Fred Rosenfeld, legendary Overbrook and Central High track coach, has died at 79

Frederick Rosenfeld, 79, a storied Overbrook and Central track and field coach, died Thursday, Sept. 5, of complications of Parkinson’s disease at Holy Redeemer Hospice in Huntingdon Valley.

Mr. Rosenfeld was perhaps one of the greatest coaches in Philadelphia Public League history — his track and cross-country teams won 51 championships in a career that spanned 35 years and sent multiple athletes onto successful stints as college athletes, professional runners, even Olympians.

“He played uncle to some of us, he played dad to some of us, he was coach to all of us,” said Jon Drummond, whom Mr. Rosenfeld encouraged to try out for the track team at Overbrook in 1984. Drummond went on to win two Olympic medals. “He was always leading us somewhere.”

Born to Paul and Ethel Rosenfeld, Mr. Rosenfeld grew up in the Wynnefield section of the city. He was a second-generation Overbrook High graduate who earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Temple University. He went on to become a physical education teacher briefly at FitzSimons Junior High, then for 24 years at his high school alma mater before spending the last 11 years of his teaching and coaching career at Central, his father’s alma mater.

Mr. Rosenfeld enjoyed teaching and excelled at it, but his real career passion was coaching. He scouted relentlessly for runners, plucking kids who had never run a mile from the Overbrook hallways, and worked them hard. Overbrook students didn’t take the school bus to meets at Belmont Plateau; they threw their backpacks on the bus and jogged there.

If his students worked hard, “Mr. Rose” worked just as hard.

“He was meticulous,” said Mister Mann Frisby, who transferred to Overbrook from Bodine High School, then a new magnet school, in 1991 because he wanted to run track for the already-storied Mr. Rosenfeld. “His notes were immaculate. If you want to know what you ran on March 26, 1993, you went to Rose, it was written down, and he kept the notes, with the weather written down at the top of the page.”

Mr. Rosenfeld cared deeply about his athletes as people, and kept in touch with them through the years.

Drummond, who graduated from Overbrook in 1986, went on to run on an international stage, and to coach Olympic athletes. More than a decade ago, Mr. Rosenfeld bought tickets to an Olympic trial race where Drummond was coaching; Drummond heard his mentor was present, and brought him to a VIP box where he hobnobbed with the likes of track and field Olympians Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Gail Devers. Everyone knew Mr. Rosenfeld; Brooks Johnson, the Olympic track and field coach, called him “Fast Freddy,” Drummond said.

“Rose was one of a kind, Mr. Track and Field,” said Drummond. “Everyone knew him. His talent was beyond measure. If he had chosen to coach at a university, he would have had the same success. He helped so many get their lives started.”

In 2004, when Mr. Rosenfeld was getting ready to retire, he was asked about what he had gotten out of teaching and coaching. He cited not the dozens of championships, nor the athletes who went on to glory.

“I’ve just always hoped that the kids have gotten something nice out of it,” Mr. Rosenfeld told the Daily News. “I really like it when I see guys in their 30s and 40s who come back around and say they really enjoyed participating in track or cross-country. Many of the kids haven’t done either sport before I’ve gotten them. I really enjoy seeing them progress, to develop a skill they didn’t even know they had.”

For his efforts, Mr. Rosenfeld was inducted into the halls of fame for Overbrook High, Pennsylvania High School Track and Field, Philadelphia Jewish Sports, and Belmont Plateau Cross Country.

Mr. Rosenfeld and his wife of 56 years, Wendy, spent 20 years at Camp Nock-A-Mixon in Bucks County, where he was athletic director and boys’ head counselor, and she ran the canteen. He cofounded and codirected the Briarwood Running Camp for 25 years.

After his retirement, Mr. Rosenfeld, a longtime resident of Ardmore, served as a track and field official, volunteered with Students Run Philly Style, and helped establish the Penn Running Club and the Academy at Palumbo, a district magnet school modeled after Central. He also enjoyed golf and cycling.

Mr. Rosenfeld often had to sacrifice time with his family to coach and teach at the level he did, but they were his pride and joy — his wife, their children, and later, the six grandchildren to whom he was a silly, loving grandpop.

Silly was a byword for Mr. Rosenfeld; it’s what made Wendy Rosenfeld fall in love with him. They were set up on a blind date and got along famously. Six weeks into dating, Mr. Rosenfeld talked about marriage.

“I said, ‘When I’m asked to be married, I want it to be romantic,’” Wendy Rosenfeld said. “He gets out of the car at a red light, gets down on his knees, and said, ‘Will you marry me?’ I said, ‘Yes, I’ll marry you, get back in the car!’ Then he bought me an engagement ring with his bar mitzvah money.”

Rachel Schaumburger, Mr. Rosenfeld’s daughter, described her father as “friendly, outgoing, funny, real. He was charismatic, a great storyteller. He was always making jokes, and he had tons of energy. People just fell in love with him — he was warm and open, and hardworking.”

Mr. Rosenfeld was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease 12 years ago; he kept active as long as he could, but his health worsened considerably this year. Near the end of Mr. Rosenfeld’s life, a parade of former students paid homage to him — at home, on the phone, as he lay dying.

“It made him know,” Schaumburger said, “that his life’s work had an impact.”

In addition to his wife and daughter, Mr. Rosenfeld is survived by a son, Joshua, six grandchildren; and a brother, Arthur.

A memorial service will be held at noon Monday, Oct. 21, at Joseph Levine & Sons Funeral Home, 1002 W. Skippack Pike, Blue Bell.

Contributions may be made to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, Box 5014, Hagerstown, Md. 21741.