Longtime coach, counselor leaves legacy

A man who earned respect from thousands during approximately 40 years as a coach and counselor at Hillsdale High School died Wednesday from cancer.

Homer Zugelder, 76, died at his Belmont home Wednesday evening. He leaves behind a legacy as a role model for not only students, but co-workers and friends. He started at Hillsdale in the late 1950s as its second basketball coach – taking over for Paul Armstrong, who coached for one year. Zugelder coached for more than 10 years before becoming a counselor to spend more time with his family. He passed up job offers elsewhere to remain at Hillsdale through the early 1990s.

Zugelder was diagnosed with cancer last year. He spent the year fighting the disease. In January, his son Joe Zugelder received a call from his father informing him that the cancer was in remission. Last month, during an unrelated operation, doctors discovered more cancer. It was inoperable. Zugelder returned home Monday under hospice care and he lost the battle three days later.

As a coach, Zugelder was part of Hillsdale’s glory days, coaching basketball while friend Dick Vermeil led the football team to glory. Vermeil went on in the National Football League while Zugelder opted to stay Hillsdale. While Zugelder made his name as a basketball coach, his legacy resides in the good-natured guidance he offered thousands of students and co-workers.

"What a legend. I think I was a good friend, but he made me feel like a close friend and I’m sure he made a lot of people feel that way,” said former Hillsdale High School basketball coach Bill Wilkins.

Wilkins took over as Hillsdale’s third basketball coach when Zugelder decided to give up the position.

"For a person like that, you don’t really take his place. You can’t really live up to what he did,” Wilkins said.

Both as a coach and as a parent, Zugelder led by example. Aside from "don’t screw up,” he didn’t have many words of wisdom, said Joe Zugelder.

"He told us we could be a ditch digger or a garbage man, just be the best at it,” Joe Zugelder said.

After his retirement, Zugelder played golf, traveled with his wife and spent countless hours planning the Olde Knights Luncheon. The annual reunion is for all Hillsdale alumni who graduated 25 or more years ago. It happens the first week of December each year at the Elks Club in San Mateo and money collected went toward a scholarship for current Hillsdale seniors. The event regularly attracts between 350 and 400 people, said Gary Wolfe, a former student and friend.

Wolfe helped Zugelder and fellow teacher Keith Gordon organize the popular reunion.

"He was the type of person you wanted your kids to be like,” Wolfe said. "You’d want to let as much of him rub off as possible.”

Another Olde Knight, and former Hillsdale principal, Don Leydig was both Zugelder’s student and boss.

"When you talked about Hillsdale, one of the things he would always say is that is was always ‘our school,’” Leydig said.

As a coach he instilled a sense of what was right and encouraged personal achievement. He took great care in making sure his players knew where they needed to improve and how to do it. Moving to a counselor was a seamless transition for Zugelder, Leydig said.

Zugelder always had a great sense of humor. He could get away with amazing practical jokes and make a room full of strangers laugh, friends recalled.

He instilled the same sense of humor in his own children, who upon his death could still laugh about some of their dad’s eccentricities. He taught drivers’ education, but never wore a seat belt and was a horrible driver, Joe Zugelder said with a chuckle.

"We’d always give him a hard time about that,” he said.

Zugelder’s humor and smile are as much part of his legacy as his coaching and guidance.

"If he was in the area, he’d get on you a little bit — in a good way,” Wilkins said. "He made you laugh at yourself. He would say ‘If you laugh at yourself, you’ll always be happy.’’

A rosary for Homer Zugelder will be held 6 p.m., Wednesday, June 13 at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, 1040 Alameda de las Pulgas, Belmont. A funeral will be held 10 a.m., Thursday, June 14, at the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The family is requesting donations in lieu of flowers be made to the Hillsdale High School Basketball Program, care of Brad Zucker, 3115 Del Monte St., San Mateo, CA, 94403; The Olde Knights Luncheon, care of Gary Wolfe, 735 Pico Ave., San Mateo, CA, 94403 and the Samaritan House, 1515 S Claremont St., San Mateo, CA, 94402.

Dana Yates can be reached by e-mail: dana@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 106.