RIP Frank Navarro

There are not a lot of coaches whom TigerBlog can think of off the top of his head who were the head coach at two different Ivy League schools.

Some do leap to mind immediately. For instance, there is Al Bagnoli, who is currently the head football coach at Columbia after having been the longtime head coach at Penn. Going back a bit in Ivy League football, there was also Bob Blackman, a Hall-of-Fame coach who was the head man at both Dartmouth and Cornell among his other stops.

Hmmm. Who else? 

As he's trying to think of other examples, TB came up with Leo Durocher, who managed the Dodgers and then the Giants (though TB realizes neither is an Ivy League school, or school at all for that matter). Still, it's the same basic idea, going from one team to a big rival. 

In fact, if you didn't know this, Durocher was the manager of the Giants in 1951, when they came from 13.5 games back to tie the Dodgers and then won the famous best-of-three playoff on Bobby Thomson's home run. He also managed the Giants to the 1954 World Series.

Meanwhile, back at the main point here, TB can think of a few Princeton head coaches who were athletes or assistant coaches (or both) at other Ivy League schools, including current head coaches Fred Samara (men's track and field), Cara Morey (women's hockey) and Chris Sailer (women's lacrosse), as well as former women's basketball coach Courtney Banghart. Going the other way, former Princeton men's basketball player and assistant coach Brian Earl is the current head coach at Cornell.

There have to be others, right? TB has to missing some obvious ones who were head coaches at two different Ivy schools. 

He learned, albeit for rather sad reasons, of one such person, who was the head coach at Princeton and another Ivy. That would be Frank Navarro, the former head football coach for the Tigers who had previously been at Columbia.

Navarro, who coached Princeton from 1978-84, passed away over the weekend at the age of 91. 

TigerBlog never met Navarro, though Navarro was the Princeton coach in the first game TB ever saw in Palmer Stadium, back when he was a Quaker, doing student radio. Navarro was also the head coach at Princeton for a much bigger game at the old stadium, the 1981 Princeton-Yale game that was named Princeton's best game of the 20th century.

That was the game where Princeton defeated Yale 35-31 on Bob Holly's last second touchdown run, after he'd thrown for a then-Ivy record and still-Princeton record 501 yards (with four touchdowns). 

"It's an outstanding day for Princeton alumni and students," Navarro said after the game. "They should have a victory against Yale every once in a while." 

At the time, that seemed like it might be asking a lot, as Yale had won 14 straight against the Tigers. Navarro had some other big moments as a head coach, including leading Wabash College of Indiana to the 1977 Division III national championship game.

His Ivy League record at Princeton was 23-23-3, which is interestingly eerily similar to his overall head coaching record of 99-99-6. His final game was a 21-17 win over Dartmouth, and then he announced his retirement at the football banquet that followed.

When he was hired, Navarro said this about himself:
"I'm the football players' man,", he said. "I'm here to do the best I can for them."

He was a football lifer, that's for sure. He played guard at the University of Maryland, including on the 1951 team that beat Tennessee in the Sugar Bowl to win the national championship. He spent two years in the Air Force after graduation and then started his coaching career, first as the offensive line coach at Columbia before moving on to Williams as the freshman coach in 1956. 

He became the defensive coordinator at Williams, and the team had eight shutouts between the 1961 and 1962 seasons. He then became the Ephs' head coach, going 28-11-1 in five seasons before returning to Columbia, this time as the head coach.  

He and his wife Jill had eight children and 22 grandchildren.

TigerBlog joins with all of Princeton football in sending his condolences to the Navarro family.