Tag Archives: Athletic Coaches

Erwin Claggett: The Basketball Star Who is Now a High School Social Studies Teacher and Head Basketball Coach

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4f98701ae640b.preview-300[1]Many talented educators and coaches were once professional athletes. This is the case with Erwin Clagget, a high school social studies teacher and basketball coach who happens to be a former professional basketball player.

Erwin, born in 1973, graduated high school in Venice, Illinois, where he earned the nickname the “Venice Menace.” But he is probably most famous for his college basketball career at St. Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri. There he played combo guard for the St. Louis Billikens between 1991 and 1995. At 6 feet, 1 inch, and 185 pounds, Erwin  played a total of four seasons for the Billikens, where he scored a total of 1,910 points. He was named the all-time leading scorer of the Great Midwest Conference, and because the conference disbanded in 1995, he will always hold that record. He led the squad to a berth in the 1994 NCAA Tournament, where they lost in the opening round to Maryland. During his senior year, the Billikens earned another berth into the tournament, this time losing to Wake Forest. Despite these losses, in 1995, Erwin was honored by the Associated Press as an All-American, and in 2001 he was inducted into the Saint Louis University Athletic Hall of Fame. After college,  Erwin played professional basketball in Europe.

Erwin earned his bachelor’s degree from St. Louis in 1995 and his master’s from Lindenwood University in 2003. He began his career as a professional educator and coach at   Venice High School in Missouri, where he worked for two years. He then transferred to McCluer High School in Florissant, Missouri, where he spent nine years as a social studies teacher and the Head Basketball Coach. While there, the McCluer High Comets consistently ranked as one of the area’s top teams, often battling for the championship of the Suburban North Conference, which is one of the toughest basketball leagues in the state. In his nine years there, Erwin’s teams posted a record of 169-60, including three Suburban North Conference titles. During his tenure, the Comets produced many talented players, including NCAA Division I players Lonnie and Shaquille Boga. Three times Coach Claggett was named the league’s Coach of the Year: in 2004, 2006, and again in 2010. In 2012, Erwin was named the Head Basketball Coach at St. Louis University High School, where he also teaches social studies.

Well done, Erwin!

Tennis Great and Track Star Walter K. Wesbrook: He Was Also a Teacher and Coach

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602px-Walter_Wesbrook_long_jump[1]Very often talented athletes go on to become gifted educators and coaches. Such is the case with Walter Kenneth Wesbrook, a champion tennis player from the University of Michigan who became an exceptional coach at Polytechnic High School in Pasadena, California.

Walter was born in 1898 in Detroit, Michigan. After his high school graduation, he attended the University of Michigan, where it quickly became obvious he was a stellar athlete in tennis. The left-hander won the Big Ten doubles title with tennis partner Nicholas Bartz in 1919, and he garnered the singles titles in 1919 and 1920. In 1921, a ruptured appendix kept him from winning the singles title a third time. In addition, in 1920, Walter reached the singles and doubles finals at the Cincinnati Masters Tournament, but he was eliminated in the singles competition in four tough sets to Hennessey. With partner Kenneth Simmons, he lost the doubles final to the team of Hennessey and Fritz Bastian in five sets. By 1921, Walter was named a coach at Michigan, and the one season he was there went 8–3. In 1923, Walter reached the doubles final at the US Clay Court Championship with his tennis partner, John Hennesey. The pair were defeated by brothers  Howard and Robert Kinsey of San Francisco. Later that year, Walter won the Western Lawn Tennis Association championship over George Lott.

In addition to tennis, Walter also competed in the pole vault and long jump for the Michigan Wolverines track team. He could pole vault 12 feet and long jump 23 feet.

After his playing career, Wesbrook became a teacher and tennis coach at the Polytechnic School in Pasadena. He also competed many times in the Senior Olympics, and he still holds numerous national track and field records for the 75-79 and 80-84 age groups.

This chalkboard champion passed away in Los Angeles in January, 1991, at the age of 92.

Chalkboard Champion Leonard Skinner: He Inspired the Band Lynyrd Skynyrd

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Lynyrd-Skynyrd-Skinner_320[1]Many talented and dedicated educators earn recognition in fields outside of education, but occasionally a great teacher becomes known for the accomplishments of his students. Such was the case of Florida physical education teacher Leonard Skinner, who inspired his former students to name their band after him. The band’s name? Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Forby Leonard Skinner was born January 11, 1933, in Jacksonville, Florida. As a youngster he attended Robert E. Lee High School, where he graduated in 1951. Leonard enrolled in Jacksonville Junior College on a basketball scholarship, but his education was cut short when  he was drafted into the US Army. After he was discharged, Leonard enrolled at Florida State University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in physical education in 1957. 

Leonard first taught at Glynn Academy in Glynn County, Georgia, but for most of his career, he was a physical education at his alma mater, Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville, Florida. Among his former students were several members of the band Lynyrd Skynyrd, including Ronnie Van Zant, Gary Rossington, and Bob Burns, who were students at Robert E. Lee in the 1960s.

According to legend, Leonard’s strict enforcement of a policy against long hair inspired the members to name their band after him. The gym teacher, a stickler for by-the-book procedures, sent Rossington and others to the principal’s office for violating a school policy prohibiting long hair. Over time, Burns, Rossington, and other band members developed a series of running jokes about their teacher, until ultimately they decided to pay tongue-in-cheek homage to their flat-topped coach by renaming their group Lynyrd Skynyrd. When interviewed in January, 2009, Leonard abashedly told reporters he was just following the district policy. “It was against the school rules,” he said. “I don’t particularly like long hair on men, but again, it wasn’t my rule.” Of his former students, Leonard remembered, “They were good, talented, hard-working boys. They worked hard, lived hard and boozed hard.”

Towards the end of his career, Leonard taught at Jacksonville Technical High School, where he retired in 1970. During his retirement, he became a real estate broker and tavern owner, but he maintained contact with his former students. In 1975, he even allowed the band to use a photograph of his “Leonard Skinner Realty” sign for the inside of their third album, Nuthin’ Fancy. The band also performed at his tavern called The Still.

In January 2009, Leonard’s home town of Jacksonville hosted an event called “A Tribute to Coach Leonard Skinner & Southern Rock” at the National Guard Armory. At the time, the Jacksonville newspaper wrote, “He was just a regular Westside guy, a coach and businessman with a strong code of honor, a disciplinarian at home and at school.”

On September 20, 2010, Leonard passed away at a nursing home in Riverside, Florida. He was 77, and had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for several years. In his obituary, The Florida Times-Union  called him “the no-nonsense, flat-topped basketball coach and gym teacher whose name is forever linked with Jacksonville’s legendary Lynyrd Skynyrd.” The New York Times described him as “arguably the most influential high school gym teacher in American popular culture.”

Chalkboard Champion Gwynneth Hardesty Coogan Is Also An Olympic Competitor

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Many talented educators distinguish themselves in fields other than education, and a perfect example of this is Gwynneth Hardesty Coogan, a talented educator who also happens to be an Olympic athlete.

Gwynneth was born on August 21, 1965, in Trenton, New Jersey. As a youngster, Gwynneth attended Phillips Exeter Academy for two years, where she graduated in 1983. There she played both field hockey and squash. After her graduation from high school, she enrolled in Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, earning her bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1987, and her doctorate in math from the University of Colorado in 1999, working primarily in number theory. She did post-doctorate work with at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Gwynneth’s first teaching experience was at Hood College, but she  currently teaches math at Phillips Exeter Academy. At Phillips Exeter, Gwynneth is the director of the Exeter Mathematics Institute, and serves as the head coach of the girls varsity cross country team, in addition to her roles as dormitory adviser and mathematics instructor. She was the first Smith Family Instructor of Mathematics from 2007 to 2013, and she received a Brown Award for her teaching in 2011.

During her years at Smith, Gwynneth took up running, and won the NCAA Division III title in the 3,000 meters two times. She qualified for the 1992 Summer Olympics held in Barcelona, Spain, where she competed in the 10,000 meter race.Four years later, she was an alternate for the women’s marathon for the 1996 Summer Olympics held in Atlanta, Georgia.

Physical Education Teacher Wesley Darcel Walker Played NFL Football

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$RILVQ8RMany times talented teachers earn recognition for themselves in fields other than education. This is certainly the case for elementary school physical education teacher Wesley Darcel Walker. This chalkboard champion was once a player for the in the National Football League.

Wesley was born in 1955 in San Bernardino, California. He graduated from Carson High School in Carson, California, where he played football for his high school, setting many school records for receiving and returns. Following his high school graduation, Wesley attended the University of California, where he also distinguished himself as a gifted football player, having been named as an All-American.

After his college years, Wesley became a player for the New York Jets. As an NFL wide receiver, Wesley was known for his great speed, averaging over twenty yards per reception over the many seasons he played. He led the league in receiving yards in 1978, and that year was named his team’s Most Valuable Player. He was elected to the Pro Bowl twice: in 19878 and 1982. At the time of his retirement from the game, Wesley held the all-time record of second in receiving yards for the Jets. And he did all this despite a handicap: he’s legally blind in one eye.

Wesley is now employed as a physical education teacher at Park View Elementary School in Kings Park, Long Island, New York, and occasionally works on the side as a sports radio show commentator.

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