Abbeville Coach Gerald Harrington only person to win Russo Trophy as a player and head coach

Another year of playing for the Peter Russo Trophy has come and gone, and one record remains on the books for another year, associated with the Peter Russo Trophy.
There have been three KHS or AHS athletes who have competed for the Peter Russo Trophy as both players and head football coaches. Of those, only Gerald Harrington has won the Russo Trophy both as a player and as a head football coach.
He was a member of the AHS football team when the rivalry began. Abbeville beat Kaplan 20-19 in 1948, 7-6 in 1949, and 33-7 in 1950—Harrington’s senior year. He graduated from Abbeville in 1951.
Harrington was the AHS head football coach from 1978 to 1981, and during that time, his teams beat Kaplan three times, including in 1978 and 1979.
Coach Harrington died in 2008 at the age of 74.
Kaplan High graduate Dr. Joe Kite just missed being the first person to compete for the Russo Trophy as both a player and a head coach. He graduated from Kaplan in 1948 and played football in the 1947 season, just before the football series began in 1948.
Dr. Kite later became the head football coach at Kaplan High.
Trevor Eaton is the interim head football coach today at AHS. Eaton is also a former Wildcat who played football.
Eaton never won the Russo Trophy as a player, finishing with an 0-3 record. However, he has won it now as a head coach and an assistant coach.
The same could not be said for AHS graduate Kevin Kern, who both played for and later coached the Wildcats. As a player in the early 1980s, the Wildcats won the Russo Trophy three consecutive years. However, as an AHShead coach, Kaplan defeated the Wildcats in each matchup.
The trophy is named after Peter Russo, a young man from Abbeville who was killed in World War II.