Former Corona del Mar Basketball Coach Jack Errion Dies at 64

Jack Errion, who led Corona del Mar High School to two Southern Section basketball championships and was one of Orange County’s most well-respected coaches, died at his home in Oro Valley, Ariz., Monday evening of natural causes. He was 64.

Errion died in his sleep at approximately 11 p.m., according to Oro Valley Police Detective Joe Corona. Corona said Errion had complained of back pains and an inability to sleep earlier in the evening, and told his wife, Constance, that he was going to lie down on the living room sofa.

Several hours later, police reports say, Constance went to wake him, but could not. Paramedics were summoned and they pronounced Errion dead at the scene. The Oro Valley medical examiner listed Errion’s death “by natural causes, apparently heart disease.”

Funeral services are scheduled for 10 a.m. Thursday in Tucson, Ariz.

In 1985, at age 59, Errion underwent vascular surgery. His aorta--the main artery that carries blood from the heart to the organs--was replaced with an artificial artery.

Born John Walter Errion on Aug. 20, 1925 in Peoria, Ill., Errion started his coaching career in Illinois before coming to California in 1954. At that time, he began a 22-year stint coaching football, baseball and basketball at St. Anthony High in Long Beach. Many times, he drove the bus to take his teams to their games.

In 1976, he replaced Tandy Gillis as Corona del Mar coach--a move he once called the “most radical change I ever made in my life.”

At Corona del Mar, Errion, who taught business and physical education, guided the Sea Kings to a Southern Section 3-A title in his first season, in 1977, with Jacques Tuz, Alex Black and Paul Akin leading the way. He coached Corona del Mar to a second 3-A title in 1981.

In his 10 years as Sea King coach, Errion--who in his first day of practice was booed by the players because he wore unfashionable black basketball sneakers--was 199-60 overall. After open-heart surgery in 1985, he coached the Sea Kings to a 23-5 record the following season. He retired after the 1985-86 season at age 60.

In 36 years as a varsity basketball coach, Errion had a record of 571-328.

Dennis Evans, Corona del Mar’s principal when Errion first came to the school, called Errion’s hire “the best decision I ever made.”

“What struck me,” said Evans, now principal at Newport Harbor, “was that Jack was 50 when we hired him, but what we got was the enthusiasm and drive of a first-year teacher blended with the maturity and wisdom that comes from years of experience. He really was just a highly competent professional educator who just happened to coach basketball. . . . He was a real gem. . . .

“We used to always call him Jekyll and Hyde. (In the classroom) he was so gentle and, in some ways, too nice for a teacher, but boy, step into the gymnasium, and there was a whole change in personality. But everything he did there was a reason for it. He might appear really angry at a player, but he always had a focus. That was to get the best out of the kid. He didn’t have a great ego about winning or losing, he just did his best job teaching and the rest was left up to the kids.”

Mark Spinn, who was a standout on Errion’s 1981 3-A title team, said Tuesday: “I last saw Jack when I played in Corona del Mar’s alumni tournament last July. . . . Jack hadn’t changed a bit. He was still yelling at his old players to keep their hands up or asking why you let somebody drive the baseline on you.”

Paul Orris, who replaced Errion as head coach in 1986 after working as the Sea Kings’ freshman coach for 16 years, often sought advice from Errion, who continued teaching at the school until 1988.

“He was just a great guy,” Orris said. “He was very aware of letting you know how good of a job you were doing and how much he appreciated it. . . . Everything he did was so solid. I haven’t changed anything.”

Dan Lundgren, a former Congressman who played for Errion at St. Anthony in the early ‘60s, said in 1986: “We had a center who didn’t always give Jack the effort he wanted. We had a meeting one afternoon before a game and Jack got upset with him and threw his car keys in a bunch of rose bushes.

“The kid went into the bushes to get the keys and came out with cuts all over his arms. That night, he was so mad at Jack, he played the game of his life.”

Errion, who as a basketball coach never deviated from his man-to-man defense, once jokingly called the zone defense “un-American.”

Said Errion in March, 1982: “I’ve done the same thing for 32 years simply because I don’t know anything else. I don’t believe in changing to an offense just because you went to a clinic and learned something new. I try and keep things simple.”