Roland Ortmayer: a coach who will be missed
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Roland Ortmayer died today, and a little bit of what’s great about college sports passed with him.
‘Ort’ was a legend in small-college athletics, gently guiding and teaching life lessons over parts of six decades at what is now La Verne University.
He was La Verne’s football coach for 43 of his 91 years, his teams winning about half the time even though he never cut a player, rarely recruited and didn’t require attendance at practice.
No practice, you say? Well, that went right along with him not having a playbook, either.
Ort was hired by La Verne as football and baseball coach back in 1948. By the time he retired in 1991, he’d also run the basketball and track and field programs and served as athletic director in addition to teaching an annual summer course called ‘When Lewis and Clark Met the Mountains’ -- a month-long expedition of kayaking, rafting, canoeing and discussing historical journals while camping.
He never turned out an NFL football player, but his guidance produced plenty teachers and coaches.
In a story he wrote for Sports Illustrated about Ortmayer -- headline: ‘A Most Unusual Man’ -- Douglas S. Looney wrote that simply labeling him a coach ‘is like praising Picasso for knowing the primary colors.’
‘Ort’ might have said, ‘Oh crumb!’ to that, which is as colorful as his language ever got. He never cussed.
Family services are pending and there are plans for a university memorial service.
-- Mike Hiserman
