Noecker remembered as more than coach

By Jon Gremmels
Herald Sports Editor

January 12, 2009 10:05 am

— CLINTON — Gerry Murphy played basketball just one season for coach Bob Noecker at Clinton High School, but Noecker made a lasting impression on the current boys basketball coach at Prince of Peace.
“For me getting into coaching, he was a big influence on me as far as coaching style,” Murphy said Sunday. “He ran and pressed and did a lot of things we’re doing now. ... One thing about coach Noecker, he was probably the most organized coach I had. ... As far as coaching, (playing for Noecker) was great preparation for me because of his attention to detail.”
But Murphy and Maureen Roushar, a standout golfer on a Clinton state championship team coached by Noecker, will remember Noecker the man as much as Noecker the coach following the long-time Clinton High faculty member’s death Thursday at the age of 75. Noecker’s funeral was today in Clinton.
“He was a great golf coach but an even more fantastic man,” said Roushar, who went on to golf at Iowa State University and now serves as marketing manager at Wild Rose Casino. “He inspired us to be our best.”
Noecker taught driver’s education for 27 years at Clinton, retiring in 1995, coached girls golf for 20 years and was the boys basketball coach from 1971 to 1973, compiling a 14-29 record.
“He certainly was very well thought of and highly respected,” said Clinton athletic director Gary Lueders, who also is a Clinton graduate. “He impacted a great many lives. He was a good guy and had quite a sense of humor. He had contact with lot of people through driver’s ed and coaching.”
One of Roushar’s fondest memories of Noecker was through driver’s education.
“He taught me how to drive in simulation class,” she recalled. “He would drop a book or make noise in the back of class, and I think I wiped out a couple of cars on the simulator (because of that). He taught us not to panic, or to have our first panic in the classroom before we got behind the wheel.”
Murphy, who scored 54 points as a junior on the 1972-73 team and credits Noecker with helping him develop from a deep reserve to a starter, said he got to know Noecker better through driver’s education than on the basketball floor.
“We had close to 600 kids my sophomore year, and Mr. Noecker knew everybody and everybody by name,” Murphy said. “He’d find out something about you and razz you. He was a good teacher. He was a serious teacher, but he made it fun. He was a real genuine person, a super guy.”
Roushar remembered Noecker as a man who would go out of his way to help the players on his team.
“He knew what life was all about,” she said. “I never heard anyone say anything bad about him. That’s a pretty incredible way to run your life. He will be missed.”