La Salle mourning loss of Flannery

It's bound to happen. As he has for years, Joe Colistra someday soon will quote Tex Flannery.

And when he does, Colistra will feel a tinge of sadness.

Mr. Flannery, whose first name was John but who was known to most as "Tex" during his 29 years as head football coach at La Salle High School, died Sunday at 85.

Mr. Flannery's cancer was diagnosed last fall.

"My father died when I was a young man," said Colistra, who played for Flannery from 1960 to '64 and replaced him as La Salle coach in 1985. "When I came to La Salle, I saw Tex as a father. The first time I saw Tex, I knew that."

Mr. Flannery was a father figure to just about every player who went through his program. And what a program it was: Mr. Flannery compiled a record of 149-115-12, and the Explorers went undefeated three times and won Catholic League titles in 1957, 1958 and 1960 and city titles in 1957 and 1960.

"The things he taught us went way beyond winning and losing," said Colistra, who went on to a 21-year coaching career at La Salle.

Mr. Flannery, who got his nickname because he loved Western novels, did a lot more than coach football. He was an all-Catholic League end at La Salle in 1939 and a lineman at La Salle College for two seasons before the school dropped football.

At 6-foot-3 and 220 pounds, he also played forward on his high school basketball team and worked as a football referee.

Mr. Flannery also served as the longtime president of the Markward Club, which honors high school basketball players; as the owner and operator of several local bars and restaurants; and as a manufacturer's representative.

Mr. Flannery was a devout Catholic who went to Mass daily, and prayer was an important part of his life. And he made it important to his players, too.

"He tried very hard to instill [going to Mass] to his players," Colistra said.

And Mr. Flannery didn't stop influencing the lives of current and former Explorers after his retirement. He continued to be a fixture at La Salle practices and games and made many friends on the Temple University football team and the Eagles.

Most of all, Mr. Flannery made his family feel as if they were the only ones who mattered.

"He always boosted us up," said Mary Flannery Connors, one of his two daughters. "He was our biggest fan. We feel fortunate to have had him as our dad. And when we hear how he affected so many other people, it shows how extensive his influence was."

Flannery Connors said that Mr. Flannery was especially proud that his wife, Rosemary, graduated from Villanova Law School in 1965 and practiced until 1990.

"He was so proud of her," his daughter said. "He was the one who urged her to go."

Besides his wife and daughter, Mr. Flannery is survived by daughter Kate Flannery and 10 grandchildren. His son, Jack, died in 2004 after a lengthy battle with a brain tumor.

While thousands may have been touched by Mr. Flannery's personality, it was his family, Flannery Connors said, who appreciated Mr. Flannery the most.

"We'd all sit down to Sunday dinner at our house, and it was all fun," she said. "But if La Salle didn't win that day, it was dead silence."

Friends of Mr. Flannery may call at the La Salle High School gymnasium from 5 to 9 p.m. Thursday and again from 8 to 10 a.m. Friday. A funeral Mass will follow Friday at 10 a.m.