Hall of Fame inducts Coach Ramsay
PHOTOS PROVIDED BY HALLY SCHOBY
Former Dalton football coach Bob Ramsay was inducted June 10 into the Ohio High School Football Coaches Hall of Fame in Columbus. His family and former players and a former assistant came to cheer him on.
A former Dalton teacher and head Bulldogs football coach was inducted Friday into the Ohio High School Football Coaches Hall of Fame in Columbus.
Others inducted this year are Jeff Durbin, Lake; Ed Nasonti, Bellevue; Joe Yost, Akron Ellet; Curt Clifford, Portsmouth, Sam Fornsaglio, Cadiz.
Bob Ramsay began coaching in 1981, according to information on Wayne County Sports Hall of Fame website at waynecountysportshof.com. In his 29th and final season, the Bulldogs went 9-2, won a Wayne County Athletic League championship and qualified for playoffs.
The Bulldogs’ all-time winningest coach, Ramsay was inducted into the Wayne County Sports Hall of Fame in 2006.
He broke the Bulldogs record for coaching wins set by legendary Billie J. McFarren (133-52-4, 21 years), according to Wayne County Sports HOF. Under Ramsay, the Bulldogs won or shared six WCAL titles despite being the loop’s smallest school. They qualified for playoffs eight times.
Ramsay got his start as an assistant coach at Orrville under Mo Tipton from 1975-81. Ramsay also worked as an assistant coach in the Ohio North-South Game (1997) and the Big 33 Game (Ohio vs. Pennsylvania, 2004). He coached track at Dalton, where he had numerous All-Ohioans.
On what happened to be his 39th wedding anniversary with his wife, Lynn, Ramsay attended the OHSCA Hall of Fame induction ceremony June 10. By phone the next day, he said he felt honored and he noted a couple things that struck him as unique including that besides Tipton, he joins Tom McDaniels in the Hall of Fame who also was a staff member with him at Orrville. Only he and McFarren are Dalton coaches in the Hall of Fame. But then again, there haven’t been that many head football coaches in Dalton’s history, he said, because coaches like Ramsay and McFarren stayed at the helm for a couple decades. That dedication and loyalty in Dalton all around contribute to the football program’s continued success.
“A lot of the players on the current teams are sons or nephews of people that played for me and the people that played for me were the sons or nephews of people that played for Billie (McFarren),” he said. “It’s been a pretty good continuation of people and success there.”
Audience members June 10 included Ramsay’s family. His three children graduated from Dalton: Shannon, Max and Hally. His good longtime friend Bob Orosz, with whom he played football at Norton, and these days with whom he jokes that he plays “bad golf” attended. Also, former players and a former assistant attended, and catching up with them afterward was the most meaningful for Ramsay, he said. Pat Holbert, Herb Homan, Eric Geiser and Jeff Ervin, as well as Brian Baum (head coach at North Canton/Hoover), Gregg Clark, Matt Shoup, Brad Jones, and Phil Ryder were present. Members of his later teams were there including his son, Max, Justin Stutz, Derek Jackson and Jacob Weirich.
After retiring from Dalton, Ramsay, who now resides in Wadsworth, continued to assist for six more years at three different places close to home.
He still frequents the village. He watches his grandsons play baseball at the park and former players track him down.
“I see sprinklings of people at the Village Green,” he said.
“You look back and being in a community like Dalton it’s things that are expected and the support that you get and those things were there before I got there and they have continued since I left. It’ll be like that forever.”
He has 10 grandchildren: Shannon and Nicolas Wade have Reagan, Liam and Harper; Max and Lindsay have Mallory, Seth, Cassidy and Bryce; and Hally and Joshua Schoby have Ryker, Rayden and Remington.
“I just appreciate everybody,” he said.
