He's outgoing and friendly, never lost for words and one excellent basketball coach. We're talking about Gardner-South Wilmington's Mr. Jim Fair.
GSW has had some outstanding teams, such as the 1942-43 and 1943-44 squads. The 1944 team won the first Coal Valley Conference championship and in 1953, GSW captured the 1953 CVC tournament title. But it was not until coach Jim Fair took over the basketball reins that the Panthers had consistency year in and year out.
Fair's first varsity team went 22-6 in the 1976-'77 season. The very next year, the squad was 25-2 and won 20 straight games. This team lost to Dwight 70-69 in the regionals. In 1977-78, Dwight hit a last-second shot to send the game into overtime. The Panthers eventually lost 72-68 and another heart-breaking regional loss to the Trojans.
Who will ever forget legendary broadcaster Jim Murray screaming on local radio that Gardner had won, Gardner had won. But wait a moment, did they! There was time on the scoreboard and Dwight's Dave Trewartha hit a miracle shot with a second remaining to send the game into overtime, just when GSW had all but won the game.
It's never over, until it's over as Yogi Berra always said.
Fair and his family moved to Gardner when he was two years old. His first coach while playing varsity basketball was Gene Baum. Jack Micetich was his baseball coach at GSW. He spent his entire life in Gardner and eventually married a "South Willy girl."
Jim Fair played, and played well, at Gardner-South Wilmington High school in the 60's. His junior year, the team had only one senior, Jerrry Lund. The rest of the squad were juniors that included Randy Markiel (who moved to California for his senior season), Rick Yatuni, Chuck Hamilton, Mike Finn, Dave Houston, Gordon Schopp, Tom Tambling, John Cerutti, Tom Lenzie and Fair.
After college (JJC and Illinois State University), he started his coaching career as GSW sophomore basketball coach for three years, beginning in 1974. He became head coach during the 1976-77 year. The very next year, the Panthers were 25-2 followinged with records of 23-4, 21-4 20-6 and 16-12 and won a regional championship. Fair had a mark of 127 wins and 34 losses in six seasons as head coach.
Jim left the coaching ranks after the 1981-82 year and was out of coaching for ten years. He would return to coaching for six years and left again for five years.
"I did something that I never expected to do, I coached at Gardner Grade School for one year," he said. "They did not have a coach, so I ended up doing that."
The team was good enough to go to the IESA state tournament and had a record of 19-3.
Fair had full intentions of doing one or two more years and then retiring. but Scott Wenzel left GSW for Peotone and Fair found himself back as GSW head coach for two more
years in 2003-04 and 2004-05. Then he officially retired.
"I think! Yeah, it's probably over, I imagine," Fair said. "I get these itchings or cravings, you know it's like people that get cravings for chocolate, but then I set back and take a deep breath."
When he was coaching at Gardner Grade School, he asked the team what were their goals. Fair remembers Dan Lutz saying the team wanted to go to the IESA state tourney. Jim replied, "Well, I want to be tall and handsome and that's not going to happen."
Fair added, "All I know is we ended up on the bus going to state, so I believe whatever Dan Lutz says, pretty much."
On this team were Lutz, Chris Christensen, Cody Mack, Brad Chapman, Allan Mack, Matt Bally and Jeff Cassem.
When I asked coach Fair about his special teams, he commented, the 1977-78 team, though the 1976-77 Panthers won 14 straight contest and turned in a 22-6 record. During a six year period, Fair's teams won 127 games and lost only 34 outings. The 78-79 squad also won 14 games in a row and had a record of 23-4.
The 80-81 team had a mark of 20-6 and the 1981-82 squad was 16-12 , but still won a regional title. This team lost three times to Herscher (who finished in third place at the IHSA state finals and also dropped four overtime games during the year. So the 81-82 team was another team that was on the edge of another outstanding record. Jim did say that the 1977-78
team was the deepest team with talent. Fair also indicated that most on the team was on the school's honor roll.
Fair said he talked with other successful coaches such as John Jones of Lemont, Bob Basarich of Lockport, Denny Lehnus of Kankakee Community College and Pat Sullivan of St. Francis
University. Fair took bits and pieces of each program and incorporated into his plan. He said his teams worked very hard and were willing to put in the time for a successful
program. Coach Fair also said the Gardner-South Wilmington fans were always supportive of his teams.
"I think if you love what you do, the people around you can't help but realize that," he said. "I told my teams that this is very business-like, demanding, harsh and competitive, while the clock ticks. I'm going to holler at you, and when this is over, I don't have those feelings, it's done. When the clock is no longer ticking, now we're going to be
interested in you as a person."
Fair taught P.E. and Sociology at GSW and was at the school for 31 years, retiring in 2005.
Jim will be married to wife Joylene for 40 years on June 4 of this year. They have two sons, Dana and Devon, both of which were excellent players at GSW.
Fair is enjoying his retirement and loves to be with his four grandchildren.
Will he be on courtside again? Only time will tell, but whatever he decides, he has provided many unforgettable moments for Panthers Nation.