At the Hall-of-Fame Induction this past September,
I was introduced to Matt Monroe, the new varsity basketball coach at St.
Ignatius. I wish Matt nothing but the greatest success, and, judging from what
I read in his bio on the Ignatius website, he is destined to be successful. He is stepping into the shadow of the
coaching icon, Rich Kehoe. This chance meeting
with Matt made me think about our athletic program in general and particularly
the basketball program, during my first two decades at Ignatius.
With the busy holiday season approaching, the idea of writing an article about those times was put on the back burner until yesterday…New Years Day to be precise…
when I received a phone call from Jeffery Carter, a former outstanding Ignatius
basketball player from the class of ’76, and Coach Bob Gabric, our head b-ball
coach from ’68 to ’79.
I started my teaching and coaching career in
September of 1961. From 1960 until 1970,
we had five different head basketball coaches.
For those of you of a certain age, and care to reminisce, or those of
you who are younger but want to impress your dads and grandfathers with your
knowledge, they were:
1960 to 1963 Ralph Hinger
1963 to 1964 George Lux
1964 to 1967 Jim Enright
1967 to 1968 Tom O’Connor
1968 to 1979 Bob Gabric
By contrast, since 1979 there have only been three
different coaches: Rich Kehoe (1979 to
1986), Paul Pryma(1986 to 1992), John Tracy(1992 to 2003)
Then Kehoe returned in 2003
until he retired last year.
My involvement with Wolfpack basketball program didn’t
begin until 1968, when I became the sophomore coach. Officially, I was Bob Gabric’s assistant, but
in reality, I wasn’t. From 1968 to 1976,
Bob was the varsity coach, I was the sophomore coach and Ron Cygan (class of
’62) was the freshmen coach. That was
it. There were three coaches for the
entire program. In reading the Ignatius
website description about the present-day basketball program, I saw that there
are 6 coaches. That’s great!
As an aside, from the time when Bob Gabric came to
Ignatius in 1964, and we coached baseball together, he has been one of my best
friends and a mentor. I learned much
about coaching and about life from Bob for which I will always be grateful. I want to add that Jim Luzzi, ’65, our first
and longtime soccer coach, has also expressed his admiration and appreciation
for the lessons that Rich Kehoe has taught him.
Jim said that he had learned a great deal about organizing practices and game plans from Rich. Since Luzzi is one of the most organized men
I have ever known, that is high praise indeed.
There is a great deal more that can be said about
the changes in the athletic program since the ‘70’s. Among them the football program was eliminated (for 40 years), there were several league changes, and a new gym was built, but that’s enough for now.
Happy New Year.
