Charlie Coles

[jupitertoo]

What a great ambassador for our league. Will be greatly missed.

[Dr Z]

RIP Charlie

Pat Forde Twitter

[GoZips]

A great man, a great coach, a great rival and most of all loved by all friend and foe.

For Charlie an old Irish blessing ... may you be in heaven a half an hour before the devil knows you are dead.

[Hilltopper]

71 is way too young. RIP Charlie, you were a true gentleman.

[skip-zip]

I still remember Keith and Charlie standing on the floor with an arm around each other waiting for the results of that debacle in the 2007 title game. Charlie was a fierce competitor, but a gracious loser as well. The man had already escaped death once, and never looked well to me after that point. You also have to wonder why so many people pass away after retiring from doing what they love.

[Zipmeister]

I still remember Keith and Charlie standing on the floor with an arm around each other waiting for the results of that debacle in the 2007 title game. Charlie was a fierce competitor, but a gracious loser as well. The man had already escaped death once, and never looked well to me after that point. You also have to wonder why so many people pass away after retiring from doing what they love.

I think it's because there are so many people, many of whom loved their occupation, plus the fact that everybody dies.

[skip-zip]

I think it's because there are so many people, many of whom loved their occupation, plus the fact that everybody dies.

Very funny, but I think you know what I meant. There's so many stories of very committed and successful people who die shortly after they stop doing what they love. It really has to make all of us older folks wonder if leaving the stress of the working world (especially sports coaching) is really the path to a happier and healthier existence in our later years.

[Dave in Green]

Many also have long and fruitful lives after retirement. It's luck of the draw that you start with the genes that you're dealt. Then environmental factors come into play. Finally, there are choices we make about our diets and other lifestyle factors. It all adds up to the final reckoning. In Charlie Coles' case, his health problems were well documented long before his death. He may have expired in the middle of a basketball game if he hadn't retired. I don't think retirement had much influence at all on his expiration date.

I started missing Charlie Coles the minute he retired. I miss him more now. But there are so many good Charlie Coles stories to tell that they'll be with us for years. There are already so many being posted that it's hard to keep up with them. Here's just one of many.

[GP1]

I had tickets behind the bench at a Can't vs. Miami game once and saw Coles yell at a kid for missing two foul shots in a row. He said something like, "You're a college basketball player, make the damn shot."

That memory always reminds me that Coles coached a type of basketball that requires every little piece of a game to fall into place perfectly because points were going to be in short supply. His level of frustration at time must have been enormous and I can see how that level of stress would cause health problems. Coles demanded a lot out of his players and most of the time he got a lot out of them. He was a great MAC coach.

[phil]

We sit 2 rows behind the visitors bench and the last game he coached at the Jar was a loss but towards the end of the game he started shaking the hands of the Akron fans in the first row behind the bench. The Akron fans were going to miss him. A class guy and a great coach. Rest in peace.