difficult, but they do it, and they do it well," Solich said this week. "My dad worked in the mines for a number of years right there in Stokel, Pa., until he contracted black lung, and he had to get out of the mines. But I'm very proud of the fact that he was a miner and how he went about things."

When Solich brings his University of Nebraska football team to play Penn State Saturday, it will be a bittersweet moment for him and his family. Solich returns to his Pennsylvania roots a year after burying his father in Johnstown. Frank Solich Sr. died Aug. 31, 2001, of congestive heart failure in Lincoln, Neb.

Solich, who turned 58 Sunday, spent only the early part of his childhood in Johnstown, but he still has family there and in the surrounding area.

"Anytime you grow up somewhere in your early childhood, you always have some fond memories," he said.

After developing black lung disease, the elder Solich moved his family to Cleveland, where he became a plant foreman for Ford Motor Co. His son was a talented athlete at Holy Name High School and went on to play at Nebraska from 1963-65.

After a 13-year career as a high school coach in Nebraska, Solich became an assistant coach at his alma mater in 1979. He was the running backs coach for 15 seasons and tutored Roger Craig, Mike Rozier and Jarvis Redwine. Solich knows how to get the most out of his running game. From 1983-2001, Nebraska led the NCAA in rushing 11 times.

For his good work he was promoted to assistant head coach under Tom Osborne in 1991. On Dec. 10, 1997, Solich became just the school's third head coach since 1962, succeeding his former boss and former coach Bob Devaney.

"The greatest lesson was to be yourself," Solich said of what he learned from his coaching mentors. "I saw those guys, whose personalities differed, but they didn't try to be anybody else but who they were."

Devaney and Osborne built Nebraska into one of the top football programs in the country, and Solich is carrying on the tradition. In his four-plus seasons as head coach, the Cornhuskers are 45-9. His 1999 team finished 12-1 and ranked third in The Associated Press final poll. Last season, Nebraska was 11-2 and played Miami for the national championship in the Rose Bowl.

The Cornhuskers are ranked No. 8 this week as they prepare to play Penn State. They are 3-0 with a new quarterback, Jammal Lord, who is taking over for Heisman Trophy winner Eric Crouch. Nebraska has a quick and athletic defense and one of the nation's top special teams units.

It will be Nebraska's first game at Beaver Stadium since 1982, when the Lions won a thriller, 27-24, against No. 2 Nebraska. Solich needed a lot of tickets for friends and family. He just doesn't know whether they'll be wearing red or blue.

"We do have some Penn State fans back there, there's no question about that," Solich said. "But some of them will have mixed emotions about it on this one. I do have a family member who has some children, some young family members who attend Penn State, so that's always a tough one. Some of them will be at the game. It was actually difficult, in fact, impossible to get enough tickets to supply all of them. I have relatives from as far away as Boston coming to the game."