Westminster Coach Mourned by 600 at Rites : Jim O’Hara Praised as a Caring, Dedicated Man

About 600 people attended a memorial service Friday for Westminster High School football coach Jim O’Hara, who died Monday of a heart attack shortly after jogging at the school.

“He loved sports and believed in helping young people learn the true value of sportsmanship,” said his brother, John O’Hara, during services at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Garden Grove.

“I know of two instances when he took two boys whose families were having difficulties (into his home), one for a couple of years,” John O’Hara said. “He helped these boys have normal, productive lives.”

O’Hara, 51, suffered the heart attack after he had finished jogging with his son, Brian, who was the starting cornerback and backup quarterback on the team his father coached.

Many Lives Touched

The Rev. Charles Endter said the size of the crowd at the service was a tribute to a person who had touched many lives. It included coaches who had competed against O’Hara, students who had played for him and gone on to coach themselves, and current students at Westminster High.

Jack Bowman, who helped O’Hara coach the Westminster Lions to a 5-5-1 record in 1986, said O’Hara helped turn a losing team into a winner when he took the head coaching position in 1983.

“The team had not been in the playoffs since 1976,” Bowman said. “The team had some problems, and he helped turn things around.”

This year, the Westminster Lions qualified for the California Interscholastic Federation Big-5 playoffs for the second consecutive year.

“He wanted to bring respect to Westminster,” said 17-year-old Rob Turner. “He brought a better attitude to the team. I played for him the past two years and learned his system, which was hard-nosed and tough.”

Turner and other members of the 1986 football team said they had collected a few hundred dollars during the service to donate to a scholarship fund the O’Hara family plans to establish in Jim O’Hara’s name.

“He’d always make us do our homework,” Gary Lewellyn, 17, said. “He held special study sessions for players who were in trouble (academically) before, during and after the season.”

Tom Nelson, 38, said he was a senior tight end on the Lions football team in 1966, during O’Hara’s first years as an assistant coach. He said he remembers him as an “honest and down to earth” person who gave him his first job as an assistant coach after he finished college.

Gary Maddocks, 31, who played for O’Hara in 1973, said he remembers him as a “strong father figure” who once paid Maddocks’ medical bills when he tore a tendon in his finger during practice.

“(O’Hara) picked it up,” Maddocks said. “My family wasn’t doing that well in those days.” Maddocks went on to college and eventually played for the San Francisco 49ers in the late ‘70s.

O’Hara was an assistant coach at Westminster High under Bill Boswell from 1966 to 1977, and the school’s athletic director from 1973 to 1977.

He took a leave of absence in 1978. He was a coach at Santa Ana Valley High School from 1978 to 1981. He was named to replace Barry Waters as Westminster’s head football coach in 1983.

He also taught English and science, was a guidance counselor, taught two physical education classes and served as an assistant track coach at Westminster High.

He is survived by his wife, Sue; a daughter, Laura Doyle; a son, Brian; his mother, Laura O’Hara, and his brother, John.

“Jim leaves a legacy second to none,” Endter said. “Not because of a win-loss ratio in high school athletics. Not because he was chosen teacher of the month on a few occasions. Not because of any measurable item. It’s impossible to measure caring, friendship, loving and dedication.”