Ad Rutschman and Bill Manlove were legendary head coaches, decades ago, and they haven't quite stopped coaching yet. Linfield, Delaware Valley athletics photos

By Glen Crevier
D3sports.com

While Bill Manlove and Ad Rutschman didn’t coach during the days of leather helmets and high-top cleats, it’s safe to say they stand alone in longevity on the college football sidelines.

Going strong in their 90s, both Manlove and Rutschman are long past the days of winning conference titles and national championships, and their inductions into the College Football Hall of Fame has long since passed, but their coaching days are still very much alive.

Manlove, 92, is an assistant coach and consultant at Delaware Valley in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, while Rutschman, 93, is an assistant coach at Linfield in McMinnville, Oregon, the school he coached for 24 seasons and led to three NAIA Division II national titles.  

Let’s just say age is not a barrier with these two guys.

On Saturday afternoons, you’ll find Manlove pacing the sidelines, observing but minding his business, and Rutschman perched in the stands, a vantage point that suits him fine.

Of course, their current roles are a far cry from their legendary careers as head coaches. But their passion for the game has not been diminished.

Manlove was a head coach for 32 years, where he had a record of 212-111-1 and reached the Hall of Fame in 2011. 

He made his mark during a 23-year tenure at Widener, where he went 182-53-1 and won two NCAA Division III national championships (1977 and1981). His teams had 21 consecutive winning seasons and won 10 Middle Atlantic Conference titles. After leaving Widener, Manlove coached at Delaware Valley from 1992 to 1995 and later helped revive the football program at Division I-AA La Salle from 1997 to 2001, when he officially stepped down as a head coach.

After leaving La Salle, Manlove returned to Delaware Valley in 2002 as an assistant coach, and he has served in that capacity ever since. 

Last fall, Widener honored Manlove with a statue outside the football stadium. 

Rutschman is a legend at Linfield. Besides coaching football for 24 years, he coached baseball for 13 seasons and served as athletic director for 25 years. He was inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame in 1988 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1998. The school honored Rutschman and his wife, Joan, in 1995 by naming the athletic field house after them.

In addition to his two national titles, his football teams won 15 conference titles and he retired in 1991 with a career 183-48-3 record. 

On the baseball field, he led the Wildcats to the NAIA national title in 1971, his first year in charge of the program. 

Obviously the baseball bloodlines are thick in the Rutschman family. His grandson, Baltimore Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman, is a two-time American League all-star.

Manlove and Rutschman share a similar trait at this point in their careers: They love being part of the program, but they know their boundaries.

“Unless I’m asked, I don’t interfere or offer criticism,” said Manlove. “But I’ll point out little things in practice, like if the quarterback doesn’t carry out his fake, or I’ll yell. ‘Pick it up, pick it up,’ to encourage the kids. But saying, ‘I think we should do this or that’ to the coaching staff is not my role.”

But Manlove’s opinion is valued, said Mike Isgro, Delaware Valley head coach. “He’s involved with offense, defense, special teams and on game days I’ll lean on him to help make decisions. He’s really into the game and he kills it with his decisions. He’s always asking, ‘What do you need from me?’ ” 

Duke Greco, the head coach at Division II West Chester and a former head coach at Delaware Valley, remembers a valuable lesson he learned from Manlove.

“He’s fiery, but he’s like a chemistry teacher, very hands-on. He’s very kind, humble. I’d watch him and say, ‘Man, you can do it this way.’ You don’t have to scream to get your point across. I learned so much from him.”

Ad Rutschman coached Linfield football to multiple national championships in the NAIA. Linfield athletics photo

Rutschman, too, stays clear of offering unsolicited opinions. He says the players love having him around and he’ll offer advice when asked. “If I think I can say something that will make a player better, then I will. I’m all about developing players and seeing them grow.”

Both have unique roles with their teams.

Manlove attends most practices and admits he spends a lot of time on a computer scouting the opponent, looking for any weakness he can point out or looking to see if any starters have injuries that the Aggies can exploit.  

“He comes in every Monday with info breaking down our game and looking at what other teams are doing. He self-scouts us, too. A full analytic breakdown,” said Isgro.

On game days, before kickoff, Manlove often hangs out in the press box with his eyes on the opponents as they warm up, looking for any advantage. 

Rutschman’s specialty nowadays is the kickoff return game. That’s his responsibility. He attends practice three days a week, prepares his special teams, and on game days watches from the stands. “My only regret,” he says, “is that we seldom return kickoffs anymore, especially now that kids can just kick it out of the end zone.”

Even so, he cherishes his moments around the team. 

“A long time ago, when I was a high school coach in the early ’60s, I won an award and the people at Topps asked what my philosophy of winning was. No one had ever asked me that before and I really hadn’t thought about it. So I sent them an answer all these years later not much has changed.

“It’s all about teaching them about honesty, teamwork, developing good habits, ethics, and learning to overcome adversity. I wanted to be a teacher and football was the best class to teach those lessons. If you do not have these skills in place it’s a bumpy road in life.

“I love to see kids graduate and have success. My kids have gone on to be orthopedic surgeons, lawyers, highly successful CEOs.”

The Linfield coaches enjoy Rutschman’s presence around the program.

“Coach has always been a true mentor, not just with words and wisdom but through action and role modeling,” said Linfield coach Joe Smith. “The way he lives his life is an inspiration to me, and he most definitely rubs off on the team in incalculable ways.”

Both coaches are coming off tough Saturday opening-game defeats. Linfield fell to UW-Oshkosh 31-14, and Delaware Valley lost to Hampden-Sydney 38-9.

“Our coach was really down after that one,” Manlove said of Isgro. “He took it hard. I just said, ‘Get used to it if you are going to be in this business for a while.’ You’ve got to move on.”

Just another lesson handed down from the old coach.

Glen Crevier spent 43 years in sports journalism as a reporter, columnist and sports editor