A “float” in the parade, decked out with balloons and signs (photo courtesy of the Observer).
“He really helped to build Fredonia athletics into what it became when we were at our peak, when we were having the most success as a department.”
That’s a lasting impression that Dr. Everett “Doc” Phillips, who celebrated his 90th birthday on Sunday, made on Director of Athletics Emeritus Greg Precht.
“He has been so influential in so many ways in young people’s lives,” added Head Hockey Coach Jeff Meredith.
“He has been so influential in so many ways in young people’s lives,” added Head Hockey Coach Jeff Meredith.
Tom Wilson, a Fredonia alumnus and head coach of the men’s and women’s cross country and track and field programs since 2012, has always been enthralled by big numbers Phillips-led teams produced.
Under Coach Phillips’ direction, Blue Devil men’s cross country teams won eight State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) championships, including six-in-a-row, from 1978 to 1983. Remaining titles were earned in 1988 and 1992. New York state championships were won in 1978, 1979 and 1981. Five cross-country runners achieved All-American status during Phillips’ tenure, which ran from 1971 to 1994.
Phillips was also head coach of the men’s track and field team from 1972 to 1974 and an assistant coach from 1974 to 1994. He also coached women’s track and field from 1992 to 1994.
Mr. Prechtl, head men’s basketball coach for 15 years when Phillips was chairman of the Department of Health, Physical Education, Athletics and Dance, said Phillips took a keen interest in his coaching staff. “He didn’t interfere; he just let you coach the team. A lot of times you have people looking over your shoulder, making suggestions,” Prechtl said.
“He was a tough boss who really cared about the people who worked for him. He pushed his coaches as hard as he did his cross-country runners,” Prechtl said.
“Doc was the one who brought me to Fredonia, gave me my start as a head coach, so really, everything I have today, where I am in life, he’s the one responsible for it,” Coach Meredith said.
In 1988, Meredith was an assistant hockey coach at Hamilton College when he met Phillips, who knew one of Hamilton’s track coaches. Phillips was undoubtedly impressed by his initial meeting with Meredith. “He asked, ‘Can I sit in one week with you guys?’’’ Meredith remembers. Phillips reported to the office every day, spent time on the ice during practice.
“Here I am an assistant coach, and for a week he gets to hear me on the phone recruiting, seeing me on the ice coaching and we develop a friendship at the end of the week,” Meredith said. Phillips asked Meredith if he would be interested in becoming the head hockey coach of Fredonia’s new varsity sport if the position became full-time.
“I said, ‘of course.’”
Within two months, Phillips summoned Meredith to tour the facilities and learn more about the position. He went through the formal interview and was hired in the spring of 1988.
Coach Wilson, who ran cross country, the 800 in track and was a pole vaulter at Fredonia, was always impressed with big numbers that Phillips’ teams amassed in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Phillips brought solid credentials to Fredonia, Wilson noted, having served as an assistant coach at the University of Oregon, a Division I power that Wilson says pumps out world-renowned runners.
“For me, as an athlete, looking at those record boards, seeing how strong teams were in those years and to be able to tie his name to the programs’ success is awesome to think about,” said Wilson, who began coaching pole vaulters in 2011.
“Just being very lucky to have met him, to know him and talk to him and follow in his footsteps, I feel very blessed,” Wilson said.
Another lasting impression that Phillips had on Prechtl goes all the way back to Prechtl’s first annual performance evaluation.
“He asked me about my retirement, and I scratched my head. I was a 26-year-old guy. He told me that I should start immediately taking money out of my salary and putting it into a 401(k),” recalled Prechtl, whose career at Fredonia spans parts of five decades, including 19 years as director of athletics and 21 years as head men’s basketball coach.
“That’s probably the best advice I ever got from somebody early in my career. It had nothing to do with coaching or my job, but it certainly benefitted me and my family in the long term.”
For nearly a quarter century, Phillips, was a department chair, served four terms as president – in four different decades – of the New York State Collegiate Track and Field Association and was inducted into the Fredonia Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Niagara Track & Field Hall of Fame in 2011.
The Phillips-Ulrich Trail, a campus running and walking trail, was dedicated in 2016 to Phillips and Hall of Fame Coach Jim Ulrich.
Sports Information Director Jerry Reilly got to know Phillips when he was sports editor of The (Dunkirk) Observer. “He was always a professional and was someone who I and others looked up to because of his dedication to the program,” Reilly said.
The Observer commemorated Phillips’ milestone with an article in Monday’s edition that described the mini-car parade, featuring vehicles decked out with balloons and “Happy Birthday” signs, that family and friends staged in front of Phillips’ home in Dunkirk.
“It went very well,” Carol Zirkle, a 1993 Fredonia graduate who ran track for the Blue Devils, told The Observer. “It started raining when we were starting, but he was very surprised. We had alumni of all different ages come, from people from my era, to the current high school students,” said Ms. Zirkle, a longtime cross country and girls’ basketball coach at Fredonia High School. Phillips watched the parade with his wife, Shirley, at his side.
When Meredith called to wish him a happy birthday, Phillips ran through a lengthy list of names of former hockey players and alumni who sent him emails, telephone calls and video messages. “He called me later that night with a whole other list of people,” Meredith said.
“It’s really nice for Doc for so many people to remember and recognize his birthday. I think it says a lot about the influence and impact he’s had on people.”
