Damn

I needed some cheering up this weekend and I went looking for some highlights of UW-Superior's win in their NCHA Semiifinal game from Saturday.

I found this.

That's a video of Tom Hansen's reporting on the death of John Baggs. John was the head baseball coach at St. Scholastica in Duluth. He was also the Sports Information Director there when I first started as SID at UWS. John was a frequent guest at Wade Stadium when I worked on Dukes games. He was also a teammate of mine on the co-ed softball team that Tom mentioned in that report.

Here is part of the story from the Saints' website:

The College of St. Scholastica has announced the death of head baseball coach John Baggs. He died this morning in hospice care at his home after a four-month battle with cancer. He was 43 years old.

Baggs was the winningest coach ever at St. Scholastica in any sport. Head baseball coach since 1992, he built the team into a national powerhouse on the NCAA Division III level. In 2008 the team was runner-up for the Midwest Regional, its best NCAA finish in program history. The team has also won 12 straight Upper Midwest Athletic Conference titles.

Baggs was 531 wins to 197 losses during his career at St. Scholastica, a .720 winning percentage. He missed only one game in 17 seasons.

Just 43. I knew that John was sick, but...

Chris Earl, a former anchor in Duluth has a writeup that does more justice for Baggs than I could do.

Then, I was looking for a few more details on Mike Lockert at the South Bend Tribune website and saw this:

Tribune loses a legend

Fashion was never important to Forrest "Woody" Miller.

He was wearing the same crew cut in 1955 on his first day in The Tribune's Sports department that he sported more than a half-century later on his last day.

There was no pretense to Woody, who died in South Bend Saturday at 78. He was a reporter's reporter — not only bred from the "old school," but also an instructor there, influencing several generations of writers.

I can't say that Forrest and I were friends in the way that I was friends with Mike and Baggs, but he was always at The Cove and did an "old school" job.

Both Forrest and John are missed and remembered.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to make a list of friends I haven't talked to in...well, too long.

38 dies insquequo Oris Dies!