Services Set For Long-Time Richards Football Coach Frank Salvatori

OAK LAWN, IL — Hearts are heavy at Richards High School with the passing of long-time football coach and driver’s ed teacher Frank Salvatori, who died Feb. 2. He was 74.

Visitation for Salvatori is set for 3 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 7, at Curley Funeral Home, 6116 W. 111th St., Chicago Ridge. Family and friends are to meet directly at St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel, 7740 S. Western Avenue, Chicago, for Mass, 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 8.

“Any day you lose a man like Coach Sal, it’s a tough day,” Richards head football coach Tony Sheehan said. “He’s a great man, a great coach, and had a huge heart. Even if you were having a bad day, he’d make you smile and laugh until you forgot why you were having a bad day.”

Salvatori began his coaching and teaching career at Richards High School in 1972. He coached football at Richards, serving as a defensive coordinator and defensive line coach. Salvatori also taught driver’s education, no doubt teaching students to be defensive drivers.

During his remarkable 35-year career, Salvatori was part of the winningest football coaching team in Illinois high school sports history, then headed by the late Gary Korhonen. He helped Korhonen coach the Richards Bulldogs to 22 conference championships and 10 undefeated regular seasons. IHSA runnner-up (2001) finish, 22 conference championships, and 10 undefeated regular seasons, including a 34-game winning streak. The highlight seasons were 1988 and 1989, when Richards won the IHSA 4A state championship, and the 2001 IHSA 6A runner-up.

“He was always there for us and guys loved playing for him,” Sheehan said, who played under Salvatori as a quarterback for the 1995 Richards team that went 12-1. “He’d still come around after he and Coach Korhonen retired in 2007.”

Sheehan said everyone who encountered the coach has a “Sal story.” Salvatori was especially fond of wearing a neon green cap at the sidelines.

“It was a Baltimore Orioles spring training hat. I remember him throwing down that neon green hat when he got upset,” Sheehan laughed. “He loved us, he fought hard for us.”

Salvatori was inducted into the Richards High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2012. While the Richards High School football stadium is named for Korhonen, who holds the state record for the most wins by a high school football coach, the team also has a Sal flag in the stadium by the scoreboard.

“We have it flying now for him,” Sheehan said. “Sal was a special man to a lot of us.”

Frank Anthony Salvatori leaves his wife, Kathleen (Murphy); children, Gina (John) O’Brien, Michael (Sarah) Salvatori, and Dana (Matt) Huffman. He was the proud grandfather of Teagan, Maeve, Evelyn, Matthew, Anthony, Owen, and Mary. He was also leaves a brother of James (Pat) Salvatori, and many nieces and nephews, cousins, and dear friends, according to the Curley obituary. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials in Salvatori's name be made to the CdLS Foundation.

Visitation is set for 3 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 7, at Curley Funeral Home, 6116 W. 111th St., Chicago Ridge. Family and friends are to meet directly at St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel, 7740 S. Western Avenue, Chicago, for Mass, 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 8.