Searching for Coach Maennle

I recently received an interesting e-mail ironically from a man named John Heffner (no relation).

John had read my column on the internet in which I mention Coach Frank Maennle, who coached football at Tryon High School in the early 1960s.

Mr. Heffner had been searching for information on his long lost uncle, Frank Maennle, whom he had met only once. John gave me some information about the Frank Maennle who was his mother's brother. He was known to have moved to Bryson City, N.C. from New Jersey.
He had married a girl named Marilyn, and they had children who live today somewhere in western North Carolina.

I e-mailed John Heffner and told him that I could not guarantee that his and my Frank Maennle were one and the same person. However, several clues seemed to make our persons a match.
First of all, the Frank Maennle I knew was definitely a transplanted Yankee. His accent amidst a class of Southerners stood out like a sore thumb. Sometimes his verbal instructions left the class staring at one another hoping for a translation.

Secondly, our Frank Maennle was a football coach. I didn't play football, but had him in history class.

As a history teacher, Frank was... well he was a good football coach! I remember that one of our history assignments each week was to outline a chapter in the textbook during class. I have never to this day understood the educational value of such a task other than to take up class time.

Coach Maennle would take up the four or five page outline from each student, weigh it in his hand, and return it to the student.

Once, a student (not to be named) wrote one page of the outline, placed four or five blank pages behind it, and turned it in. To my amazement, I (oops, I mean he) got away with it.

John ended his e-mail by mentioning that the Frank Maennle that he knew was now deceased along with his wife.

He asked for any other information I could provide him on Coach Maennle.

I will pass that along to any of his former football players who would like to e-mail me about their coach. s.hefner@comcast.net

Footnote: Thanks to David Hall who wrote a nice letter to the editor about his recent reunion with the Oakley and Edward's families. I is so refreshing to know that my column had initiated these friends getting together after fifty years.