A Hepe of praise
Ed Hepe is gone, but his legacy remains.
"He left a tough act to follow," said former Butler High football coach and current school board member Art Bernardi.
Hepe, a former Butler High athletic director, basketball and track coach, died Friday at Butler Memorial Hospital. He was 87.
Hepe served as Butler AD from 1966 until his retirement in 1985. His overall basketball coaching record was 223-83, including a state championship while at Fort Cherry High in 1961.
Before becoming athletic director, he coached the Golden Tornado boys basketball team for five years.
"He was an honest, hard-working man, a quiet man who never complained about anything," said longtime trainer Rudy Corona. "People respected him because he found solutions to problems on his own.
"I've been good friends with Ed Hepe since 1952 and never once heard the man curse or talk badly about anybody."
During his time as athletic director at Butler, Hepe introduced and brought along numerous female sports teams. He developed the Butler Track Invitational into a 35-team event.
Bernardi was an assistant track coach with Hepe for years.
"The kids had tremendous respect for him," Bernardi said. "He came from a blue-collar type of family and he understood young people.
"Ed treated everyone fairly, athletes and coaches. He was a fiery, knowledgeable coach who was able to convey that knowledge to others," he added. "And when Title IX came along, he did an incredible job of developing our girls sports programs."
Former Butler football coach and athletic director Gary Milanovich said Hepe "took me under his wing" when Milanovich first came to Butler.
"He was experiencing some physical problems for a while and gave me the opportunity to assist him on a number of things," Milanovich said. "He helped groom me to become an athletic director.
"He was always good to me and he was good for Butler."
Hepe started track and/or cross country programs at McDonald, Fort Cherry and Butler high schools.
Hepe was a stellar athlete as well. He won the 100 meters, 220 meters, 220 low hurdles and long jump at an Ohio high school district meet in 1942. That feat has never been equaled.
He attended Slippery Rock State College as a 29-year-old, decorated World War II veteran and set a school record with a 90-yard punt return.Hepe was working an 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift at a strip mine year-round and was married with two daughters at the time."There were no scholarships in those days," Hepe said during a 2003 interview with the Butler Eagle. "That's why it irritates me today when I talk to kids who say they can't do it."A kid can do anything if he wants it badly enough."Longtime NFL coach Marty Schottenheimer is one of Hepe's biggest fans. Hepe coached Schottenheimer in football, basketball and track at Fort Cherry.Through the years, Schottenheimer sent Hepe autographed photos and various memorabilia while he was head coach of the Cleveland Browns, Kansas City Chiefs and San Diego Chargers."I never lost track of where he was," Schottenheimer said in a 2003 interview. "The influence he's had in my life, I cannot describe."Hepe was inducted into the Butler Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1985, the Slippery Rock University Sports Hall of Fame in 1987 and the Washington County Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.Despite all of the athletic success Hepe produced with his players, he said, "I'm more happy with what became of the boys after I had them. They stay in touch with me, I stay in touch with them."Those friendships are something money can't buy."Such was Ed Hepe's view of life."The Lord's getting a good man," Corona said.
