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Flynn loved teaching all the way to the
very end
) (McDaniel athletics) Former McDaniel men’s basketball coach Bob Flynn, who died of a heart attack last Friday night, touched many lives throughout the state. I was entering my senior year of high school and working at legendary high school coach Morgan Wootten’s basketball camp at Mount St. Mary’s in Emmitsburg. Flynn, the former McDaniel College basketball coach who died last week at his Catonsville home of a major heart attack at age 49, had served as an assistant for Wootten years before and always returned each summer to coach and serve as an administrator for his camp. It was one of the first nights of the camp, and his young players had split for the night. Flynn was dripping with sweat. It was my job to collect all of the balls from throughout the camp and cage them up for the night. Flynn introduced himself as the coach of St. Mary’s College in the southern part of the state, where he had just finished his second season. His warmth and energy just jumped out. At the time, I was a manager for Wootten’s basketball teams at DeMatha, and we shared some stories about Wootten and my experiences with the team. Over the next few days and weeks, Flynn began to recruit me to be a manager for him, as well, much as he would a player for his team. He regularly gave me pamphlets about the school and told me stories about where he wanted to take the program and how great the campus was. His excitement about his players and what he was doing was contagious. Still, I had my heart set on somewhere else. I decided on the University of Dayton, where fellow camp coach Pete Strickland was an assistant. Flynn was as gracious as one man could be. He still helped clean up the balls late at night and chatted with me. I still watched him coach, and he stressed to every player the basic fundamentals, treating each other with respect and a pure love for the game. That’s what people who encountered Bob Flynn always thought about him, be it as an assistant at Mount St. Mary’s or as a head coach at St. Mary’s, Cardinal Gibbons High School (where he was also an alumnus) or most recently at McDaniel College. It was certainly the first thought that came to mind when I heard he passed away. At his age, Flynn was not a rising star in the basketball ranks and he never appeared to aspire to be one either, even though he was honored to be chosen as the coach of the East team in the McDonald’s All-American game. He just wanted to teach the game to as many players as possible, no matter their talent level. Flynn did what every basketball coach should do — help grow the game and help make his players better as people and athletes than when they arrived. He was a gentleman, a father, a husband and a coach, and his impact on this area’s basketball scene will be felt for a long time. Matt Palmer is a staff writer for The Examiner. He can be reached at mpalmer@baltimoreexaminer.com. |