Xavier University Athletics
Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 1985
- Class:
- 1940
Ed Kluska lettered in football, basketball, and baseball as a student was the Head Football Coach from 1947-54. He is a member of the Legion of Honor.
Kluska is on record as the second winningest coach in Xavier football history. He posted a 43-33-3 record for a winning percentage of 54.4%.
XU finished 10-1 under Kluska in the 1949 season. You'll have to excuse Xavier fans, though, if they remember Kluska for one big victory in particular that season. XU blasted Arizona State 33-12 on New Year's Day, 1950, in the Salad Bowl (forerunner of today's Fiesta Bowl).
Also under Kluska, the Musketeers captured three straight Ohio Intercollegiate titles -- in 1949, 1950, and 1951. During that championship period they compiled an impressive 27-2-1 record. Kluska also guided Xavier to its only undefeated season after 1901, finishing 9-0-1 in 1951, including a 26-0 victory over Cincinnati.
Kluska has won numerous honors, including two big ones following the 1951 season. He was named Little All-America Coach of the Year and was presented the George Gipp Award, symbolic of this recognition, by the Rockne Club in Kansas City, Missouri, in March, 1952. Kluska was also selected Coach of the Year by the International News Service.
One of the trademarks of the Kluska system was the teaching of the fundamentals of blocking and tackling. He was a respected T-formation strategist and molded the Musketeers into a respected and popular gridiron machine.
Kluska was born of immigrant Polish parents in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, in the heart of the coal mining district, in 1918. He was a regular on the Hurst High School squad in his last two years and won All-County honors, despite his lack of size -- 142 pounds. He also won recognition as a baseball player and turned down an offer to play with the St. Louis Cardinals to obtain a college education.
At Xavier he was a 60-minute end and made the All-Ohio team his senior year. He played forward on the basketball team and third base for the baseball team.
After graduation, he was an assistant football coach under Clem Crowe from 1940-42. After a brief stint in the Army, he took his first head coaching job at Purcell High School, in 1943. In the next four years at Purcell, he led the Cavaliers to a 31-1-3 mark. Then, in 1947, he took over as Xavier head coach and the rest, as they say, is history.
