Wednesday, Jul. 01, 2009

Legendary Collinsville basketball coach Vergil Fletcher dies at 93

COLLINSVILLE -- Legendary basketball coach Vergil Fletcher, who led the Collinsville Kahoks to 747 victories and two state championships between 1946 and 1978, died Tuesday night at age 93.

Fletcher's teams were known for their aggressive 1-2-2 ball-press defense, which confounded opponents and helped the Kahoks build a reputation as one of the top high-school basketball programs in the country.

"It's a sad day," said Bob Bone, a 1973 graduate of Collinsville who played three years under Fletcher and followed in Fletcher's footsteps as the Kahoks' head coach for 20 years. "He meant so much to so many people.

"He had not been doing well. I had seen him about a week ago and he had lost a lot of weight. He just got old. He kind of wore out."

Fletcher, who would have turned 94 on Thursday, led the Kahoks to state championships in 1961 and 1965. The Kahoks finished second in 1957, third in 1978 and fourth in 1950. Collinsville made a record 14 state-tournament appearances under Fletcher.

"He's known throughout the state of Illinois and the entire nation," current Collinsville coach Chris Kusnerick said. "The lives he's impacted are immeasurable. I enjoyed the times we were able to sit down and talk basketball. I have a tremendous amount of respect for what he accomplished as a basketball coach, but also as a human being."

Kevin Stallings, an all-state player at Collinsville who graduated in 1978, said Fletcher was the one who inspired him to get into coaching.

"He was easily, by far and away, the most influential non-family member of my life --not only then, but still today," said Stallings, the head coach at Vanderbilt for the last 10 years after a six-year run at Illinois State. "I wanted to coach because of him. I thought, 'What a cool existence it would be to go through life and impact people like he impacted me.'

"I probably haven't."

Stallings has dozens of stories about Fletcher.

"You wouldn't have enough space for all of them," Stallings said.

Stallings, who played one year at Belleville Area College (now Southwestern Illinois College) and finished his career at Purdue, said Fletcher always knew how to get him to perform at a higher level.

"He knew he could make me mad," Stallings said. "He had about four or five things he knew he could say that would instigate my inner soul --and do it immediately. One of his favorites with me was, 'You've been sleeping with your press clippings again.' I got so mad when he said that. But he would always get what he wanted because I would then go out and play like a guy possessed."

Fletcher also coached football, track and cross country at Collinsville, and was the school's athletic director. In football, Fletcher was 99-66-11 from 1946-66.

The gymnasium at Collinsville bears Fletcher's name, and the street that runs in front of the high school was renamed Vergil Fletcher Drive in October 2006.

Fletcher was a charter member of the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame and also is in the Illinois Football Coaches Hall of Fame and the National High School Sports Hall of Fame, among many other honors.

"He was basically good at whatever he did," Bone said. "His coaching was legendary, he was a great husband for 70 years, his children are successful. Everything Coach did, he was good at. That's the kind of person he was."

Bone said Fletcher made his players feel like they couldn't lose.

"He was so good at instilling confidence in his players through the way he motivated," Bone said. "There were things that worked with Kevin (Stallings). There were things that worked with me that wouldn't work on somebody else. He was such a master of motivating and finding the right buttons to push on each player.

"We knew, when we walked on the floor, that we were better than the other team because of Coach Fletcher. He was such a presence.

"Collinsville basketball was almost like a family for everybody that played in it and was involved with it. The head of the family is no longer with us."

Fletcher was fiercely competitive, but always a gentleman, Stallings said.

"I've known him for however many years, and I never heard the man say a bad word about anybody," Stallings said. "Now, he would say a bad word to you when you messed up in practice. He had plenty of great lines for me because I was messing up all the time.

"He was literally one of a kind. I can't begin to express the greatness that existed in him, how effortlessly it came out and how graciously he molded young men's lives. I'm just one of hundreds and hundreds."

Funeral arrangements at Herr Funeral Home are pending. Fletcher is survived by his wife of 71 years, Violet, and six children: Marietta, Marlene, Marcia, Marian, Mike and Marc. Mike and Marc Fletcher played basketball at Collinsville.

"He will certainly be missed," Bone said. "It's hard to even put into words. You feel like the words are inadequate to express how you feel and what he was able to accomplish. Coach is not here physically anymore, but I think the things he was able to do, at least with me, will live on as long as I'm around."

For more on Fletcher, see Thursday's News-Democrat or visit www.bnd.com.