In the 1960s, the Lufkin High School Panthers basketball team was coached by Bob Wagstaff. Bob was a good friend of my family, and a good friend to my father. He was just about the opposite of what you think of when you think of a basketball coach.

Forget yelling and screaming. Bob was a soft-spoken guy who didn't enjoy talking that much. Conversation seemed to be a chore for him, one to be avoided if possible.

As a grade schooler, I got to know Bob as a church member, and had never seen him as a coach. When I was in the seventh grade, I got to see him as a coach, however. I was playing football, and they had some of the high school coaches over to help with the coaching. It was like a training camp to prepare seventh grade boys for playing on the eighth grade team in the fall.

Some of those coaches were like drill sergeants. They were scary, and enjoyed barking at the boys. Coach Wagstaff wasn't like that, though. There was one little 12-year-old boy who was sniffling, holding back tears, after some coach chewed on him pretty hard. Coach Wagstaff eased over and in a quiet but reassuring tone whispered to the boy "Hey, it's OK, don't let this worry you any."

He was kind that way. He was gentle. He knew basketball, and he put some very good Panthers teams on the floor. He coached Jan Murray, Dick Sheffield and Tommy Deal, among others. Those guys really played some great basketball, and they were on the floor for a couple of legendary, stands-clearing brawls in Lufkin history. I remember one major brawl we had in Lufkin against Marshall. I can't even recall why it started, but it was a classic brawl of that era, circa 1964.

Coach Wagstaff couldn't have been more unlike the fire-breathing Lufkin fans if he'd tried. He and his family lived up the hill from Mike Capps' family back in the 1960s, so we saw Coach all the time. We saw him at church. We saw him at school and at basketball games. And we saw him out in his watermelon patch. He'd tell us to take all the watermelons we wanted, but being goofy kids, we used to like to pretend we were stealing them.

I heard a few years ago he passed away. His wife was Betty. His only daughter is Louann. He had a son named John, whom I understand died in a tragic accident.

When I look back on my life and think about the men and women who played an important role in my life, Coach Bob Wagstaff is in that group. He was one of the good guys.

Jim Moore is a member of The Lufkin Daily News' Board of Contributors.