Warren Western Reserve Raiders

08/16/2026

There have been times over the years when alumni have asked the question, "Who designed this Raider head?" Well, I'm happy to tell you, we finally have the answer. Back when our school was new there was a drawing competition in which contestants were to design a Raider Logo for our school. Raider parent, Mr Gust Graham won the competion. When his wife and daughter saw the Raider on display at the 2026 Raiders & Friends Tent during the Warren Italian American Heritage Festival, they proudly provided us with the history of the drawing.

Mr Gust Graham was the father of:
Andrew Graham - WGH
Evette "Eva" Graham Cotsatos - WWR 1968
Maria Graham - (school for the blind)
Stephen Graham - WWR 1974

08/01/2026

WWR's Loss, Heaven's Gain

Another significant loss for our WWR community. The departure of Coach Joe Novak means he leaves us to cherish together the memories he provided us with. We mourn our loss, but we have much to recall and celebrate because of Joe Novak. He came to WWR on his first coaching job to coach and teach math. In those early years, he was part of the foundation of a brand new school and the beginning of a championship caliber program that Dick Strahm began in 1966 and carried throughout his tenure with us. When Coach Novak became the head coach in 1972, the program seemed to be teetering slightly because the 1971 squad had gone 8 - 2 with a loss to rival Harding being one of those. Uncertainty and doubt got erased with each successive victory and we all became believers as we marched our way to the first ever playoff state championship. All of it credit to the grit, determination and discipline embued on our team by Coach. He continued to motivate us and coach us to our best in 1973, and even though we came up just short of a consecutive title, it was a great two year accomplishment. One that would send Coach to other places to advance his career and his life. His was a long career that included siginificant seasons and more championships at various colleges and universities. His stops include, his own alma mater, Miami of Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Northern Illinois(twice) where he built a championship program as a Hall of Fame head coach.

This one hits particularly close to home for me. So, please forgive my self-indulgence in writing this with such a personal tone.

If one ever wondered what a life well lived looks like, all one would need do is follow Coach Joe Novak around for about 48 hours. He will always be Coach to me, as he will to most who played for him. Despite his encouragement to call him Joe, I always told him his impact on my life, and so many others, required the expression of respect and admiration attached to such a wonderful term of endearment, and I wouldn't like myself much if I didn't always call him Coach. He would smile that smile, even chuckle a little and then promptly change the subject. No more words about him, always the query about me and my life and was there anything he could help with? Coach never really ever stopped coaching. A person could be 10 minutes into a conversation with him before the realization would hit, that he was coaching. He had the unique ability to coach you without you feeling you were being coached. As a young man, as he was considering career possibilities, one of his coaches told him not to go into coaching. He was too nice. That's easy to see if all one did was look at the surface. Coach wasn't a screamer. Didn't need to be. He had already won over your respect with his genuine care for you as a person. So, when you needed a coach's correction, all that was required was his firm tone and eye contact. In his eyes was reflected the fire that burned fiercely in his belly and when he spoke it was with a firmness of conviction that motivated a person to get the job done the right way. More than anything, more than his amazing list of on field accomplishments, which is long and impressive, to be sure, most important was his genuine concern to develop every player into a mature man capable of accomplishing anything chosen in life. In my life, one of the most important things to shape me as a young man, was going through the 1972 state championship and 1973 runner-up seasons and spending time together with Coach and the other quarterbacks in the quarterback room each week. I learned so much about life and how to be successful and I will always be indebted to him for that.

Over the past 24 hours, I've read tributes and received private messages about him from a long list of players, coaches, community leaders, and the common theme is the same, Coach didn't coach football, he coached life. Joe Novak was another in the long list of teachers and community leaders we were all blessed with as WWR students and members of our Westside community. He could motivate us to run through brick walls for him...because we knew, if given the chance, he would do the same for us. Godspeed Coach, until we meet again.

Respectfully written by George Powell - Warren Western Reserve High School class of 1974 graduate, WWR Raider #16 Quarterback, and proud member of the WWR Raider '72 State Champs & '73 Runners-Up

IN MEMORY OF
Coach Joseph Dennis Novak
April 19, 1945 - July 28, 2026

07/30/2026

IN MEMORY OF
Joseph "Joe" D. Novak - April 19, 1945 - July 28, 2026
Coach Novak served as Warren Western Reserve High School Math teacher and Head Football Coach who led the WWR Raiders to victory in 1972 when the team won the very first AAA Division Championship football game in the state of Ohio.

Joseph Dennis Novak was born April 19, 1945 in Cleveland, Ohio to Helen Magyar Novak and Joseph E Novak, and passed away in his sleep July 27, 2026 at the age of 81.

He married the love of his life Carole Lynne (Hinkel) Novak on June 21, 1969, the summer solstice and as they both consistently joked was the longest day of the calendar year.

Known to his colleagues and players as “Coach,” Joe was a high school and college football coach for 44 years. Joe was a loving husband and father as well as a devoted brother to Loretta Steinfurth. Coaching is not an easy profession for the coach or their family, but Joe made sure the family time he had was well spent. There were the annual trips to the beach, regular eventful visits to Chicago, and he even managed to do a couple tours of historical baseball parks to take in some baseball with his sons. He was a very loving husband to Carole and they traveled the world after he retired from coaching, ultimately settling down near Southport, NC, by the ocean and beach that he and Carole loved. He was an excellent role model for sons David (Kathryn) and Jeremy (Erienne), and supported their varied interests and careers, and was a loving grandfather for Adele (David & Kathryn), Adrianna, Olivia, and Lucinda (Jeremy & Erienne). Joe was also the beloved uncle of two nephews and three nieces, and a loyal friend to many teammates, coworkers, and neighbors.

Joe’s birth in Cleveland made him a lifelong Indians/Guardians baseball fan. When he was very young, the family moved to Mentor, OH, an eastern suburb of Cleveland, and was a three-sport letterman at Mentor High School, Class of 1963. He received a scholarship to play football at Miami University in Oxford, OH, under the legendary Coach Bo Schembechler. His association with that group of teammates - dubbed Bo’s Boys - who graduated in 1967 was a wonderful thing through the years. Their annual reunions are a tribute to their loyalty to each other and their Alma Mater. Sadly, this group of Traditional Miami Redskins will be toasting Joe’s memory with a few beers at their next Pow Wow in September. Love and Honor!

Joe was a football coach through and through. His position coach at Miami advised him that he was too nice to be a coach, but he didn’t listen and went into coaching anyway. It proved to be a very rewarding career and he touched many lives and influenced many people and accomplished many things.

Joe began his coaching career as an assistant football coach and math teacher at Warren Western Reserve High School in Warren, OH. He was hired as the head football coach there in 1972, the year the Raiders won the AAA State Football Championship with a 12-0 record. The following year, WWR was 11-1, losing in the State Championship. West Side Pride! He was then hired back at Miami as defensive coordinator on head coach Dick Crum’s staff in 1974. That Miami team was a Tangerine Bowl Champion over Georgia, and the following year another Tangerine Bowl winner over South Carolina. Joe made the move to the Big Ten in 1976, when he was hired as an assistant at Illinois to coach linebackers. However, his stint at Illinois was (thankfully) brief, and he was subsequently hired at Northern Illinois in DeKalb, by fellow Miamian Bill Mallory to be defensive coordinator for the Huskies. NIU won the Mid-American Conference Championship in 1983 and beat Fullerton State in the California Bowl to cap off the season. When Coach Mallory was hired by Indiana, Joe went back to the Big Ten with him and served as his defensive coordinator for 12 seasons, coaching in six bowl games and a memorable 1987 football season which saw the Hoosiers beat Ohio State and Michigan in the same season. Indiana, Our Indiana!

In 1996, Joe was hired back to Northern Illinois as head football coach. So began a 13-year commitment to the Huskies that saw some ups and downs, including a 23-game losing streak and a stellar 2003 season in which NIU beat Maryland at home, Alabama in Tuscaloosa, and Iowa State in DeKalb. No bowl invitation came that year, but Joe was personally honored with invitations to coach in the Maui Hula Bowl All Star Game and the Blue-Gray All Star Game in Montgomery, AL, and he was recognized with a Regional Coach of the Year award by the American Football Coaches Association. His Huskies were tapped for a Silicon Valley Football Classic in San Jose in 2004 and a Poinsettia Bowl invitation a year later. Forward, Together Forward!

Joe was ultimately inducted into several athletics Hall of Fames for his playing and coaching accomplishments. He was inducted into the Mentor Ohio High School Sports Hall of Fame in 1999 for his accomplishments on the football field, basketball court and baseball field. Joe was inducted into the Warren Ohio Sports Hall of Fame in 2012 for his tenure at Warren Western Reserve High School. He was inducted into the Miami University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2007 and the Miami University Cradle of Coaches in 2012 for his ties to the school as an undergrad football standout and as both an assistant coach at Miami and his continued success as a college coach. Joe was inducted into the Mid-American Conference Hall of Fame in 2014 for his accomplishments as a player and coach at Miami University and as an assistant and head coach at Northern Illinois University. Joe was inducted into the Northern Illinois Sports Hall of Fame in 2013 as both an assistant coach and head coach.

Joe retired from coaching football in 2008, when he and Carole moved to the lovely seaport town of Southport, NC. They joined longtime dear coaching friends there in St. James Plantation and spent time on their boat, The Fifth Quarter, eating the best seafood on the East Coast, biking, hiking the beach of Oak Island, and travelling to all the places they hadn’t had time to see when he was coaching. The Golden Years, indeed. In retirement, Joe agreed to be one of the coach advisors on the NCAA Committee on Infractions, lending perspective to what coaches dealt with in the previous iteration of the NCAA’s recruiting rules before all hell broke loose. He wanted to help.

Joe and Carole moved back to Bloomington, IN in September 2025, just in time to witness the Hoosiers’ Undefeated National Championship Football Season, complete with a Heisman Trophy Winner. Hoo-Hoo-Hoosiers! Joe was a task-minded person - he wanted to know what he was facing and what needed to be done and he’d work out how to do it. He was like this as a young defensive coordinator, when he would address an hysterical assistant coach on the headphones - “Joe, we need to stop ‘em here, this is a big one” was met with “down and distance, Jim, just give me the down and distance” - he already had a plan. He carried this attitude to the very end when faced with mobility issues - “let’s do the work to get me stronger”.

Everyone that knew Joe saw his gentle, kind side. Joe was always good with home recruiting visits, assuring parents that their kids would be looked after under his watch. Classmates of his eldest son David tell the story of being caught out past curfew at football camp at Indiana being met with Joe’s raised brow and getting just a “get up to your rooms” response - what harm was really done? Some of his players confided that they just wished he’d yell at them from time to time - Joe was demanding but was always focused on the goals. Those that played for him and worked with him also knew how hard he worked. Even as head coach at Northern Illinois, Joe would be there often before sunrise to oversee Dawn Patrol runs for missteps within his program. As an assistant at Indiana, Joe organized the end of season banquets, allowing him and his family the opportunity to spend a full night with the Old Oaken Bucket after a win over Purdue for that staff’s first win over their rival in 1987. If you’ve been around this sacred rivalry trophy you know it’s really, really old and really, really heavy!

Unfortunately, ill health caused Joe to be confined to hospice care for the last few weeks of his life, and he passed away on Monday, July 27, 2026, his family and dear friends having had time to say goodbye.

In lieu of flowers, we ask that if you would like to contribute positively in Joe’s name, please consider your local food bank as Joe and Carole were contributors to their local food banks in order to help those less fortunate, or a local Boys and Girls Club as Joe believed whole-heartedly in activity and sports as a guiding factor in young person’s lives.

Private services will be observed by Joe's family.

Arrangements have been entrusted to The Funeral Chapel and Crematory of Powell & Deckard, 3000 E. Third St., Bloomington, Indiana 47401.

Online condolences may be shared with Joe’s family at www.thefuneralchapel .net

07/30/2026

IN MEMORY OF
Coach Joseph Novak - April 19, 1945 – July 28, 2026
Coach Novak served as Warren Western Reserve High School Math teacher and Head Football Coach who led the WWR Raiders to victory in 1972 when the team won the very first AAA Division Championship football game in the state of Ohio.

07/19/2026

Street renamed to honor the first Ohio football family in Warren

WARREN, Ohio (WKBN) — A street in Warren has been renamed to Sixth Street Browner Way in honor of the Browner family.

Saturday was the dedication and honoring of the Browner Family.

Sixth Street Browner Way is the new name for Sixth Street, located off of Todd Avenue in Warren, as a tribute to where the family grew up.

The Browner Family has an athletic history. Out of eight kids, all six sons were high school football All-Americans, with five of them playing professionally.

They all gave back to the community in which they grew up in.

Now the remaining Browner siblings, Willard and Burdette, stand alongside their family and Warren officials to honor the legacy left on the community.

“The Browner family has represented our community in such a positive way and helped put the name Warren, Ohio, on the map. This dedication is long overdue and should have been done long before this. For such a great family,” Warren Township trustee Ed Anthony said.

“It’s emotional in more ways than one, but it’s a jubilation of knowing that this City of Warren, this township in this area here, has supported my family from day one. And to come back and see the ones come out and share the opportunity we have to have this named after my family, is a blessing,” fourth-oldest sibling Willard Browner said.

Mayor Doug Franklin came to honor them, calling them the first football family in Ohio.

“I want everybody and the City of Warren, particularly, to thank each and every one of you for coming out to celebrate with this great family. This is the first family of football in Ohio. Yeah, bear no, make no mistake about it. So we’re very pleased and honored to sort of memorialize that legacy,” Franklin said.

https://www.wkbn.com/video/street-renamed-to-honor-the-first-ohio-football-family-in-warren/11985183

07/13/2026

Officials plan to dedicate road to family

13 Jul 2026 — Tribune Chronicle
article by Bob Coupland

WARREN TOWNSHIP - Trustees plan to honor a township family whose sons all excelled in athletics by having a road named "Sixth Street Browner Way."

Trustee Ed Anthony said plans are underway to host a ceremony Saturday to honor the Browner family. Plans are to designate a portion of Fifth Street from Tod Avenue SW to the Warren city limits as "Browner Way" and dedicate a sign.

Resident Darryl Parker said Jimmy and Julia Browner raised six sons in the township in a home their father built. He said all the sons played football for the former Warren Western Reserve High School, were all college graduates and all became professional football players.

"This will not only recognize the Browner family, but the township as well,'' Parker said.

"The family was a very athletic family."

Parker said the Browners raised their sons well, with all of them being good athletes and good students in the Warren City School District. He said the sons all earned black belts in martial arts.

"They are a very deserving family," he said.

Parker said the sons were Ross, Jimmy, Willard, Joey, Keith and Gerald. There were also two sisters - Bernadette and Olivia.

Parker said there is a display dedicated to the Browner family at Warren G. Harding High School since it merged with Western Reserve High School in 1990.

Anthony said he remembers the sons who led the local football camps - a highly regarded youth camp that they helped run.

"They always came back to Warren and gave back to the community to run the camps. The kids loved having professional football players with them at the camp," Anthony said.

* * * * *

📸
Six Browner brothers are pictured during the 1977 Christmas holiday in Warren, Ohio. All six were high school All Americans and would play major college football. Four of them played in the NFL. Front Row: Gerald and Jimmie. Back Row: Keith, Joey, Willard and Ross.

07/09/2026

IN MEMORY OF
Jane E. Thomas - Jan 30,1950 - July 4, 2026
Ms Thomas was a teacher for Warren City Schools in Warren, Ohio.

Jane E. Thomas, age 76, passed away at Community Skilled Health Center, on July 4, 2026. Jane was born on January 30,1950 in Monaca, Pa. She was the daughter of Fred and Wilma Thomas.

Jane was an outstanding educator for Warren City Schools for 36 years. She was awarded The Martha Holden Jennings Scholar Award for the 1978-79 school year. In 2002, she was awarded the A plus teacher award. She established the Art Gallery at Jefferson School with her late Husband Avin Brown. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Education in 1971. She earned her Masters of Arts in Education in 1988. She also taught Adult Education Classes for Warren City Schools.

Jane was known for her beautiful collection of Asian artwork, decorative eggs, Snowbabies, and African Art. Jane supported many cultural events in the community. Jane loved to travel.

Jane was preceded in death by her parents Fred and Wilma Thomas and her late husband Avin Brown. She also loved her dogs, Maxx, Onyx and Drew. Jane will be missed by her many friends and family members.

Visiting hours will be Monday, July 13, 2026,12-2 PM at Saul-Gabauer Funeral Home located at 273 Route 68 in Rochester Pa.

At a later date, there will be a Celebration of Life for Jane.

06/29/2026

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Novak

Joe Novak (born April 19, 1945) is an American former football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Northern Illinois University from 1996 to 2007, compiling a record of 63–76.[1]

06/29/2026

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Hilles

James L. Hilles (born September 24, 1936) is an American former football player and coach. He served as the interim head football coach at University of Wisconsin–Madison for one season in 1986, compiling a record of 3–9.

06/29/2026

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Strahm

Dale Strahm (born c. 1943) is an American former football coach and player. He served as the head coach of Western Carolina University in 1989, compiling a record of 3–7–1. Strahm also served as an assistant coach for Bowling Green, Bellevue High School, Navy, Georgia, Duke, and Temple. He als...