Carey's Corner

FROM THE MALVERN ARCHIVES

A LOOK BACK

"GAMP" PART 1.. IN A SERIES

December 30th, 2022

There is only one Gaspare "Gamp" Pellegrini.

They say that you have gained a certain amount of fame if you can be identified by just one name and everyone knows who you are talking about. In my lifetime I might offer up that I can identify four at MP- Duffy, Stew and Gamp. And if you are from my era, Shark.

Now anyone who knows Gamp would know that he would argue that there is nothing famous about him. If what he accomplished was not famous then at least, it was significantly noteworthy, not just at Malvern Prep but in the annals of high school football in Southeast Pennsylvania.

This will be a multi-part series because it is tough to summarize 31 years and an untold number of accomplishments in one article. I do not know how many parts there will be as it will be a journey as much for me as it is for you. I do not know when the end of the series will be, but I guess I will know it when I get there. And yes, this will be all about GAMP.

If you have been around high school coaching for the last 50 years and if you just heard someone mention the name “Gamp” you knew who they were talking about. If you didn’t recognize the name I would suggest you may have been living under a rock. I started high school at MP in 1969 and have been around high school football, either playing, coaching or watching since then. Over all those years, one of the things I have come to understand is how hard it is to put a consistently good team on the field. A team that can compete game in and game out, year in and year out. The Malvern Prep football program has had its momentary hiccups along the way but when you look at the over-all record it during the Inter-Ac era it truly is astounding. If you look at Gamp’s 31 years you have to be wowed.

I went back into the game-to- game yearly records courtesy of www.tedsilary.com and reviewed the 31 years of Malvern football under Gamp. Unlike the other Inter-Ac schools Malvern has been known to consistently put together a non-league schedule that rivals any non Inter-Ac team in Southeast Pennsylvania. An extremely tough non-league schedule makes it a very daunting challenge every year to run the table or to be able to put together a better than average season. Unless of course your name happens to be Gamp.

Below is a summary of 17 of the 31 years under Gamp, perfection and almost perfect. During this time he has had some assistants come and go, as all programs do. I would like to give a shout out to two guys who were there for all 31- Joe Sells and Jimmy “The Jet” Panetta . I had the honor to be around and get to know both coaches. I can say not only were they excellent coaches and contributed significantly to the success of the program, but they also made MP football very interesting and certainly entertaining. Oh the stories each of them can tell! I am guessing the players who played in these years might agree and have a few stories of their own to tell. Head coaches will tell you that they can’t put great teams on the field without great assistant coaches. Hats off to these two guys and to the many assistant coaches who helped along the way.

What better way to start looking at the 31 years of Gamp history then by looking at some basic facts and figures

**17 YEARS.

**A RECORD OF 149-19-3.

**13 OUTRIGHT INTER-AC TITLES, 1 CO-CHAMPIONSHIPS

Gamp coached for 45 years, 42 as a head coach and 3 as an assistant. His previous stops were at St. Thomas More and St. Joe Prep. The raw numbers are 278 wins, 17 out-right titles (16 IA and one Catholic League title at St, Joe), 4 shared titles in the IA. His 278 wins, 21 titles and 42 years as a HC are all city records. The guy in 2nd place has 217, 13 and 35. I think that puts some space between him and the runner up.

He only had 5 losing seasons in the 31 years he was at the helm at Malvern. In looking at the scores and records of those teams (yes, I looked at the result of every game in his 31 years) it was not unreasonable to state that if they flipped the close games (TD or less) Gamp would have never had a losing season at MP. Overall at MP he was 219-86-8 with 4 undefeated teams. That averages out to about 7-3 every year… for 31 years.

As you can see from above he was very close to perfect 13 other times. In the Inter-Ac, Gamp sported a record of 97-25-5. For comparison to other IA schools, Jack Turner at GA coached for 23 years and won 40 IA games. Dick Borkowski coached for 12 years and won 20 IA games. I had to go all the way back to 1929 to find Haverford School’s longest tenured coach. In 28 years, Fred “Doc” Wallace won 67 IA games. Guess you could say Gamp is the leader of the pack…. by a mile. And no, I did not forget Chestnut Hill. Since they bailed on the league from 1973 until their return in 2006, they have no one that even approaches the radar screen. Against the tough Catholic League Gamp was a more than respectable 33-13-1. Heck, Carroll stopped playing Malvern on Thanksgiving because I think they got tired of getting beat. Gamp’s TG record against Carroll was a “meager” 13-3-1, with 5 shutouts. Have to say I miss Malvern playing on Thanksgiving.

When you retire they always say go out with a bang. Gamp did not go out with a bang, he went out with a kaboom. In his last 4 years he was 37-4 overall and 18-1 in the Inter-Ac, with 3 titles. They say that numbers do not lie and in this case that is certainly true. Being around the program for as long as I have I can say that other programs always use Malvern as a measuring stick of the success and competitiveness of their own program. If you beat Malvern that is a feather in your cap. To that end, and if you asked any of Malvern’s Athletic Directors, there are high school programs in the area who will not put Malvern on their schedule. Kudos to the team that still do.

As coaches we always talk to the players about win the play, win the quarter, win the half, and of course win the game. Some programs just hope to be competitive or they hope to win a few games and go 500. Some programs have never won a league championship or gone undefeated. I do not know if we will see another Gamp. The demands of high school football have increased dramatically over the years. As a person who is involved in coaching today I am well aware of the time commitment that all coaches make. To manage work life, home life and football is a both a skill and balance that wears most coaches down, to the point they have to step away. Gamper never waivered. With an understanding wife he was able to raise 4 children, run a very successful insurance business and become one of the most successful coaches in the entire state of Pennsylvania. Hats off to one of the best and an MP Wall of Famer, Gaspare Pelligrini.

But you can call him….. GAMP

More to come....