The following article ran in the Erie Times-News on November 22, 2005.
Ivan George could all but set a baseball field on fire as a hitter.
Mike Nuara remembers when he and George went about it in the traditional way.
”It was raining that particular day in 1966,” said Nuara, who was a freshman on the Gannon baseball team that George coached. “He said, ‘C’mon with me, we’ll go check out the field.’”
The Knights played at Bayview Park, West Second and Cherry streets, and the two found the dirt infield soaked.
”He goes to his trunk and gets a can of gasoline,” Nuara said. “I’m thinking, ‘What the heck is this guy up to?’ He and I, we proceed to pour gasoline in the dirt infield and light it,” to dry the field.
”Believe me, in my four years there, we did that a number of times,”Nuara said.
Such stories were making the rounds since word that George - one of Erie’s great baseball players, longest-serving coaches and best-known referees and off-court officials - died in November at age 86.
George was a semi-pro baseball player who left an indelible mark on fans of the Glenwood League as a great hitter, infielder and manager of many of the teams on which he played.
He also was Gannon’s baseball coach for 23 years, compiling a 258-335-2 record and finishing .500 or better 11 times. He coached the Knights golf team for 12 years.
John Beilein, the former Le Moyne College men’s basketball coach now at West Virginia, remembered George best as the shot-clock operator for Gannon games at the Hammermill Center, where the Knights were very tough to beat.
”You have to contend with those screaming fans seated right on top of you,” Beilein told former Times-News sports editor Kevin Cuneo on the occasion of George’s 80th birthday, “The refs get unnerved by all that noise, and, of course, you can’t forget the Ivan factor.
”In one game, we had a three-point lead with less than two seconds remaining,” Beilein said at the time. “With Ivan’s watchful eye on the buzzer, Gannon got three possessions.
”Another time, we had the ball, down by one, with five seconds left. I swear we never made it past center court, and Gannon wasn’t even pressing,” he said.
”I just wish we had Ivan on our side,” Beilein said.
Erie’s John Alessi will remember George as an ally, even though Alessi was a player and George an official the first time they met. ”I was lining up to go for a play and I started a little early,” said Alessi, who was a freshman on the 1958 East football team. “Ivan didn’t throw the flag. Ivan told me to take it easy and relax, enjoy the moment. Those are the kind of officials and people they were in those days, and Ivan was one of the greatest.”
”I met Ivan at the Erie County Basketballs Officials Association meetings. He was friendly and easy to work with in every aspect,” said Erie’s Christ Lambros, a former basketball coach. “Ray Dombrowski and Ivan were officers of the Erie Basketball Officials chapters and assigned all the licensed referees to the various games. Ivan was a pleasant and energetic man and will always be remembered.”
George was born in 1919 in Masontown. A U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, he became a painter at General Electric. He also was father to three boys who made their own marks in sports: Mina, the Girard football coach who also has been head coach at Cathedral Prep and Kanty Prep; Gene, an assistant club pro in West Palm Beach, Fla., who won two EDGA titles, played at Gannon and golfs professionally; and Gary, a catcher who played for Ivan George at Gannon.
George’s top baseball pupil may have been pitcher Steve Grilli, who played four seasons in the majors with the Detroit Tigers and Toronto Blue Jays.
Nuara recalled a game at Canisius when Grilli got his coach’s attention for the wrong reason.
”Ivan called for a pitchout,” he said. “Steve grooved a fastball. Fortunately, nothing happened. We got out of the inning. The runner never stole or attempted.
”Steve barely got off of the pitching mound and Ivan went running after him, grabbed him by his uniform and he just started giving him a tongue-lashing. I’m right there coming off from second base and I had to do all I could to stop from laughing.”
George was inducted to the Metropolitan Erie Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1996 as the top vote-getter on the ballot. He also received an honorary Masters degree from Gannon, and was appointed mayor for a day by then-Erie Mayor Louis J. Tullio.
Survivors include Agnes Simon George, his wife of 64 years; three sons; and daughters Yvonne Ditrich of Erie and Jaqueline George of Los Angeles.