During the past few days I’ve experienced an incredible outpouring of love and support for me and my family, as we remember my late father – Coach Dick Ridinger. Your words have been a great comfort to us during this difficult time, and now I’d like to share with you some words of my own. Below you’ll find the eulogy I gave in remembrance of my father, as we laid to rest this remarkable individual. My father left an indelible mark on everyone he met, so I hope these words can have a positive impact on your life as well. My father always saw the good in people, and that amazing mindset will always be his greatest legacy.
Keep Growing!
-JR Ridinger
EULOGY IN REMEMBRANCE OF GEORGE RICHARD RIDINGER
Known to most as “Coach” or “Coach Dick” or “Dick” to relatives and “Dad” to Tom and I
Tom, that was incredible and so true. It’s absolutely moving and monumental.
Thank you, as introduced, he is right, I am Jim Ridinger, (correcting the pronunciation) and I am known to most as JR.
I am wearing those shaded glasses this afternoon not because of tears, but that I left my regular glasses at home and these are prescription and have become my trade mark—kind of like a Jack Nicholson thing. My team over here wouldn’t recognize me without them.
I am accustomed to addressing audiences of 20,000 or more regularly and speak and train large groups several times a month and I am comfortable with it. However, this is the hardest address I have ever had to make. I hope I do well.
I have brought my timer up as to not get carried away and go too long for which I have a reputation AND I brought my tissues because it is impossible not to break down considering the subject matter.
First – of all let me on the behalf of myself, my brother and his wife (Tom and Sue), Amanda who oversaw her Grandad’s care in the final months and made most io the arrangements today, as well as the family thank you for all of your respect and the outpouring of love, caring, and thoughtful expressions and most of all for making the effort to be here today. He (Dad/Dick) is here right now!
I truly appreciate your being here, but he is watching and knows who came to see him and you know how he feels about that. So let me thank you for him.
But this is a happy and thankful time. We will celebrate his completion of a triumphant long and successful life and his reward of passing to eternal life today!
He is a champion! He won the game of life – his greatest game ever.
If this were 20 years ago and he were 75 this place would be packed and we would have a problem because everyone could not fit.
However he outlived most of his peers, contemporaries and even players or students he mentored who admired and loved him including:
Coaches he coached,
Teachers he taught with
Students he inspired and who rose to the top of their professions
Many of which have passed away
There are still some left and I know because that because they come around to the house to visit or write him. And many of them are here today as I was thrilled to meet many of you today.
He would be 94 in June and was battling age and declining health as well as coping with and keeping up with my mother’s condition, although he never complained once! You see, her advanced Alzheimer’s has taken its greatest toll on him because of the stress and pain of seeing the love of his life disconnect.
But he is like and Eveready Battery and just keeps going and going. I was beginning to think he might live forever.
Age and aging is a funny thing and we all have to deal with it with parents and yes, then ourselves: SUCCESS by AGE
Age 4 success is . . . not wetting your pants.
At age 12 success is . . . having friends.
At age 16 success is . . . having a driver’s license.
At age 20 success is . . . having sex.
At age 35 success is . . . having money.
At age 50 success is . . . having more money.
At age 60 success is . . . having sex.
At age 70 success is . . . having a driver’s license.
At age 75 success is . . . having friends.
At age 80 success is . . . not wetting your pants.
I have been through all if that with Dad and am following in his footsteps.
A Eulogy is a speech or writing in praise of a person or thing, especially a set oration in honor of a deceased person.
That is not a difficult task to do for a man like Dick Ridinger who is so praise worthy.
The difficult thing is doing it in 7 minutes because there is so much to praise!
The second problem for me is that he is that here today. Really, his soul is present.
We are very close and open and know that the soul transcends physical death. So he talked as if that time was near and he was worried about mother and he was sad she was disconnected.
I could tell he didn’t want us to leave and when we visited he was concerned when we would be back. That was not the case in previous months.
He would write down when we were returning and he wanted his calendar. Keeping list and writing things down as well as putting it in on the calendar was another one of his successful traits.
I ask – “Why? You are not leaving yet!?”
You see, He didn’t know his medical condition exactly and didn’t care.
“Take care of her” – ‘and that he would be contacting her and make sure she listened! He claimed he would revisit like Jesus did his disciples.
‘He would wait for her as long as it took because in the eternal 1 second or minute equals 1yr or even a 100 yrs.
Doesn’t matter if it is a day, month, year or 10 years he would be waiting for her.
“She is always late anyway” he said.
“What’s another 10 minutes?!”
A funeral of a loved one is a grim reminder of our own mortality!
No one has ever gotten out of this life alive! Have they? Right? If anyone here knows a way, please tell us.
It’s funny,
Everyone wants to go to heaven but doesn’t want to die to get there!
No one last forever!
It’s God’s plan. But, even knowing the inevitable we want to delay it.
Regardless we hate to see him depart and leave us.
If our lives could be compared to a book (NOVEL) his would be a best seller and we hate to see the story come to e end.
None of us wanted him to leave us!
However, in this case, it would be selfish to keep him here as he completed his life triumphantly. A master piece! A classic!
And his reward is transcendence to a better place free of limitation and pain.
AndDad or Coach Dick is definitely going first class to heaven with Big Bank account of Karmic Credits for all who he helped. In fact he is RICH in heavenly or spiritual wealth.
He has no regrets except maybe Tom and I:
I know he was wishing we were closer.
But we are opposites of sorts.
A Ying and Yang effect more or less.
With totally different or opposite personalities and psychology.
But we definitely have 2 things in COMMON!
That is our LOVE for DAD
We both love him desperately!
The other is that we both excelled in our fields:
His : Physical Therapy and Cardiovascular Physiology
Mine: As an entrepreneur and in business.
But there are no unfulfilled bucket list here. He did it all.
In the end he was just about Love, His family and Tommie.
Death and Birth never come at a convenient time.
It teaches is that we are not on our own time clock—but God’s time clock.
I do wonder about this though with him.
Last week was our WC last week with 23,000 people in Miami and intense preparation and execution. – He waited until I finished and got back!
He also chose Lincoln’s Birthday November 12th of all things. That is mind blowing because he admired Lincoln and was an aficionado and expert on him. I mean – who has a room in their house called the “Lincoln Room filled with memorabilia, tributes, trivia and “stuff”?!
It was also Valentine’s Day weekend– with his sweetheart of nearly 70 years -
He did that to get her to pay attention!
But he is still here watching over and waiting for Tommie.
Anyone who knows them (Dick and Tommie) would agree:
They are the Real Life version of the movie “The Notebook”
It is a perfect and complete love, admiration and respect.
They even could read each other’s minds.
I want to talk about what I call the “DASH” for a moment. – I often use this metaphor in motivation and training of our 160,000 UnFranchise owner entrepreneurs.
Let me explain. I often refer to a ceremony or reality check that Loren and I have done where we go to the graveyard to find people to motivate to do more in life and I am animated in demonstrating our persuasive pleadings or “rants” to the grave stones.
Of course it is silly and there is no response because it is too late. They are dead in this life and we are wasting our breath.
However, you don’t have to go to the graveyard to experience this phenomenon. Any small town is similar with the little house, all alike, lined up in rows with their numbers and the people in them have no dreams and often little ambition and at best are comfortably miserable. The living dead.
They compensate for that by trying to hold others back. Misery loves company and if you made it- it would expose their mediocrity.
So instead of encouraging you they discourage you and all too often people listen to them and are so concerned with what their friends think. We let their opinions or criticism affect our thinking and what we will do or try.
The way God made it is that our number will eventually be called to go (die)
So let’s suppose your number was called and you know about it. Tomorrow you will die because your number came up. Are you ready?
I ask them: “Can you go to your “good old best friend” Ralph (who you are so concerned about what he think) and ask him to take your place? “Please Ralph, you have been my best friend my entire life and I am not ready to go and I have things that need to be done and people depending on me. Will you please take my place?’ Will he take your place? Of course not.
Here is the point then:
If Ralph won’t die for you when it’s time to die; then…..
Now that it is time to live, don’t let him live for you either!
You see, Dad lead by example and was an influencer rather than being influenced and he lived life by doing what he believed in passionately.
But the interesting thing about the Grave Yard is that each of those tombstones bears a birth date and a death date.
When you think about it, one has very little to do with either of those dates or numbers. Most people didn’t chose or want to be born and protested on the way in screaming. And when they died they didn’t want to die either and protested that they were not ready and they went out the same way they came in upside down, bald toothless and naked crying.
But between those two numbers or dates is a DASH. That is the only the only thing we have any control over or a say in is that DASH.
The question is – what did you do with the dash?
What about DAD’S DASH?
Not only does he have one of the longest Dashes
He has one of the most meaningful and fulfilling Dash’s!
The greatest thing one can do in life is to positively change a life of another for the better.
In many cases that is equivalent to saving a life.
Most people go through and never do that even once. Do you agree?
Well, he did it 1000’s of times! It was what he was about. It was his identity.
He left his footprint on the lives, hearts, and souls of countless people
o Including me!
o Now he is transcending to a better place with a huge credit to his soul, for all the people he inspired to become all of which they were capable and many became iconic successes in turn duplicating the process.
This guy was a champion at connecting with and inspiring young people. He really cared!
I know he had that effect on me.
o I attribute what I have become and achieved to him.
o He was the greatest effect on my thinking, self-esteem, attitude, competiveness, drive, and confidence!
o He has a way of lighting that spark in people.
Dad was Market Americas (our company and organization) biggest fan-–He was the greatest fan we ever had. He attended 42 national conventions.
He read every Power Line our company magazine cover to cover – asked questions and showed it off and bragged on us.
He knew the top UFO’s (entrepreneurs)
He embraced everyone and became part of the culture and team.
In high school and college he was amazing!
He never missed a wrestling match regardless of where it was. I counted nearly 150 wrestling matches and tournament bouts he attended from junior high through college.
He never missed a Football game of mine or my brother’s. I believe he actually retired from coaching what I believe was prematurely to watch us and be at the games.
Not even to mention the Little league years and all of those games
That’s the just the way he was! Amazing.
There is no doubt I was lucky to have him as a father.
I felt lucky when I compared myself to others. It leaves me no excuse not to succeed and excel!
Dad didn’t care what you did as long as you did it with passion, honesty, and purpose.
PROGRAMMED: I was programmed with confidence and positive thinking from a toddler on.
I remember sitting in the locker room Paulsboro at half time as a 3 or 4 year old as he would breathe belief into his team, the Paulsboro Red Raiders.
I recall him playing Bob Richards (the 1st Wheaties Champion) motivational tapes in the locker room and car – “The heart of a Champion”
I am at peace that I made him proud and we loved each other so much. I have no regrets.
His Character was all positive:
I do not see any noteworthy FAULTS: He was the perfect father and coach and as much as I search for a fault, I really can’t find one, except that he may have been TOO humble…
I tried to find an enemy that he had and just couldn’t find a single one.
He lived a long life full of accomplishment and fulfillment.
HERE IS MY POINT:
When I see the problems that people have because of their childhood or parents who didn’t care, all I can say is I am so lucky and must do better to pay the Universe and world back.
Even people with great loving parents, like Loren who (and her brothers and sister) had her mother taken from her at 18 when her Mom dies at 42 seems unfair and makes me lucky.
So I respect my luck and am thankful and want to give back in compassion and stellar performance.
THE MESSAGE of MY FATHER’s LIFE
There is message to be gained from his example and life that I would like to share if you want to know it.
Dick Ridinger, was an transparent or invisible hero as an average American symbolic of the “silent majority “ and the values, principles, integrity, passion and loyalty that built this country and made it great.
I hope it is not a dying breed.
My Dad, Coach Dick, worked hard to make sure that doesn’t happen by leading by example and inspiring others to greatness or at least to become all of which they are capable.
He always gave the credit for any accomplishment or victory away to others he lifted up. ‘It’s the players, the coaches did it, not me! You are no better than your people. Teamwork is what it is all about!
Think about this:
To positively influence and change or save one life is the most powerful thing one can do in this world.
How many people ever do that even once?
He did it with 1000’s of people or times!
Coach Dick was best known as the legendary high school coach, teacher, guidance counselor, and Vice Principle at Paulsboro from 1947 to 1962 and Collingswood 1963 to around 1968 or 1970
He was inducted into the Paulsboro, Collingswood, South Jersey and National Football Hall of Fames, never having a losing season and winning multiple championships.
Dick was a champion at mentoring and inspiring young people and hundred’s attribute his influence to their success or having changed their lives for the better.
Many became great coaches themselves as a result of his impact on them and even far exceeded his record to his delight!
He duplicated himself.
As a result many of his mentees repeated the process that he did with them.
He coached my High School Football Coach – Ed Shirk—but outlived him.
Jim Horner played for him on the 1957 team and after graduating college (which he was never supposed to do) became one of the most successful coaches in South Jersey’s highs school football history.
I bring this to your attention because as Amanda and I went through his paraphernalia and memorabilia there were files and albums of hundreds of letters from students, players and coaches thanking him crediting his mentoring and caring to their life being changed or to their success in life.
Dick is a small man physically standing 5’5” and not a celebrity and seeks no fame or glory. Watch out for his vice grip handshake though!
Yet in thousands of peoples’ minds he is a giant, idol, or a hero as he did mind surgery on their attitude and identity.
He found the good in them and built around it rather than finding what was wrong with them and criticizing.
During the past two and a half decades I have been swept away building Market America and Shop.com, my entrepreneurial passion from nothing to an international company annualizing at nearly a billion dollars. It has been all consuming and I have been traveling at the speed of thought and in a bit of a time warp. I had little time to sit and reflect or watch what goes on in my hometown. But every time I did came back over the past 25 years when I ran into people and they heard my last name , they ask if I was related to Dick Ridinger—“Coach” Ridinger.” You just heard that the same thing frequently happened to Tom.
This would trigger them telling their life story and how he changed it. It happened so often that I had to make sure I had time to listen before I revealed that he was my Father (and my coach too).
Amanda, his 1st granddaughter, grew up in South Jersey and lives there and has been inundated by the experience and is awed by the man her grandfather is.
I can certainly say that I must attribute who I am and the success I have been blessed with financially and in business to his example and coaching.
This time when I came back from a 23,000 person (UFO’s or UnFranchise owners – independent contractor entrepreneurs with a Shop.com site) four day World Conference filling the AA Arena in Miami; I found him slipping into his final sunset.He did get to watch it from his bed however over our streaming site MeetON.com. He would point out to the aid who the members of the corporate team were and he saw a tribute to him by his son and granddaughter. Remember that he had been to 42 such events in the front row and knew everyone important who pioneered the company.
I am thankful we did a tribute to his life and influence on myself and our team at the event before he passed. That was purely serendipitous, or maybe divine influence.
So we are here to pay our last respects to this great man who lives on in our hearts and minds and his spirit or soul is definitely here today with us watching over as always
And he is definitely going to heaven as his life is eternal without pain or limitation. He was a Christian and also a Master Free Mason. Dad was not an overly religious man but a very spiritual man. He didn’t wear religion on his sleeve but in his heart and actions.
A little bit on DAD’S HUGE DASH 1922—-2015
My Dad and Mother met in World War II in France and got married in 1947 and have been inseparable ever since. She was an Army Nurse and later a school nurse in South Jersey. We had meager means but made more out of everything we had and I had a fairy tale childhood.
We Did EVERYTHING. He made Chevy Chase movies like Vacation and Christmas Vacation look like kindergarten. Our Vacations were to every national park that existed rather than Wally World. We were on a constant road trip and adventure. We turned the Funeral home here into a museum today of his accomplishments and our escapades and it is a case study in Pop culture. I encourage you to look around.
The bottom line is self-evident: My father lived the “dash” between the birth date and death date to the fullest and positively affected everyone he touched leaving a huge footprint and his legacy shines as a beacon light for others to follow.
He grew up in and lived through Depression. It had a clear impact on his hard work and values, especially with respect for the value of money, frugality, and saving. He was an expert at anticipatory thinking and always planning far ahead and anticipating what was around the bend in life.
He also lived through World War II and is a true patriot. He was supposed to go into the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. He was deployed on a ship to send troops ashore and the machine guns and equipment didn’t arrive in time. Another brigade were substituted on another ship and that ship got hit by a German torpedo and sank in the freezing English Channel loosing 800 soldiers. And the great losses in the infamous “Battle of the Bulge” are history. He felt he was spared for a reason.
Following this “lucky start” he was deployed into Lorrient France into the battlefields of the Hedgerow section. His eyes go distant as if to go back in time when he tells the story of a German Sniper in a farmhouse picking off American soldiers in his unit. He was ordered by the captain to lead a platoon and the sniper out. Before he could organize his men he was hit in the helmet with bullet that knocked him over and dented the helmet. He still has the helmet as evidence today. He is quick to point out that he was lucky to be only 5’5”. He said, Jim, if I had been a few inches taller like you at 5’8” (I thought that was short) I would have been hot in the forehead and dead and come back in a body bag and you wouldn’t be here! Wow!
He and the platoon carefully made their way to the house and burst in the door and went through the house to get the sniper but he had vanished. It was a trap for at that moment artillery fire ripped through the house and the concussion of the shells threw him into a closet. When he recovered from the blast he was grasping a book in French and a poem in English fell out of it and he read it. It was entitled “I KNOW SOMETHING GOOD ABOUT YOU” A copy of it is printed in the memorial program and I encourage you to ready it. It is short and powerfully insightful. It reads in part as follows:
“Wouldn’t life be lots more happy,
If the good that’s in us all,
Were the only thing about us,
That folks bothered to remember”.
He vowed that night to make the poem the philosophy of his life, finding the good in everyone he meets and be thankful to be alive. HE did it! And he did it well!
By the way he was a highly decorated with accommodations and a celebrated soldier and veteran with bronze stars of honors. He will receive a military veterans salute later today at the cemetery
So what is the message here? He felt that he was lucky to be alive after that and lived on borrowed time so he should go for the gusto and find the good in people. He appreciated every day of living and was a positive thinker.
As he put it:
“You must succeed so that others can realize their dreams and in so doing your dreams come true by finding the good in people and using it to build them up. As a result the world is a better place. To do this you must believe in yourself and believe in the individuals you chose or that chose you by looking up to you. This is how to grow success, security, and a dynasty. “
That is what I took with me as my mental DNA from him. Now those of you who have worked with me or on my team know why I always say: “Keep growing. I believe in you!”
There are reflections on life growing up that characterize him and what he was about that are indelibly imprinted in my cerebral cortex. Much of that is captured for you in the Museum we set up in this parlor here…
He was a passionate and accomplished gardener. Every year he created magnificent flower gardens and vegetable patches… No one could keep up with the Ridingers/Jones – I say this because the Jones actually did live next door and they both did this and it appeared to be competitive. Many people thought the properties were connected. They finally conspired to collaborate and work together and to compete with Longwood Garden’s . People from miles around came each year to admire. Jean Jones is here today at 90 and was the best neighbor and she and mom are the last of the Mohicans in the village.
Christmas time was an extravaganza not only with tree lights but the display outside just like in the movie “Christmas Vacation” with Chevy Chase. I thought they made that movie about us and I definitely almost fell of the roof trying to find that one burned out bulb.–We painting the picture window and turned it into a huge stained glass window too.
Our house was like FAO Schwartz display with a HO train set in the recreation room so expansive that I couldn’t find the train when it went off track and we had erector sets that build refineries that works and sky scrapers to the ceiling. I was fascinated with biology and creatures so he brought home a 8 foot black snake from the PHS Biology department so I could feed it frogs and mice and it got a way in the crawl space. What a community fiasco that precipitated! At the led to a Huckleberry Fin series of adventures and episodes with our garage and rec room becoming a Museum (10 cents admission). A “Chem” lab to blow things up, and incredible Coin Collections (which I think Tom must have taken), Wrestling tournaments on our mat in the garage arena, and my Greenfields Village red raiders sandlot football team (I owned the Greenfields “franchise”) and Skeeter Heritage (Heritage Dairy) owned the Thorofare “franchise “LOL! The problem was we couldn’t get anyone would to referee for fear of getting beat up. LOL
Thanksgiving was what the Norman Rockwell painting were made from.
There were forts, dirt ball fights, and we made money cutting lawns, shoveling snow and collecting newspapers and bottles to cash in at the junk yard. I was in the junior high band and played trumpet. Joe Jones and Jeff Jones next door were good, so when they played or practiced next door I opened the window and took my horn out to make my parents think it was me. And then there was Cub Scouts for which my mother was the Den mother, followed by Boy scouts as my Dad was an Eagle Scout and I followed in his footsteps and had a fun and rich character and skill building experience that I carry with me for life.
Of course I have to mention Gettysburg College, where my dad was born and his side of the family were all from. It needs to be mentioned because it was Mecca. Dad along with Uncle Dr. Bill, Uncle Jack, Cousin Cindy and I all graduated from there making quite a legacy and there may be more because I lost track. Bible and religion were required courses in the liberal arts curriculum.
Vacations were literally to every single civil and revolutionary war site, battleground, national park, or memorial in the country. Seriously, it was a goal and he checked them off. It actually was fun and I got A’s in history as a result. But when it came to Abraham Lincoln (maybe stimulated by the “Gettysburg Address”); he was an aficionado and expert. I mean he was an authority. He knew the story, the rest of the story and the whole story so help me God and actually had a library and museum in a room in the house called the Lincoln Room! I mean, who does that?
I got part of my education from being exposed to the anatomy of an inspired coach taking losing programs and turning them into champion teams and winning dynasties. His name is embedded in bronze on the Paulsboro Red Raiders stadium. I experienced the– locker room talks, the August sweltering pre-season training with the salt pills and ice and the infamous line coach Pete Lamonte that others have joked about. And the coaches meeting and game film nights
Dad was a student of Bud Wilkerson, Woody Hayes, Bear Bryant, Joe Paterno and Vince Lombardi and infused their genius into his program.
He was the son of a skilled craftsman – cabinet maker and his mother Amy, was a saint of a lady and mother and at top of her high school class as A student but sacrificed going to college to rearing a family; so at her death my Dad set up a scholarship fund in her name for Gettysburg High school girls to go to college in her name.
But I have to tell you there is no unfinished “Bucket List” for Dick Ridinger. He did it all and he did it well.
I inherited SAYINGS that echoed through our home and life from him:
“CAN’T NEVER COULD” (take it out of your vocabulary!)
“IF YOU ARE GOING TO DO SOMETHING –DO IT RIGHT!”
“IF YOU ARE GOING TO DO IT HALF ASS –DON’T DO IT ALL!”
“When the going gets rough, the tough get going”
“Even if you are going to be a bum, at least be the best one!”
“RESPECT IS THE HIGHEST VIRTUE. We will always love each other but it is meaningless without respect”
And then we lived by the rule of 3 F’s : “Family first, Family second, Family third! Family, Family, and Family! Never embarrass your family in what you do!”
I want to end with some humor in a joke. I would be remiss not to say something that irritated Dad and you are here Dad. He cringed when I would use it as he saw his athletes as smart and made them smart. This is a limerick about two coaches, Football and Basketball in the athletic office arguing over who had the dumber athlete. They bantered back and forth: Football coach: “I got one so dumb he can’t remember his name half the time. Basketball Coach: “I got a dumber one- he can’t even tie his shoes himself”. They brought it down to a wager. Watch this, I’ll prove it to you! Football coach: “Hey big George come in here” and the big tackle trounced in with his shoulders hitting the door jams; “Yes sir, coach” George- Here is a quarter (he flips it to him) – go up to my office and see if I am there! “Why yes sir” and the Tackle without questions heads out obediently. The Coach is pounding on the table laughing- “did you see that- I gave him a quarter and he actually thinks he can buy a Cadillac with it—if that isn’t the dumbest thing I have ever seen.!” The Basketball coach exclaims: That’s nothing!, Watch this. Hey Billy Boy come on in her son” And the tall lanky center bops in hitting his head on the top of the door jam: “Yes coach!” Coach: “Billy, go up to my office and see if I am there!” The player answers: “ Why yes sir, right away!” and off he went to find him. The Basketball coach is howling – “do you believe that—I am sitting right here and he is going to my office ti see if I am there—if that isn’t the dumbest thing I ever saw!” While debating who won the bet, the two athletes meet in the elevator. The basket ball player greets the football player: “You know my coach has lost his marble – why he told me to go to his Office and see if he was there and the dumb bunny had a telephone and could have found out for himself!” Football player smiles and responds: “Ya, I know what you mean, My coach has been hit one tome too many! Why he gave me a quarter to buy him a Cadillac and the dumb bunny didn’t even tell me what color he wanted!” Who has the dumber coach or dumber athlete?
Well Dad, you are definitely the smartest coach I ever met and you made your players smart and changed thousands of lives because you saw the smarts and good in them rather than the bad and have made a mark on the world.
I want to thank you Dad for letting me be your son. You are my hero and you are immortal as your legacy shines as a beacon light for others to follow. That’s it Dad! You won the championship of life! Congratulations! YOU ARE THE CHAMP! That’s it. That’s all!
Thank you all for coming and honoring the coach.
INTRODUCTION OF JIM HORNER
The greatest accomplishment of my Dad is that he duplicated himself many times over through others who picked up the torch and carried it on their own
Many people are a legend in their own mind, but the next and last speaker is a legend in his own time and living proof of what has been said. I heard that he serendipitously came to Dad’s house to visit a couple weeks ago. It is interesting because this man’s record and accomplish far exceeding Dad’s best years and to his delight. I think he was inspired by my Dad to become a coach and he became the winningest coach in South Jersey. After all these years I found it interesting that he stopped by to see Dad a couple weeks ago and is here today. It was wonderful to meet so many names that I know today from his Paulsboro days of the 1951 undefeated team and the 1957 team and several Collingswood players that were my Dad’s crowning glory. This man is one of my Dad’s proudest achievements; the legendary coach Jimmy Horner.