The last time I saw Chuck Wielgus, it was — fittingly — on a basketball court.
This one was in Ireland, about 25 years ago, as a member of the 40-and-over In Your Face basketball tour he organized.
The horn had just sounded on our final game. I immediately turned and went over to Wielgus to shake his hand and tell him how much I enjoyed and appreciated the time we had spent together. It would be one of the highlights of my athletic career, and I wanted Chuck to know how much it meant to me to share it with him.
Well, you know how things are with friends — you have your separate lives, separate locales, separate livelihoods that all conspire to mean that was the last time we saw each other.
That memory flooded back on Sunday night as word spread of Chuck’s death at age 67 from complications of colon cancer.
Let me tell you this about Chuck Wielgus. As you read his obituaries in national publications, understand that while administering the sport of swimming may have been his job, the sport of basketball was his passion.
You could see it in his eyes on the court, his focus on the coaching sidelines, his pure enjoyment of being part of the camaraderie of hoops. In fact, he literally wrote the book on it.
Yes, the book. It holds a prominent place in my bookshelf. Along with close friend Alex Wolff, Wielgus authored the irreverent but loving inside look at pickup hoops around the nation.
Like the promo on the cover states, “From the hotshots and hot spots around the country, to the folkways and forbidden fundamentals no coach dared teach you.”
The In-Your-Face Basketball Book became a must-read tome for all hoop junkies. It was the bible for anyone who had played the game either in this country or around the world.
It was never more evident than in a pub in Ireland where, upon hearing that Chuck was in the building, multiple copies of his book just started popping up in local hands all night. You could tell he was touched as the toasts went on through the evening.
With that eternal twinkle in his eye, his ever-ready giggle laugh, Chuck Wielgus was the perfect hoop ambassador years before the game exploded worldwide.
Funny how this international story got its kick start in the frozen north of Woodstock. Wielgus, with his then-wife, Chris, came to the Upper Valley in 1974 as the Woodstock recreation director.
The basketball community was doubly blessed with Chuck bringing his skills to town while Chris headed over to Dartmouth, where she became the women’s basketball coach, a job she held for 28 years, winning 12 Ivy titles.
In his own way, Chuck Wielgus was a basketball Pied Piper: a Vermont Johnny Appleseed, dropping posts in the ground and hoops on the wall wherever he went. He held clinics and camps for boys and girls of all ages and abilities. Basketball became the in sport. No longer did you play just in winter gyms … now you played year-round — inside and outside!
The true city game had come to northern New England.
Drive by the old Woodstock Rec Center at the sharp curve on U.S. Route 4 heading east out of town. Look to your left, down the bank, behind the building and hard by the swimming pool … there sits Wielgus’ legacy. A beautiful hardtop, full-size outdoor basketball court, complete with bleachers, nylon nets and lights.
It was open year-round. All you needed was a ball. If you were ready to lace up your shoes, then Chuck Wielgus was ready to get you a game.
His was a life spent chasing that game. And during those years, when he later took his talent to the post of executive director at USA Swimming, he never lost his place nor forgot his friends.
It was always special to get a note from Chuck because he was always so busy with his job and life.
But, like I said, he never forgot friends. Hearing of my retirement from the Valley News in 2015, Chuck sent along his congrats, including some of the high points of our times together. It was bittersweet to read that note again the other night.
But it still made me smile when I came to the closing, it was signed, fittingly … “In your face.”
Chuck.
Donald Mahler is the retired former sports editor of the VALLEY NEWS.