By Frank Rajkowski, SJU Writer/Video Producer

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. - Another Saint John's University football season is underway.

And while John Gagliardi is no longer here physically, the legendary football coach's spirit is still very much present in many aspects of the program he led successfully for so many years.

Perhaps nowhere is that more evident than in his office inside Warner Palaestra. 

There, for season after season, and decade after decade, the winningest coach in college football history drew up triumphant game plans while spinning yarns and serving up wisecracks to any and all visitors who dropped by.



"It's when I'm sitting at his desk that the memories really come flooding back," said his son Jim Gagliardi, himself a former player and longtime member of his father's coaching staff.

These days, he has a new role as the school's director of athletic marketing. And he is operating out of his father's old office, which remained largely unchanged even after Gagliardi's retirement in 2012 after 60 seasons on the sidelines in Collegeville.

"I can still picture him sitting here with whomever happened to be visiting that day. And all of us just listening to him tell his stories."

Reminders of Gagliardi, who died last October just shy of his 92nd birthday, are everywhere inside. 
•    The plaques and trophies bearing witness to the many titles to which he led his teams, and the numerous accolades he earned along the way.
•    The maroon coat he wore when he passed Eddie Robinson atop the all-time victories list in 2003, and when the Johnnies upset heavily-favored Mount Union (Ohio) to win Gagliardi's fourth national championship later that season. The College Football Hall of Fame wanted to display it, but Gagliardi liked how warm it felt during those frigid November practices.

So he kept it. And it still hangs on the office wall.

As do the pictures, so many pictures: 
•    Gagliardi with then-President George W. Bush at the White House, and posing with a few of the numerous famous faces who paid tribute to him over the years. 
•    The head coach with his former players, both on and off the field.
•    And, of course, Gagliardi with his family – his wife Peg, their four children and 19 grandchildren.

"There are so many special memories in here," Jim Gagliardi said. "Whenever I'd go see my Dad, even toward the end, he would talk about all the great times we shared together.

"And so many of them are reflected in this room."

Gary Fasching, another former player and longtime assistant, took over from Gagliardi. But he remained quartered in his own office just down the hall. 

Gagliardi's office remained his, and still does today.

"I've always considered that office kind of sacred," Fasching said. "You walk in and it's almost a museum to his career and all he accomplished here. We still have people coming by – parents, recruits, former players – who want to see it. 

"It's an important part of the legacy of our program."

And it was in Gagliardi's office that former quarterback Tom Linnemann said much of that legacy was built.

"You won't find many 15x10 rooms that can bridge the gap between the 1950s and the present," said Linnemann, who helped lead the Johnnies to the 2000 Division III national title game.

"But that one did. It's where John brought past generations together with the future. You'd go in there as a current player, and he'd introduce you to a guy who was a starter on the 1981 team. Or I'd come in and talk to a recruit who was thinking about coming to Saint John's.

"You came out of there feeling like you had a place in a long and successful tradition."
Linnemann said he's glad the office is still intact, largely the way his former head coach left it.

"When I go in there, it's like he's there still," he said. "I don't feel sad. I just feel nostalgic and grateful for the time I had with him. The pictures really come alive and you remember so many different events and people. 

"It's like those pictures were the soundtrack to his career."