Dave Logan while at Mullen (Craig Walker, Denver Post)
OK, I’ve held off on this.
Many have asked me about two in-state figures and the Colorado State job.
And, yes, those involved in the ongoing CSU search — Tony Frank, John Morris, Glenn Sugiyama and Pat Richter — would be well-advised to at least consider contacting, speaking directly with, and seeking to formally interview Dave Logan and John Wristen.
I probably don’t need to recite Logan’s credentials, but I’ll do it anyway.
To call him “the Cherry Creek High School coach,” of course, is understatement.
At Wheat Ridge, he was a star in football (Denver Post Gold Helmet winner), basketball and baseball. I moved to Denver the spring of my junior year, just in time to play baseball with Dave his senior season — when we were batterymates — and in American Legion ball that summer.
So, yes, I have known him for many years. But we have not talked about this. I promise. In fact, if we had, perhaps he would have insisted I not write this.
Logan was an All-American at Colorado, also was a basketball star, and he and Dave Winfield are the only men drafted in three major-league sports, with Logan going to the Browns, the Kansas City Kings, and the Cincinnati Reds out of high school as a pitcher-shortstop. He played nine seasons in the NFL with Cleveland and Denver.
As a coach, he has won seven state championships at four schools, while continuing his radio work both on weekday afternoons at KOA and as the Broncos’ play-by-play voice.
I’m just going to say that the parroted, know-nothing, lazy dismissal of Logan as “a high school coach” — a dismissal that, by the way, insults the honorable high school coaching craft — is silly.
I’m tired of it.
Some of the “hot” coaches in the game — Hugh Freeze, Gus Malzahn, and even Art Briles, who spent 16 seasons as a high school head coach — were high school coaches not that long ago.
No, Logan didn’t seek to take an intermediate step as a college or NFL assistant, but the major reason for that is … he didn’t need to, on several different levels. His teams have run a sophisticated offense, and he has managed to make it teachable to teenagers. His players believe in him. And, you’re darned right, those who have come across him over the years remain loyal.
CSU should at least contact him. He’s very happy in what he is doing now, and considering him would take courage, but it would be the right — and smart — thing to do.
CSU-Pueblo coach John Wristen with the ThunderWolves (Karl Gehring, Denver Post)
Same with Wristen, the coach at CSU-Pueblo who is preparing the ThunderWolves for the Division II national championship game coming up Saturday in Kansas City, Kansas. , and I’ll let that be the introduction. A veteran college assistant before returning to Pueblo, he has done a terrific job in taking a startup program to national prominence, at his alma mater and in the city where he attended high school. And anyone who knows him — really knows him — will vouch for his character.
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or
