Bob Walsh was a legendary Lorain County high school basketball coach

I paid my last respects to Bob Walsh on Tuesday at his funeral. Walsh, one of the icons of Lorain County high school boys basketball, died June 28, leaving behind a glorious legacy, one that won't soon be forgotten. He was 87. I first met Bob when Clearview hosted the Class A tournament in 1966. I was a junior in high school and had just started a part-time job at The Chronicle-Telegram answering phones Friday and Saturday nights. Jerry Rombach, the longtime sports editor, sent me to Clearview to cover a tournament game between Columbia and Keystone. The Wildcats won 74-54. Walsh was an assistant to Roger McFredrick in 1966 but would take over as head coach the following year. Walsh's son, Mike, and his grandson Ryan, along with longtime radio voice Tim Alcorn, gave tributes at the funeral to Bob, the winningest coach in Lorain County history with 643 victories in 42 seasons and a winning percentage of .681. He won two state championships (Clearview in 1974 and Oberlin in 1986), 11 district titles and 19 conference championships. Walsh also coached at Vermilion, Elyria Catholic and Elyria. He had the Panthers on the brink of qualifying for the state Final Four in 2002 and 2003, losing heartbreakers in the Toledo regional final. He nearly took Oberlin to back-to-back state crowns. His 1987 team, with just one starter returning from the previous year (Tim Shepherd), lost to Willard 68-67 at Toledo in the regional semifinal. It broke Oberlin's 48-game winning streak. The Indians, as they were known then, won 51 of 53 games over the two seasons. Willard and Wellington were the only teams to beat them. The irony is that Walsh planned to be a lawyer. "After he graduated (from college) he was going to go to law school," Mike said. "My dad wanted to be a lawyer. As he got out of school, he needed to make a little bit of money. He needed to teach for a little while and when he applied for jobs, the main one was at Clearview. My mom stayed in Pittsburgh and my dad rented a house in Streetsboro (where his sister lived). He would drive every day from Streetsboro. My mom wasn't ready to leave Pittsburgh yet." Walsh wanted to coach football but when McFredrick stepped down to take a job in administration, he opted for basketball. His best friend to this day, Wayne Ross, was Clearview's football and track coach and the two worked hand-in-hand to develop the athletes at the school. I had the opportunity to cover the last three teams Walsh coached when he was at Elyria High. His last one, in 2008, broke a 31-year dry spell for the Pioneers, as they had not been to the the Sweet 16 since 1977. Walsh was born in Pittsburgh but navigated to Lorain County in 1959 to begin his coaching and teaching career at Clearview. It was an amazing time for Lorain County basketball. "From the '60s and '70s through the early '90s, it was a great era," said Jim Lawhead, another of the long list of great county coaches from those days. "I can't explain it." Some of the coaches were homegrown like Lawhead, but many gravitated to Lorain County like Walsh had. "We had some great battles," Lawhead said. "I looked it up one time but I'm not going to say for sure because I don't know. I would say we played 25 games against each other — Oberlin, Clearview and Vermilion — but mostly Oberlin, and we were 12-12 and one tie. That's how close it was." Lawhead grew up in Lorain and coached originally at St. Mary before it was closed and rebuilt as Lorain Catholic. He also spent a couple of seasons at Brookside. He won 516 games in his career and took the Spartans to the state tournament twice, in 1985 and 1976, losing to Dayton Roth in the final. Think about all the great coaches from that era. Dale Reichenbach was at Elyria from 1953 through the 1966 season. He had won the 1951 Class 'B' state title at Grand Rapids in western Ohio before being hired at Elyria. He won 216 games, lost only 83, and put the Pioneers on the map as a basketball program. His teams won nine district championships in his last 10 years, including eight in a row. Twice he took the Pioneers to the state tournament. His biggest coaching rival in the '60s was Al McConihe of Lorain High and Admiral King. It was McConihe who broke his eight-year stranglehold on the local district tournament by leading the Admirals over Elyria 70-69 in 1965. From 1961 through 1988, Lorain County sent 12 teams to the state finals. It wasn't until Open Door broke through in 2003 before the county had another school in the Final Four. Mitch Gillam at Admiral King nearly equaled Reichenbach's district mastery by winning seven straight titles and 10 of 11 from 1978-88. His teams won 20 or more games eight straight years. Gillam racked up 488 wins in 29 seasons, finishing his illustrious career at Elyria West and Elyria High before retiring in 1997. Mike Riley, who coached the Pioneers for seven seasons, won 124 games and took Elyria to two Final Fours. Bob Guinta, who died earlier this year, took Elyria Catholic to the state finals in 1973, the same year Elyria got to the finals under Riley. Guinta, originally from Jamestown, New York, coached the Panthers for 22 seasons, winning 329 games. Altogether Guinta coached for 30 seasons, winning 16 conference titles, nine districts and two regionals. In addition to EC, he guided Celina to the state finals in 1964. He had 433 career wins. Other very notable coaches from that era were Keith "Butch" Sooy, a Keystone graduate who spent his early years coaching at Firelands but also coached at Elyria and Medina. Larry Stark, a state tennis doubles champion at Elyria, did a great job at Lorain Southview, as did Dale Reichert at Lorain, where he went to school. Norm Irwin had some good seasons at Avon and Westlake. And prior to Guinta at Elyria Catholic, Chuck Machock was a success. When Mike Walsh became Elyria's boys coach in 1995, his dad was at Vermilion and the two coached against each other. "I loved it going into it," said Mike. "I was so excited for that first game and all the hoopla for that first one. All three TV stations — 3, 5 and 8 — all came out to my practice. "I'll never forget that first game. It was at Vermilion. We were down seven, eight points with about two minutes to go. I remember looking down at my dad. I thought I had the better team. I'm going to freaking lose to my dad. Then Mark Gatewood got hot, hit a 3, and then Adam (Larrick) scored and then Mark Gatewood hit another 3. We come storming back and somehow got it to overtime." Elyria won 61-52, but Mike didn't enjoy the victory. "I looked down and my dad was sitting on the bench with his hands over his eyes and his towel in his hands," he said. "I looked down and said I just beat my dad. I felt so crappy. There's the guy I've been rooting for my entire life. I'll never forget that feeling." The baton has been passed by Bob Walsh. Brett Larrick, who took over for Walsh in 2008 after being his assistant, enters next season with 220 wins. Kurt Habermehl at Vermilion and Kurt Russell at Oberlin played for Walsh before becoming coaches. John Szalay, Walsh's point guard on Clearview's state title team, recently retired as Clearview's coach. Walsh came full-circle by becoming Szalay's assistant before he retired. Obviously Walsh coached some great players along the way, including Roy "Froggie" Davis, Larry Harris and Larry Fortner at Clearview and Shepherd at Oberlin. In the heyday of those seasons, the games were always sold out, particularly the ones involving Clearview or Oberlin. If you didn't have a ticket prior to going, you weren't getting in. Bob Walsh was the main reason. Contact Tim Gebhardt at (440) 329-7135 or at timothygeb@msn.com.