Comments on: Van F. Howe

By: Charles Helms

Charles Helms — Fri, 14 Jan 2022 21:58:58 +0000

I was Coach Howe’s quarterback for Palo Verde HS when we won the Arizona AAA State Championship 22-20. He was a great man and a great coach. He had a lot of confidence in us as players, he let me call 80% of the offenses plays. The only mistake he said he ever made was when we kicked the extra point in the State final game with 32 seconds and the score was 21-20. LOL, of course the point was meaningless. We could have lost by a field goal. We had driven the ball down the field from the 20 yd line with 6:30 left in the game. It was a 14 play drive and we were on the one yd line with our last time out. Coach Howe suggested we run a QB rollout (r.p.o.) Then he asked me what I wanted to run. I said to Coach Howe and Coach Bool, let me do a QB sneak over our left guard, Gary Brown, which was opposite our all-state guard and Capt. Paul Swank. The thought was the Camelback defense would expect anything up the middle to go over Paul. Touchdown, need I say more. By-the-way the QB for Camelback was current Offense Coordinator for Pitt and ex-head Coach for UMass —Mark Whipple.

By: Larry Siders

Larry Siders — Sun, 01 Nov 2015 22:26:46 +0000

I played football unders coach Howe’s in his last year as coach of Decatur, Il. We were Big 12 Champions that year.

By: Jerry Stump

Jerry Stump — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 00:33:55 +0000

I played for Coach Howe at Palo Verde HS in Tucson in 1966 and 1968. After graduation I played at the University of Arizona (Coach Howe was instrumental in several PVHS players getting an opportunity at U of A). He was a true gentleman and I have very fond memories of my high school football years. I now live in Vincennes, Indiana and had no idea about Coach Howe’s Salem roots.