My Dad's Exemplary Sportsmanship Example

I mentioned before how I enjoyed hearing stories from my dad's athletes. My dad was a coach for 50 years, having coached in Brethren, Kingsley, Deckerville, Harbor Beach and Kalamazoo, Michigan, and Denton, Texas. He loved sports and he loved coaching. I wrote about how he was drawn to coaching at Fort McClellan, previously.

One of my dad's athletes shared the news article below about a track meet held in Unionville, Michigan. The article is from a 19 May 1955 newspaper.

The article was about a Northern Thumb C Conference track meet. Originally, the Conference title went to Deckerville, my dad's team, but dad was one who kept his own scores, and asked for a retabulation of the scores. This recheck showed that Deckerville was given a sixth place that they hadn't earned. The winner was Unionville.

These comments were posted on a Deckerville Facebook page. I enjoyed reading the comments. The poster, one of dad's athletes wrote, "Our Coach Glover... ETHICS and Character above winning! What a Class Act. (He also got results) and "He was confidently Quiet! On reflection, I can’t remember him raise his voice. He made us listen by being quiet!"

Another post said, "My husband, Harleigh Class of ‘54, spoke often of Coach Glover. He sat the bar high for his players. Integrity and good sportsmanship was his goal. This is just one reason sports play such an important part in a good education."

Other comments included, "he was a great man" and "I was lucky to have known him".

My dad lived his life like this. He was a Class Act! He was honest, sincere, and he displayed those traits in his everyday life. He did the right thing in life and this article displays the father I knew.