Ridley High School football coach Joe McNicholas created excellence whether it was in the classroom or the football field, writes Bob Grotz for the Daily Times.

He spent his best years coaching football and teaching social studies and history at Ridley. McNicholas passed away last week at age 91. 

McNicholas generated an aura that became known as “The Green Mystique.”  The Green Raiders won 16 Central League championships, including 10 in a row from 1980 to 1989.

They had a record of 226-28-3 between 1973-1996. The team’s 88.5 percent win percentage is the highest of any established high school football coach in Pennsylvania.

 The 1990 team reached the PIAA Class 4A title game.

“The stakes were always so high,” said Dennis Deitch, a former Green Raider in 1988. “I mean just imagine playing for a team where literally if you lost one game or even tied a game your season was considered a disaster. It really was like that — that kind of pressure, and that guy was stoic. He just didn’t get rattled.”

Known as Joe McNick, McNicholas was an All-Delco quarterback at Ridley Township High in 1949 and led the Villanova University football team in interceptions in consecutive seasons.

Read more about Ridley football coach Joe McNicholas in the Daily Times.