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Rowe: Area has two Super Bowl connections

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By By Kermit Rowe, krowe@coxohio.com 10:58 PM Saturday, February 4, 2012

If you think a town the size of Springfield wouldn’t have any connections to this evening’s Super Bowl in Indianapolis, you’d have to think again.

In fact, Springfield has two connections to the big game. Longtime NFL referee Gary Arthur, a Northwestern High School graduate, will be working his first Super Bowl tonight. And leading the favored New England Patriots will be head coach Bill Belichick, who happens to be the godson of late Wittenberg coaching legend Bill Edwards.

Arthur can’t talk about his once-in-a-career appointment until after the Super Bowl, due to NFL guidelines. But Edwards’ son and grandson spoke Thursday about their memories of Belichick and their family patriarch.

It seems Belichick’s father, Steve, was very close with the Wittenberg coaching legend.

“They named him William Stephen Belichick; William was for my dad and Stephen was for his dad,” said William A. Edwards, Bill Edwards’ son, who lives in Cleveland. “They don’t name you after someone unless the families are very close.”

The connection came before the Patriots’ coach was born.

“Dad was a coach at Western Reserve (which later became Case Western), and dad recruited Steve,” said William. “Steve was a very good football player.

“Dad left to coach for the Detroit Lions, and Steve went with him as the equipment manager. The fullback got hurt and Steve played fullback for the rest of the season.

“The war comes on, and Steve joined the Navy as an armed guard. After the war, Steve rejoined Dad when he left the Browns for Vanderbilt. I was in school at Vanderbilt, and his dad was an assistant football coach there, when Bill (Belichick) was born.”

William remembers how impressed he was with the younger Belichick.

“Bill was very studious, but not quite the football player his dad was,” he said. “He was very bright, and he loved coaching. And his father encouraged him.

“(When he was growing up) he would break down the films with his dad, night after night. He was a real hard worker.”

Bill Belichick has kept contact with the Edwards family throughout his life.

“When he was head coach with the Browns, he’d come over and see my mom after Dad died,” said William. “He doesn’t have a lot to say. But if he knows you, he’s very warm.”

The Tigers coaching legend’s grandson, William B. Edwards, who also lives and works in Cleveland, got a helping hand from the Pats coach.

“When I was applying for colleges, he wrote letters of recommendation for me and was very helpful,” he said.

“The story I always enjoyed hearing was about how Bill Belichick learned to play checkers,” he said. “In the summer time, he’d always visit my grandfather and grandmother. Well, my grandfather, he would never would let you win at anything because he was a fierce competitor himself.

“So they’d play checkers at night, but Bill didn’t win. So he went to bed and said good night. But when my grandfather and grandmother got up the next morning, there waiting for them was Bill with the checkers board all set up, ready to go at it again.

“One of my grandfather’s favorite sayings was, ‘Teach a boy to compete.’ I’d like to think that some of that rubbed off on Bill Belichick.”

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