Remembering a Nevada icon

Local residents remember the effect their former basketball coach had on their lives.

By Chris Patch

Herald Tribune

The name Greg Gregory probably doesn't ring a bell for most Nevadans, at least those not familiar with World War II-era basketball at Nevada High School. Gregory passed away in April and left a coaching legacy from a time vastly different from the fast-paced world of high school athletics as we know today.

Gregory got his first coaching job at Nevada High School from 1942-'48 after serving in the U.S. Navy. Nevada only hired one coach in the forties for its three sports: basketball, football and track. He found time to coach all three while still teaching P.E. during the school day.

Odie Braswell, who played basketball for Gregory, remembered him as one of the high school's busiest employees.

"That's when you had to take phys-ed and the gym was full of kids eight hours a day," Braswell said. "Everybody had to take phys-ed, I suspect that's all he could handle. That was back in the days when the schools couldn't afford two or three coaches, one man did it all. For having to coach all three sports, he was a pretty busy man."

He was a busy, but strict man. Bob Woodfill, who still lives in Nevada, played basketball for Gregory and remembered him as an intense coach with no interest in things being done in any way but his. He said his realm of authority spanned farther than the basketball court.

"He was a strict disciplinarian," Woodfill said. "He didn't want any monkey business out of anybody. It was alright because we were growing up and needed some guidance and he gave it to us. We didn't cross him, there was no breaking of rules like no smoking and staying out past curfew. We were scared to death of him."

Gregory's authoritarian coaching style never translated to overwhelming success at Nevada. He kept the program competitive in the then-Big 8 conference but the high school couldn't compete with the larger schools in the area.

Braswell played football and track and remembered the teams being "not too good." Nevada got beat up by the likes of Springfield and Joplin, teams Braswell said they shouldn't have even been playing. Those won't be the teams Gregory is remembered for. His real love was basketball, and Gregory left his mark on Nevada in the 1945-'46 season by coaching the Tigers to the top of the conference with fundamentals.

The 1945-46 basketball team went undefeated in conference and won the Big 8 with a 20-4 mark, good for the best record Gregory had at Nevada. Woodfill and Braswell both played on that team at forward and guard, respectively. They agreed his strict approach rooted in fundamentals paid real dividends for the first time that season.

"We all looked up to him as a father," Braswell said. "He was a great coach and he taught fundamentals. The first 15 minutes of every practice you did nothing but work on fundamentals."

Woodfill swore at the time the team was being worked to hard in practice. In retrospect, maybe not.

"He had a certain routine you had to go through," Woodfill said. "We worked pretty hard. We thought we were being overworked we weren't, but it seemed like it. We knew what he wanted and he wouldn't let us do otherwise."

Gregory graduated too many players from the '45-46 team to keep the program winning at that clip. In the next two years his basketball teams had a combined record of 12-33. They would be his last two years before moving on to Arkansas City Community College, now Cowley County Community College.

From there Gregory's coaching career began to take off. After being promoted to the Region VI director of sports at Arkansas City he was tabbed to start the first athletic program at Johnson County Community College in 1969. Gregory coached the basketball team during his tenure as athletic director and qualified for the postseason three times, with a 72-42 overall record.

Gregory also organized the first National Junior College Athletic Association basketball tournament, hosted at Johnson County for several years. He was inducted into the NJCAA basketball hall of fame in 2002.

After an illustrious career Braswell and Woodfill remembered Gregory not for his coaching prowess, but the personal impression he left.

"He was a very nice person, a good coach I liked him and I liked his wife," Woodfill said. "They were here for several years. I think everybody liked him. He moved around. My class had a class reunion not too long ago and invited him to come to it as our guest, so we saw coach and Daisy. They both came, we had a nice visit with him."

Braswell said he looked up Gregory in the Kansas City phone book several years ago and paid him a visit. He said Gregory remembered coaching him after all those years and hundreds of players. Gregory never forgot his first coaching job, and the players at Nevada he coach to the top.