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BEAVER TOWNSHIP -- Long considered one of college football's top assistant coaches, Ken Conatser is also one of the game's very best storytellers.
His induction this past January into the Youngstown State athletics hall of fame - he is one of three assistants and just six gridiron coaches to be honored - validates how trusted he was by those under whom he served.
"In addition to YSU, I am also in two high school halls of fame, which to me is really neat," the Cincinnati native told the Curbstone Coaches during Monday's weekly meeting at Avion Banquet Center. "I found out early in my coaching career, however, that it was due to the players. When I was at Harrison High School, I could see through the young kids that we would be alright in a couple of years or heck, I would have bailed.
We went from 0-10 to 9-1 and three of my players went on to successful collegiate careers at South Carolina, Michigan, and Ohio University.
He also helped turn around the gridiron fortunes at his alma mater, Western Hills High.
"When I went back they were 0-37 and we got them a winning season," Conatser added. "As I looked around the building, it just wasn't the same as when I was in school so I joined Dick MacPherson at UMass. He was my position coach at the University of Cincinnati and unfortunately, I stayed just one year as my wife [Carole] and I just had a baby. My mother was sick so we returned to Cincinnati and I ended up as the head football coach at Milford High School.
"Not bragging, but they hadn't had a winner in 15 years and we gave them four in a row, five if you count our 5-5 season and that was a great experience."
In addition to being a head coach on the high school level, Conatser has served as an assistant head coach, offensive, defensive and special teams coordinator, and a line coach on both sides of the ball in college.
He returned to UMass for a second stint with MacPherson, followed him when he became head coach at Syracuse and he also served under Doug Scovil at San Diego State.
His longest stint came under Jim Tressel at YSU, and he also followed him to Ohio State. He was an integral part of four Division I-AA national championships and an FBS title.
"I learned from Mac that the players you recruited always came first and in those days, we recruited non-stop," Conatser stated. "Tress was on Mac's staff at Syracuse and I remember him telling me one year out of 365 calendar days, we slept in our own beds just 175 days. We recruited all summer and watched every county all-star game imaginable."
Conatser said Scovil's loyalty to his assistant coaches got him canned at SDSU, despite the fact he had already developed five NFL quarterbacks.
"Doug died just 62 years old and was in the prime of his coaching life," Conatser noted. "He should be in the hall of fame for his contribution to the game. When they asked Roger Staubach who taught him how to pass, he said without hesitation, Doug Scovil. When Doug passed, four quarterbacks stood at each corner of his casket.
"I learned patience from Coach Tressel. I had no patience back then and have little to none right now but I learned from him how to be a better listener. He always said you have two ears and one mouth, listen twice as much as you talk. Whenever we went somewhere and someone asked a question, he wanted to know what you knew."
His recruiting stories are legendary, like the time he and MacPherson went to Canada and sight unseen offered a scholarship to a high school hockey-basketball player, Tommy Kane. Syracuse head basketball coach, Jim Boeheim, mentioned to us he had seen him at Sonny Vaccaro's camp and was an athlete.
"Another recruit, Deval Glover, became an All-American," Conatser said. "His mother was a sprint champion at Mississippi State. We took a chance on him despite the fact he never played football and he became a 10th-round draft pick of the Miami Dolphins, later playing with the Buffalo Bills."
Honored at the luncheon was Courtney Clark of Howland High, this year's Division I state indoor shot put champion.
Next Monday, Eric Ryan, CEO of JAC Management Group will serve as the guest speaker.