Al fracassa biography

Krause has written a book about his former coach, “Fracassa: The Man, The Times and The Teams,” available on Amazon.
With a career record of 332-91-7, Al is the winningest coach in the history of Michigan High School Football.
Retired Brother Rice football coach Al Fracassa sits down with a Michigan Catholic reporter in his office, every square inch of which is covered.

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2004 Crowley Award Winner

By Larry Sellers, Crowley Award Chair
Albert Fracassa,
Brother Rice High School

Albert Fracassa graduated cum laude from Detroit Northeastern High School in 1951 as the president of his class; along with his academic success he was an All-City Baseball player and All-City and All-State Football player, which led to an athletic scholarship to Michigan State University as a quarterback. While at MSU from 1951 through graduation in 1955 Al was a member of the 1952 National Champion Team, as well as the 1954 Rose Bowl team and received the Fred Danziger Award in 1954 in recognition of outstanding contributions to the MSU football team.
Coach Fracassa began his teaching and coaching career in the fall of 1955 as an assistant coach at Flint Mandeville High School, spent 1956-57 in the United States Army, then taught and assisted at Rochester High School in 1958 and 1959. In 1960 he became the head football coach at Royal Oak Shrine, compiling a 44-19-5 record through the 1968 season. In 1969 he became the head football coach at Brother Rice High Schoo

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Local author pens book about legendary Catholic League coach Al Fracassa

“It starts with immigration of (his) parents from Italy — but Coach was born here, youngest of four sons. It includes his high school career at Northeastern, follows his career at Michigan State where was scout team quarterback, and profiles his brothers and children,” Krause said. “Once that whole family background has been laid out, it’s a decade-by-decade retrospective of his coaching career.”

The book is a mix of stories and recollections, player profiles, and a wrap-up of all 54 of Fracassa’s teams.

“The book covers all of that, and there’s kind of a history of the Catholic League underneath all of these chapters,” Krause said. “We talk about all the powerhouses; that’s kind of a theme and how the various schools were closing every decade.”

Because of Fracassa’s stature, Krause feels the book would interest all fans of high school sports, not just those who attended Brother Rice or Shrine. The first printing sold out quickly, and more copies are now available.

“Anybody who’s interested in high schoo

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Best-selling books have been written about guys like Al Fracassa, the long-time Birmingham Brother Rice High School football coach.

Books about Americans, raised from the 1920s until the Baby Boomers began to assert themselves during the 1960s.

Labeled “The Greatest Generation’ by Tom Brokaw, they lived through the trauma of the Great Depression and World War II. Many came from immigrant families that not only acclimated themselves to our culture, but made it stronger.

The sports version was “When Pride Mattered.” It was about Vince Lombardi, the legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers.

If only Lombardi had never taken that job coaching the freshmen at Fordham University, , 1947. Or if he hadn’t gone to West Point to learn at the knee of The Colonel, Earl “Red” Blaik. If only Lombardi had never moved on to become the offensive coach of the New York Giants, or the head coach. , he might have become what Al Fracassa later did.

Lombardi started at St. Cecillia High School in Englewood, N.J. He spent nearly a decade there, building a pow