Originally Posted by
BCR
When I was like 10, my best friend moved a suburb over. It was ten minutes drive away, but that’s like a thousand miles when you’re 10.
So he moves into his new house and I’m there every other weekend. The Kosars lived like five houses down the street. Bernie had a younger brother Brian our age, and a sister Beth, and we’d play football or baseball every day or hang out, and Bernie would play steady qb at times if it was like 3 on 3 backyard football.
He was in high school at the time. Didn’t even play football until his senior year. Just baseball. He kind of had a crush on my friends sister who was in school with him, but she said he’s nice, but too nerdy. Think he went to prom with his cousin iirc. So he goes out for football his senior year and they just become this juggernaut passing team in an era where no one passed in NE Ohio. Like legit the top passer in the conference the year before probably threw for 500 yards for the season and he comes in and throws for like 3000 yards.
They were our rivals always. His last game against us was a similar type game to the NC. One point game decided on a missed extra point.
He took off for Miami, and that was before Miami was anything. So clearly I followed the ascension of the program throughout his time. The Flutie game could be on your list. The most amazing game I had ever watched up until that point, and still. Bernie has thrown for like 450 yards and lost on that Hail Mary.
It was surreal just seeing this older kid from the neighborhood go from kind of nerdy high school kid to redshirting a year and then pulling off that game as a freshmen QB. Played another year and then the Browns and then he ran into some rough years afterward.
Great game. Great memories. There was a small pipeline after Bernie of local kids from up here going to Miami. None that approached his success. They grabbed a kid the next year from town who was named JC Penney. Real name. Great athlete, but undersized RB. Played behind Alonzo Highsmith.