Last week a coach, mentor and friend passed away.
At his funeral his granddaughter delivered a eulogy about her grandfather Nick Pallotta.
She cited the Wikipedia definition of wealth and it contained the definition that you would expect. It was all about money.
I was a young athlete at the Canton, Ohio, Jewish Community Center and Nick was the athletic director.
Nick stood 6 foot 5 inches and was a small college All-American basketball player at Walsh University.
I learned a lot from Nick and most times it had nothing to do with sports.
He taught me about what it took to be a good teammate, a person that people could trust, and that losing was a big part of winning.
One learning experience occurred during a playoff game where I did not follow Nick’s instructions and instead took an errant shot at the end of the first half.
In the locker room Nick glared at me as he was searching for just the right words, he then screamed at me and told me if I ever did that again he would stuff me in a locker and leave me there! I was pretty sure he meant it.
Not only did I follow Nick’s instructions but so did the team and we won the national championship for Jewish Centers in 1969.
Later on in life I became a coach on my son Max’s baseball team. It was a very friendly league and little emphasis was placed on winning.
The boys and girls who played were there to have fun.
Anyway, my son’s team won the league and we coaches were proud of ourselves for drafting the right players to our team. The next year my coaches and I followed the same formula and we had an excellent draft.
Nick complimented me on my choices and then informed me that he was assigning three new players to my team.
I was very puzzled why and questioned Nick about it. He smiled and said because he could!
Then he informed me that my three players were from the Soviet Union, did not speak English and had never seen a baseball.
He laughed and then wished me luck.
What a great summer it tuned out to be as the whole team learned how to communicate with their Russian team mates. We even won some games! Yuri, Eugene and Sergei were very eager and all had their moments of success. Nick loved it and complimented me for how I managed the new kids in town. He told me he put them on my team because he knew I could handle it. Nick did not give compliments very often, I was touched.
Back to Nick’s funeral where his granddaughter eulogized that her grandfather had lacked financial riches yet lived an incredibly wealthy life. This was proven by the hundreds of former athletes that came to pay their respects to an amazing role model. You cannot buy that kind of respect.
Thank you Nick for being a part of my life.
Read more posts by Gary Sirak here. Gary is a contributing blogger for JenningsWire.
