NORTHUMBERLAND -- Can't blame Tom Coughlin if his first visit to this Valley farmhouse was only to talk to a Shikellamy High School football phenom. Can't blame him if that second 380-mile trip was for another slice of Glenda Strouse's apple dapple cake.
Coughlin, who on Sunday will coach in his second Super Bowl with the New York Giants, trekked up this dirt and gravel driveway off Ridge Road in Point Township to coax Tom Strouse Jr. to attend Boston College.
Sat right there in the living room, dipping a fork into the sweet concoction on his plate and boasting to Glenda, Tom Sr. and Tom Jr. about the quality of education at Boston College, where he was the quarterbacks coach.
"He was very intense," said
Tom Jr., a star defensive tackle with Shikellamy in the early 1980s who was also courted by the likes of UCLA, Southern Cal and Penn State.
But interest in the rising star waned when word spread fast of a neck injury he suffered against Mount Carmel in his senior season in 1981.
"I couldn't lift my neck up on the line of scrimmage (to face the offensive line)," Tom Jr. said.
Pain would shoot down his left arm.
No longer could he bench press 400 pounds.
Still, Coughlin came calling, in December 1981 and January 1982.
On the second visit, Coughlin jumped in a car with Tom Jr. and drove a mile to a neighboring farm, where Tom Sr. was planting corn.
"He was very convincing," Tom Sr. said.
Little did the Strouses know that Coughlin -- just another face in the line of coaches who sought his son's talents -- would one day lead the Giants to their second Super Bowl appearance in four years.
"He made small talk," Glenda said of his hourlong visits. "He was doing his job and he was very good at it."
She knew he was coming, so she baked her apple dapple cake.
"I made it for that occasion," she said.
Said her husband: "It's delicious."
And a friend at the Farm Bureau: "It's like eating candy."
From Tom Jr.: "It won't make you skinny."
Tom Jr., who in 1981 recorded 33 tackles, 16 of them solos, and had 13 first hits for a Braves team that finished 9-2, decided to follow Coughlin's lead and attend Boston College.
He was in uniform for all of Boston College's games in 1982, then left after aggravating his neck injury.
Thirty years later, the Strouses have only memories of Coughlin's trips to their home.
"We didn't take a picture," Glenda said. "He was just another Joe."
Today, she said, she may not recognize him.
"I don't know him from Adam," she said.
And, she added: "He didn't have enough cake to get me tickets."
n Email comments to bfoley@dailyitem.com
