PASSAIC, N.J. -- Joseph Coviello, a Columbia University tackle who went on to become a National High School Sports Hall of Famer for his coaching, has died.

Coviello, who died Tuesday at age 88, had more victories than any other coach in state history when he retired in 1971, with a record of 254-51-10.

He played for Columbia in 1935 and 1936 under coach Lou Little.

His Memorial of West New York team won 70 of 71 games from 1949 to 1957, including nine state championships. He also coached at Berwick, Pa., from 1937 to 1943 and North Bergen from 1961 to 1971.

Coviello served as chairman of the football committee for the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association for the past 15 years and helped develop the power-point system for the playoffs that was instituted in 1974.

He served for the past two decades as executive secretary of the Hudson County Interscholastic Athletic Association, which named one of its two divisions after him in 1999. Coviello lived in North Bergen.