If you’re coming to Tanks Memorial Stadium for the appreciation dinner, you better RSVP.

Tuesday, June 27, 2000

If you’re coming to Tanks Memorial Stadium for the appreciation dinner, you better RSVP.

Deadline to obtain tickets is Wednesday evening for Saturday’s appreciation dinner for Ironton High School coaches Bob Lutz and Mike Burcham.

Interested people should contact Rick McKnight at 576-9015 or 532-4011 (Bob Clyse Oldsmobile), John Wolfe at 532-7000, Dave Lawless at 532-6705, Rich Mountain at 532-8755 (Scherer-Mountain Insurance), or Jeff Linn at 532-4872 (Bob Linn Sporting Goods).

The dinner will be held from 7-10 p.m. and people should enter through Tiger Alley.

The dinner is a family affair with no alcoholic beverages. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for children. Tickets should be purchased in advance since the event is being catered by the Scioto Ribber.

Lutz and Burcham are retiring as teachers following nearly 70 years of work between them. However, they will return this fall to coach football and direct the athletic program.

Former Ironton players Ken Fritz and Mark Snyder will be among the guest speakers. Also scheduled to speak are former Ironton and St. Joe football coach James J. "Bear" Mains and former Ironton basketball coach Bob Leith.

Fritz was the Associated Press Lineman of the Year and first team All-Ohio player for the Fighting Tigers. He was a four-year letterman at Ohio State, co-captain his senior year, a two-time first team Big Ten selection, a two-time first team AP All-American, and a 10th round draft choice of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Snyder was a first team All-Ohio pick at Ironton. He earned Division I-AA All-American honors at Marshall as he set a school record with 10 interceptions in one season, and is currently an assistant coach for the Minnesota Gophers.

Lutz has been the head football coach at Ironton for the past 28 years. His 282-60-5 record – which includes 20-8-1 in three seasons at St. Joe – puts him in an eighth place tie on the Ohio high school coaches all-time victory list.

Lutz’s teams have made 18 postseason playoff appearances, been state runners-up six times including last year, and he his teams won state titles in 1979 and 1989.

Burcham has served as Ironton’s athletic director since 1972 and he is a member of the Ohio High School Athletic Directors Hall of Fame.

Burcham was Ironton’s head baseball coach from 1978 to 1984. He posted a 319-129 record with a state title in 1972. He is a member of the Ohio High School Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame.

He is also a member of the University of Rio Grande Athletic Hall of Fame. His career total of 23 home runs is second all-time behind Charlie Roberts who hit 25. Burcham coached Roberts during the early 1980s.