George Petrides’s tenure as the coach of Baltimore City College’s football team is longer than the previous 11 coaches’ combined. And now, after a string of wins against rival Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, he figured this was as good a time as any to retire.
In an interview with the Baltimore Sun, Petrides called coaching at City College “one of my all-time joys.” Let’s hope it was, because it wasn’t always easy. After having played on a dominant City team in the 1960s, Petrides took over coaching in 1975 at a time of plunging enrollment and had to weather a more than decade-long losing streak against Poly, before turning things around.
Bob Wade, retired Baltimore City athletics coordinator, referred to Petrides as “a tremendous teacher” and “one of the most respected coaches I know.”
