One of my best friends and a dear friend of many Ignatians, students and faculty, has passed away. Though he left Ignatius 38 years ago, I will miss him, and his memory will be cherished by so many whose lives he impacted.
Bob was a coach and Physical
Education teacher at St. Ignatius for 15 years, from 1964 until 1979. His coaching career at Ignatius consisted of coaching freshmen baseball, varsity baseball, sophomore basketball and, finally,
for 11 years, varsity basketball. I was his assistant coach for 9 of the 11
years that he was head basketball coach. Even after Bob went on to "greener pasturers", we stayed in contact and he continued to be my friend and mentor.
To his players, Bob was not only a
wonderful teacher, but an inspiration.
Despite being retired from high school coaching for 38 years, many of
his former players stayed in contact, even travelling to visit with him in
Arizona where he lived with his wife, Pat. Bob had a clarity of vision in his
approach. He was a big advocate of the
cliché K.I.S.S., “Keep It Simple,
Stupid”. He made sure that the players
knew what was expected of them and he was strict about their following his
directions. He also knew that it was
important for them to take pleasure…have “fun”…in being a part of the program,
and would often join them in the scrimmages and physical training activities.
Bob understood the importance of
physical conditioning, and he did not let the fact that Ignatius was struggling
financially in the early '70's stand in the way of improving the facilities or the
program. He did some low-level fund
raising, and used the proceeds to buy the Universal Gym, an apparatus on which his
players trained diligently. On the
importance of physical conditioning, following a soccer game early in Jim
Luzzi’s coaching career, Jim wrote, that, while Bob admitted to knowing little
about soccer, “he said that it looked like we lost because the other team was
in better shape than we were and he was right."
That also points to another element
of Bob Gabric’s value to St. Ignatius and its athletic program. Bob was an outstanding mentor for other
coaches. I was a fairly young man when I
became the sophomore coach under Bob’s leadership. Working with him for 9
years, I learned a tremendous amount about coaching, which served me well in my
15 years as the girls’ and boys’ tennis coach.
One last point about Bob’s mentoring
skills is made by Bob Kriz. “Working
with Bob was a joy. He taught me more about the game then I ever knew and
showed me how to have fun with it and the kids. Bob was always able to adapt on
the fly and that is one of the reasons he was such a good coach.”
Finally there is Bob Gabric’s record
as head basketball coach. While the
exact number of wins and losses is lost to posterity, here is a brief summery
of some of his team’s accomplishments:
4 league championships
2 IHSA Regional Championships
6 invitational tournament
championships
7 tournament finishes in 2nd
or 3rd place
2 times named WLS team of the week
4 times presented the Golden Basket
Award
Bob, for those of you who knew you, you will never be out of our hearts and minds. God bless you.