Friends, former players saddened by passing of longtime Tri-State coach

By DAVID WALSH - The Herald-Dispatch
 

Randy Snyder/The Herald-Dispatch Bob Sang retired from coaching after the 2000 season, closing a career that began in 1951.

HUNTINGTON -- Willie Wilson found it tough going to work Monday morning.

Wilson, a Huntington High School science teacher, received word at 5:30 a.m. via television that Bob Sang, his former coach and teacher at Huntington East, and later his boss when Wilson was an assistant coach at Huntington High, died Sunday night.

"I started crying," Wilson said. "I turned white. My wife had the TV on upstairs. She heard it, too. She said she didn’t want me to find out that way.

"He was a second father to me. You couldn’t work for him and not love him. He turned the lives of so many kids around."

Sang, 77, died Sunday night at King’s Daughters Medical Center in Ashland where he lived. He was a graduate of Marshall University where he played football under legendary coach Cam Henderson. He was a member of the Thundering Herd’s 1948 Tangerine Bowl team.

His coaching career spanned 50 years with stops at five schools in the Tri-State -- Ashland, Gallipolis, Huntington High before consolidation, Huntington East and the new Huntington High after consolidation with Huntington East.

Last season, Richard Williams became the new face working the Huntington sideline in a stadium named for Sang, the man he replaced.

"They were impossible shoes to fill," Williams said. "You don’t try to. He was one of a kind. I don’t know of anyone who gave 50-plus years to kids to try to make them better."

Administrators, teachers and coaches at Huntington High took time Monday to remember their friend. 

"He was a very positive influence on the kids and staff," principal Jerry Lake said. "He was a faithful and loyal employee. He was always a gentleman."

"He had a true passion for what he did," Jimmy Clayton said. "That’s it. He loved the game. He had a tremendous influence on a multitude of people."

Clayton, a driver education teacher, first met Sang in 1980 when they worked at Huntington East.

"In one word, he was a friend," said assistant principal Lonnie Lucas, who first became associated with Sang while working at Huntington East as assistant basketball coach. "If there was a problem, he was there. He treated kids as a person, a student and then an athlete. He was more than a coach. He was a unique person."

"He put kids first," said Corky Layman, another driver education teacher. "He cared about them. You won’t meet anybody nicer."

Sang’s five-year record at Huntington High was 30-27. After going 3-7 in his first season, Huntington went a combined 26-11 over the next three years and made the Class AAA playoffs each year.
 

Randy Snyder/The Herald-Dispatch For more than 50 years, Bob Sang spent most of his Friday nights on the sidelines coaching at five Tri-State high schools. He closed out his career at the new Huntington High.

Sang-coached teams like to pass. That suited Cagle Curtis, an assistant under Sang from 1967 through 2000, just fine.

"He was far ahead of his time when it came to pass offense," Curtis said. "We both liked to do that."

"He was very innovative," added Wilson, who played quarterback for Sang and flourished in his system.

Curtis, who coaches girls track at Huntington, said he was with Sang family members until 1:30 Monday morning.

"Being at the hospital gave me time to adjust," he said. "I had so many flashbacks. He was a super guy. He was one of the most caring people I’ve ever known. He’d give to you first and do without."

Even though football was Sang’s No. 1 passion, he did coach other sports. He started the wrestling program at Huntington High in 1960. In 1966, Bill Archer became the school’s first state champ. Today, Archer is wrestling coach at Huntington.

"I walked into the gym in 1963 and asked if I could come out for wrestling," Archer said. "He said go in and get dressed. When I came back out, he asked what’s your name again. I told him. We had a brief conversation. I figure he met my father on the ship coming back from the war (World War II). That’s when the association started. He was a good coach and a good man."

Former Buffalo-Wayne and Cabell Midland head coach Jim Thornburg remembers the battles he had against Sang’s teams. Thornburg is now assistant principal at Spring Valley High School.

"If he had the combination of run and pass, you couldn’t beat him," Thornburg said. "If he had just one, you had a chance.

"I hate to see him go. If you won, he was nice to you. If he beat you, he was nice to you. He never had anything bad to say. He was just a gentleman in so many ways."