Lower Merion celebrates Dave Burke Hall of Fame Night

Before legendary Lower Merion High School wrestling coach Dave Burke died last fall, he wanted to see the Lower Merion High School wrestling program form an alumni association. On Feb. 6, nearly five months after his death, his dream came true.

On that night, the Lower Merion Wrestling Team honored Burke, before LM’s home match against Springfield in the main gym at Lower Merion High School. Burke, who passed away in September, orchestrated a resurgence for Lower Merion wrestling from the late 1970’s through 2010. Burke’s teams earned 278 wins over his tenure including Central League and Sectional Championships. In 1991, Mr. Burke was named the national coach of the year by Wrestling USA Magazine and in 2011, Burke was inducted in to the Southeastern Pennsylvania Wrestling Hall of Fame.

“Right before his health made him step down from coaching, we talked a lot about the wrestling program, where it was headed, and he wanted me to start an LM Wrestling Alumni Association,’ said Sam Shelanski, Chairman of the Lower Merion Wrestling Alumni Association, who was also Burke’s assistant coach in the early 1980s.

Shelanski used the Dave Burke Hall of Fame Night event to kick-start the building of a wrestling alumni association The alumni association hopes to start inducting past Lower Merion wrestlers into their hall of fame next year.

Burke’s son Sean said, “We at Lower Merion have a large wrestling family. He [my Dad] was the father of that family. That being said, I couldn’t be more proud to see this organization’s hall of fame named after its father and mine.’

Sean Burke remembered how his father would bring him to wrestling practices before he could even walk.

“I’ve seen generations coached by my dad,’ said Sean, who vividly remembered how his father welcomed back LM alumni wrestlers during their winter breaks. “Guys who graduated 10 years earlier would come back and work out with the team.’

“Dave Burke was arguably the most influential person in the history of Lower Merion wrestling,’ said Shelanski.

Ron Miller, a former Ardmore Junior High School wrestling coach whom a young Dave Burke assisted in the early 1970s, said, “I’d like to say on the basis of his [Dave Burke’s] wonderful career that I taught him everything he knows, but that would not be true. I didn’t know anything and he contributed immediately to the wrestling program because of his outstanding ability.’

Miller added that in the early 1960s, Ardmore Junior High’s athletic director made him the wrestling coach.

“I protested,’ said Miller. “I told [the athletic director] that my high school did not have a wrestling team and that I never wrestled in college. I didn’t feel qualified. But that didn’t matter. He said, ‘ We want you: One, you’re young, and two, you’re big.’ Those were the only two requirements and that’s how I got the job.’

Jim Perri, current head coach of the Lower Merion wrestling team, said that Dave Burke had a great impact on his wrestling career even though he was never his coach. Perri, a 1978 Haverford High School graduate, wrestled for the Fords. His cousin, who wrestled for Ardmore Junior High, taught him the Granby roll, which made him a better wrestler. When Perri became Burke’s assistant, he learned that Burke was the one who taught his cousin the Granby.

Perri said, “I told Dave, ‘ I have you to thank for my success.”’

From the beginning, Burke and Perri had rapport because they both liked to teach the Granby. It is a defensive move where the wrestler in the bottom position sits out, raises his hips, kicks out with one leg and rolls on his shoulder. The move can lead to a one-point escape or a two-point reversal.

Not only were past Lower Merion wrestlers and coaches in attendance that night, but so was Dave Burke’s mother, Mary Burke.

“He would have loved this evening,’ she said.

And part of the reason was that many of Burke’s past wrestlers — from the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s were there as a family to honor Dave Burke.