Augie Bossu Day
The Benedictine Community celebrates Augie Bossu Day on his birthday, May 5th!
When Coach Bossu retired in 1994, he held the most wins by an Ohio head football coach. His impressive record in baseball makes him 1 of 2 Ohio coaches to register on the OHSAA all time wins list for football and baseball. He stayed on to be an assistant and freshmen football coach until 2005. He passed away at the age of 91 on January 1st, 2008.
Today, we want to return to the day Augie Bossu began his head coaching career for football at Benedictine. The Plain Dealer published this article on December 7th, 1954 announcing that Joe Rufus would become the first layman at Benedictine to be athletic director and that Augie Bossu would become head coach.
Joe Rufus had an impressive coaching record in Football himself, and is certainly famous for coaching football, basketball, and baseball to city championships in 1948, boasting a triple crown and earning the moniker, “Home of Champions”. Joe Rufus laid the groundwork for what was to come in Benedictine’s impressive athletic history.
Today, the students of Benedictine walk across the Rufus Courtyard daily, perhaps while going to practice and play on Bossu Field. These names are a part of our history and today is a great day to pause and learn about these Men that have shaped this campus and community.
Below is a transcription of the Plain Dealer article from 1954. Read this piece of history and scroll to the bottom to see our videos from past Bossu Days or to view the Bossu Coaching Timeline!
RUFUS IN NEW ATHLETIC DIRECTOR AT BENEDICTINE; BOSSU NAMED HEAD COACH
VETERAN MENTOR BECOMES 1ST LAYMAN TO HOLD POST
Joe Rufus, for nine years head football coach at Benedictine High School, yesterday was named athletic director-the first layman to hold the post in the history of the Catholic school.
Rufus' duties as football coach will be taken over by Augie Bossu, formerly head coach at Cathedral Latin and now as an assistant at Benedictine. Both appointments are effective next fall.
Father Benedict J. Dobrancin, O.S.B., school principal who announced the appointments, said that Rufus' precedent-shattering promotion was made “in recognition of his many years of service and the excellent results he has obtained as football coach.”
TEAMS WON 64 GAMES
The stocky, forceful mentor has one of the most outstanding records of any local coach. In nine seasons his teams have won 64 games, while losing but 14 and tying 5. Under Rufus the Bengals have won or shared six East Senate Championships and, until they lost to Cathedral Latin this season, had a string of 31 undefeated games against East Senate opponents.
The 36-year-old native of Mingo Junction, Rufus first came to Benedictine as an assistant to Norbert Rascher in 1945. He took over as interim head coach when Rascher went into service and guided a squad-with only three lettermen-to the school’s first undefeated East Senate season and a tie for the title.
On Rascher's return, Rufus again became an assistant, but he took over the top spot the next year when Rascher went to John Carroll University. That 1947 season was Rufus’ least successful, with a 4-4 record, but it was followed by his greatest.
In 1948, with Rufus coaching all three sports, Benedictine won the city championship in football, basketball, and baseball. The grid squad had a record of 10 victories and no defeats, a feat that was duplicated by the Bengals in 1952.
Rufus expressed his gratitude in a formal statement which said, in part: “I feel very honored***. This is the first time that a layman will hae the responsibilities of the department and I am very grateful to the Father Abbott and all the good Benedictine Monks for expressing their confidence in me.”
He also lauded Bossu, whom he had recommended as his successor, as a “very co-operative, very loyal, a good coach and teacher and a fine example to the boys.”
A Star fullback and graduate of Ohio University, to which he transferred after his freshmen year at Notre Dame, Rufus began his Coach career in 1941 at Nelsonville, O.
Rufus is married and the father of two children, Joseph Jr., and Mary Kay, 8.
The 38-year-old Bossu, who won a city title in his first year as head coach at Latin, said he was “very happy to have the opportunity of being a head coach again. I certainly hope I can have somewhere near the success in the job that Joe has had.”
A Native of Monongahela, PA., where attended high school, Bossu was graduated from Notre Dame in 1939, after three seasons of varsity football-one as a first string guard.
He was freshman coach at Notre Dame in 1939, then coached at Chaminade High, Mineola, NY, before entering the service , where he was grid boss at Fort Monmouth, NJ, for two seasons.
After his release as a major, Bossu went to Stanford University for his master’s degree and returned to Cleveland to take over at Latin. He was head coach there until the 1953 season, when he joined Rufus at Benedictine.
Bossu, who will continue to handle the baseball duties in addition to his grid duties, also is married. He has five children-Jean, 7, Mary Lous, Frankie, 5, Virginia, 3, and Stevie, 2.
Rufus will relinquish all his coaching duties, except for acting in an advisory capacity when needed. This will leave another vacancy as head basketball coach which will be filled later. In his new post he will relieve Father Augustine K. Yurko, O.S.B., who will become faculty manager of athletics and devote his time to business aspects of the sports program.
Father Florian M. Meade, O.S.B. will continue as assistant athletic director.
