When Franklin sophomore quarterback Rich Cerro threw for 1,425 yards in 2001, a lot of people thought it was a school record. But nobody knew for sure -- Franklin, as with many schools, doesn't really know what its school records are in football.
Well, after researching Franklin games almost through the beginning of time, I'm here to tell you those 1,425 yards are a single-season school record.
There were several candidates: Ted Marchibroda, who played in the NFL; Bill McCullough; Dave Bierbach; Bay Lawrence, who also played in the NFL; Mark Carson...to name a few.
Actually, on reputation -- I mean the guy played quarterback in the NFL -- probably many thought Marchibroda might've thrown for 1,400 yards or more in a season.
But he didn't.
From 1946 to 1948, Marchibroda's three years as a starter, Franklin threw for 1,016 yards (1946), 849 yards (1947) and 908 yards (1948). This is according to yardage kept by whomever was covering the game for The News-Herald. Not all of those yards belong to Marchibroda, but most of them do, of course. In fact, only in his junior year in 1947 do we know that all of the yards are his.
Actually, Cerro probably broke McCullough's record.
From 1953 to 1955, McCullough's three years as a starter, Franklin threw for 959 yards (1953), 877 yards (1954) and 1,300 yards (1955).
Again, not all of the yards belong to McCullough, but you can bet most of them do. And it's likely whatever amount of those 1,300 yards McCullough threw for in 1955 was the school record before Cerro broke it in 2001.
Posted 07.05.02
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