Eddie Burke, 63; Was Basketball Coach At Drexel
Bill Schenley
FROM: The Philadelphia Daily News ~
By Bob Cooney
Few families are as big, or as tight, as the Philadelphia
basketball family. Today, that special unit is in mourning,
as longtime Drexel coach and city hoops fixture Eddie
Burke died yesterday at 63.
After word spread of Burke's death, his Havertown home
was graced by an endless flow of visitors and callers,
according to daughter Melissa.
"It been pretty amazing how many people have been
showing their love for our dad," she said. "You kind of
get a sense of what a great man he was and how much he
did for people."
Burke died in his sleep at the family's Havertown home,
she said.
A statement from St. Joseph's Prep, where he played
basketball and later coached, said he recently suffered
a relapse of lung cancer, and was about to begin treatment
when he died.
The affable Burke first crashed the Philadelphia basketball
scene as a player at the Prep, where he led the team to the
Catholic League title in 1962 and won the scoring title the
next season. He went on to play at La Salle, where
a serious knee injury in his senior year ended his playing
career.
Following graduation, he became the Prep's freshmen coach
for a short time, before taking over as varsity coach. He led
the Hawks to the CL title in 1971, then won it again the next
year at St. Thomas More. He has the unique distinction of
being named CL coach of the year in consecutive seasons, but
at different schools. After leaving St. Thomas More when it
closed in 1975, he spent time at Bishop McDevitt and West
Catholic.
One of his players at the Prep was Saint Joseph's coach Phil
Martelli.
"This is really hard," Martelli said. "Anyone who has played
a high school sport knows that their coach is so much more
than that. That's the way I thought of Eddie. During my time
at St. Joe's, I would see him and he would say he was proud
of me. That meant more to me than any win, because
I wanted all the people who have influenced me to be proud.
And Eddie was certainly one of them."
Though they faced each other in many Catholic League
coaching battles, former Roman Catholic and current Prep
coach Speedy Morris formed a special friendship with Burke.
"He was a really close friend," an emotional Morris said.
"After games, we would get together with our wives and go
out and have fun. He did such a great job of coaching, but
more than that, he was a first-class guy. You could never
find someone who would say a bad word about Eddie.
Everybody liked him. And that's because he was so easy
to like."
After one season at West Catholic, Burke was hired in 1977
as head coach at Drexel, where he stayed for 14 seasons.
Perhaps his biggest coaching memory came in March 1986,
when his Dragons defeated Hofstra to win the East Coast
Conference Tournament and advance for the first time to
the NCAA Tournament. Their opponent was eventual
champion Louisville, but the opponent didn't matter to the
Dragons' head coach.
"I don't care who we play. We're in the barroom pools,"
he said after beating Hofstra.
When Burke's contract wasn't renewed in the spring of 1991,
there were some ill feelings. Burke had accumulated 205
wins at Drexel, and had developed some fine assistant
coaches, including Jay Wright, Walt Fuller (now an assistant
at La Salle), former Bucknell coach Pat Flannery and Rowan
coach Joe Cassidy.
Burke returned to his high school alma mater to coach in 1992
and stayed there for seven seasons before becoming the
school's director of alumni relations, a post he held until
retiring in 2004.
Cassidy found out about his friend's death while umpiring
a baseball game in Philadelphia. On his way home, he found
himself driving by Burke's Inn, a Haverford tavern Burke and
his wife Bette Ann ran for several years.
"One thing about Eddie was that he was universally liked,"
said Cassidy, who served under Burke for 11 seasons.
"Whether it was someone from the Public League or the
Catholic League or from the college ranks, everyone loved
Eddie."
Besides his wife Bette Ann and his daughter Melissa, Burke is
survived by another daughter, Maureen; a son, Brendan; and
two grandchildren. Twin grandchildren are expected soon.
Funeral arrangements are pending. *