My Dad's brother, Uncle Earl
8/19/2008
Longtime Moon Valley coach Putman dies at 74


Don Ketchum

The Arizona Republic

Feb. 22, 2006 12:00 AM


The rain kept pouring at Sun Devil Stadium. People watching the 1982 Class AAA football championship game wondered whether they would need an ark to take them home.


Earl Putman didn't mind. He let the rain wash away his cares. To him, it was a perfect night. His Moon Valley High Rockets defeated Trevor Browne 20-7 to win the title and finished 14-0.


It became the crowning achievement in a coaching career that began when Moon Valley opened in 1965 and lasted until he retired after the 1989 season.


Putman, who was 6 feet 6 and weighed about 310 pounds, was affectionately called "Tiny."


On Sunday, the gentle giant passed away at the age of 74 after a battle with brain cancer. Vivian Putman, his wife of 53 years, said Putman faced his last battle "with the same positive, winning attitude that he had all those years as a coach. Our life was a wonderful, great ride." They enjoyed spending time at their summer home near Flagstaff, and with their family in Phoenix. Putman also is survived by four children, 10 grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, a sister and two brothers.


Raised in Cincinnati, he came to Arizona State on a track scholarship but also played football and was drafted by the NFL's New York Giants. His 1957 football card, depicting him as a center for the Chicago Cardinals, listed him as the biggest man in pro football. At the time he was 6 feet 6, 308 pounds and wore size 16 EEEE shoes.


He met his wife at ASU, he said, while in line at the cafeteria, where she worked. "She gave me a second helping. It was love at first sight," he once told a reporter.


Putman made his biggest mark as a coach, winning 167 games. He was The Republic's Coach of the Year twice (1982 and 1986, when he finished state runner-up), was a longtime fixture in the Arizona Coaches Association and was instrumental in the creation of a National Football Foundation scholar-athlete award. He also hired loyal assistants such as Mel Harms and Tim Sanford. The latter was an assistant for 10 years before becoming head coach at Brophy from 1985-2002. "He took a chance on me when I was 22 years old," Sanford said Tuesday. "I considered him a mentor. I learned more from him than anybody else. He was a special guy." And Putman drew respect from opposing coaches such as St. Mary's Pat Farrell. "He showed how the game was to be played at the high school level," Farrell said. "He had a great combination of being a solid football coach and a class act."