Mike Buckner changed the culture of the Buchtel High School football team in the 1970s. The legendary Griffins coach is now in the APS Athletics HOF.
Coaches who land a new job often vow to change a team’s culture, but it’s far less common for them to deliver on such a promise as effectively as Mike Buckner did at the helm of Buchtel football.
In the 1970s, Buckner brought his reversal-of-fortunes blueprint to Buchtel High School, and the turnaround he spearheaded made him a legend in his hometown of Akron.
Although Buckner is also known for his days as a standout football player and respected athletic director, his relatively brief yet brilliant coaching career at Buchtel earned him induction into the Akron Public Schools Athletics Hall of Fame during a banquet on Oct. 18 at Guy’s Party Center.
“This is the epitome of all the awards, if you ask me,” the 81-year-old Buckner told the Beacon Journal.
Mike Buckner used his experience as standout football player to launch his coaching career
In 1962, Buckner graduated from East High School, where he competed in football, basketball and track and field. He then played football at Northwestern University, spending most of his time at cornerback, with wide receiver also in his repertoire.
Short-lived attempts by Buckner to stick with the AFL’s Miami Dolphins and NFL’s Chicago Bears followed. He played for the Akron Vulcans in 1967 before the Continental Football League team folded in the infancy of its existence.
Buckner entered coaching as a graduate assistant at Kent State University and later secured a job as a Canton McKinley assistant. He received his first head coaching gig at Toledo Scott in 1969. He went 1-8 in his first season at Toledo Scott before improving to 6-3 the next year.
In 1971, Buchtel hired Buckner. He said the late APS superintendent Conrad Ott allowed him to choose between Buchtel and South high schools.
“I always like to kid that Buchtel, at that time, was known as the cake eaters, and I took Buchtel from being cake eaters to being cornbread eaters,” Buckner said. “That was my contribution to the program.”
Buchtel had won just one game in each of the three seasons (1968-70) preceding Buckner’s arrival. The Griffins went 4-4 during Buckner's first year in charge and 46-28-2 in his eight seasons from 1971-78. They appeared in four consecutive City Series title games (1975-78) and won two (1976 and ’78). They went 10-1 in each of those two championship seasons.
For Buckner, though, the wins were not as important as impacting the lives of his players.
Buckner became choked up during his APS Athletics Hall of Fame acceptance speech. It's a side of the coach former Buchtel captain and All-City linebacker Johnny Williams explained he had never seen. Williams also became emotional when he spoke about Buckner with the Beacon Journal. Tears of joy flowed as memories came flooding back.
"He was more than a coach," said Williams, a 1977 Buchtel graduate. "He was a mentor, a leader, a father, a big brother. He was everything to a lot of us.
"He was such a strong and assertive and demonstrative coach. He demanded excellence more so than what we would've expected."
Here is how Mike Buckner transformed Akron Buchtel football
Buckner was 26 years old when he took the Buchtel job.
From Buckner’s perspective, some of the keys to his success with the Griffins stemmed from the discipline he learned from his father, Frank, who was a sports enthusiast and a drill instructor in the Marines, and mother, Marian, who was a U.S. Postal Service clerk.
Buckner explained in detail how he changed the culture of Buchtel football.
“I was slightly innovative,” he said.
Buckner took his team on Sundays to Robert Street Church of God, which later became Arlington Church of God. Buckner’s “spiritual coach,” the Rev. Ronald J. Fowler, led the congregation.
Players, parents and coaches had input on decisions about the team, Buckner said. He formed a player leadership council composed of about four seniors, three juniors and two sophomores.
“Whenever there was an issue, punishment, things of that nature, I would go to the council,” Buckner said. “We would iron it out to the degree that everybody accepted what we did.”
Players went to dinner together and with their position coaches. Members of the coaching staff would tape players’ ankles before every practice to increase interactions and communication.
On Wednesdays, the coaches would meet with the Buchtel booster club, showing parents and players game film and answering questions.
“Everything was transparent,” Buckner said. “That made us who we were in the final analysis. The boys that I didn’t have as sons, they were my sons in a lot of instances.”
Buckner also enforced a curfew for players. Assistant coaches were assigned to monitor players' whereabouts by checking with parents.
The bottom line is Buckner wanted his players focused and committed to the team.
“On top of the curfew, it was very well known that if I was coming down the hallway, a football player would not be walking with a girl,” Buckner said. “He might have his hands full of books, but he wouldn't be talking to a girl or holding a girl's hand. That was illegal.”
Mike Buckner's career after coaching included a run as Akron City Series athletic director
Although Buckner led Buchtel to the top of the City Series, he didn’t stick with coaching at the high school level.
“I came to a point where I knew it was time to move on, and I may have had some minor health issues that might have contributed,” Buckner said. “It was just time. I had given it enough, and I had given it plenty.”
Buckner proceeded to coach pee-wee football and counted his sons among his players. He and his late wife, Patricia, had three boys: Michael, Tobin and Brandon.
Buckner taught physical education and became an administrator. He served as the athletic director of APS from 1992 until he retired. His last day on the job was Dec. 31, 2002.
Joe Vassalotti took a similar path to the one Buckner traveled. In 2015, Vassalotti transitioned from Tallmadge, where he had established himself as one of the area’s most successful high school football coaches, to the athletic director of APS. Vassalotti found Buckner's old clipboard in his office and uses it to take notes during City Series events.
“I can't go a week in APS without hearing about Coach Buckner, and not only what he did at Buchtel and his athletic prowess at East and Northwestern, but his job as an administrator through athletics,” Vassalotti said. “What he said tonight is what I hear, too. He always had the student-athletes in mind, not only on the field, but off the field in setting high expectations for them for performance but also caring about them as individuals.”
It's a lasting legacy.
Akron Public Schools Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2025
The following people were inducted into the Akron Public Schools Athletics Hall of Fame on Oct. 18 as members of the Class of 2025:
- Shirley Fry (Central, tennis, 1944)
- Ernie Kusnyer II (Firestone, basketball, 1969)
- Whitney Mercilus (Garfield, football, 2008)
- Joe Plouse (North, wrestling, 1991)
- Larry Poole (Garfield, football, 1971)
- George Sisler (Akron High School, baseball, 1911)
- John Tillman (North, track and cross country, 1964)
- Frank Williams (East, track and field, 1962)
- Mike Buckner (Buchtel football coach, 1971-78)
- Chuck Shuman (Ellet softball coach, 1985-2023)
Nate Ulrich is the sports columnist of the Akron Beacon Journal and a sports features writer. Nate can be reached at [email protected]. On Twitter: @ByNateUlrich.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Mike Buckner inducted into Akron Public Schools Athletics Hall of Fame
Category: General Sports
