Call to the Hall: Lash Nesser to be inducted into Pa. 缅北禁地 HOF
Submitted photo
James 鈥淟ash鈥� Nesser holds a basketball commemorating St. John鈥檚 PCIAA state championship in 1965. Nesser will be inducted in the 2020 class of the Pennsylvania 缅北禁地 Hall of Fame.
James 鈥淟ash鈥� Nesser
Submitted photo
Uniontown boys basketball coach James 鈥淟ash鈥� Nesser shouts instructions to his team while sitting next to assistant coach Willie Bryant (right). Nesser will be inducted in the 2020 class of the Pennsylvania 缅北禁地 Hall of Fame.
Submitted photo
Uniontown鈥檚 1981 PIAA championship boys basketball team. Front row, from left, are manager Mark Henderson, Jerry Hairston, Troy Jackson, John Murtha, Terrance Jackson, Eric Fee, Greg Gabriel, Dwight Henderson and manager Tully Jackson. Second row, from left, are assistant coach Willie Bryant, manager Tony Carter, Clyde Harris, Stacy Jones, Brian McLee, Chris Frezzell, Earl Minor, Kenner Holt, Craig Harris and coach James 鈥淟ash鈥� Nesser.
Fayette County coaching legend James 鈥淟ash鈥� Nesser has been named to the 2020 class of the Pennsylvania 缅北禁地 Hall of Fame.
Nesser is part of a class of nine living and three deceased inductees. The living inductees are Meredith Alexis, John Reinstra, Tom Bradley, R.J. Umberger, Brian Milne, Marques Colston, Tim Ruddy, Mary Ellen Boylan Jutka and Jim Render. The deceased inductees included Nesser, Betty Mullen Brey and Joe Solomon.
Nesser passed away on Dec. 2, 1988, at the age of 67. He was profiled in a Memory Lane column in 2011. Here are some excerpts from that column.
Call him what you will, there has never been a more charismatic character prowling the sidelines in Fayette County sports than the late James 鈥淟ash鈥� Nesser.
At tiny Uniontown St. John and later at Uniontown Area High School, Nesser consistently turned out winning basketball squads and had a profound effect on both students and adults.
Nesser was born in Uniontown on Aug. 5, 1921, and attended Uniontown High School. The legend of Lash Nesser started at Saint Vincent College, where he was a three-sport star who earned his nickname as a baseball player. (A catcher, Nesser was said to have a whiplash-like throwing arm).
Nesser graduated from Saint Vincent in 1946, after completing three years of military service. He was a salesman for the American Tobacco Co. for a year before returning to Saint Vincent in 1947. He was approached by Fr. Edmund, a priest at Saint Vincent, who told him of a coaching vacancy at a little Catholic high school in Uniontown.
鈥淚 really wanted to coach football, after playing three sports at Saint Vincent,鈥� Nesser recalled in the 1981 interview. 鈥淚 told this to Fr. Edmund. But, he said this friend of his needed a basketball coach, and would I help him out. Well, I was short on cash but long on charity and dedication, so I gave up a selling job that paid me as much a week as I would make in a month of coaching, and that鈥檚 how I ended up at St. John鈥檚.
鈥淚 think it was the idea of a challenge more than anything that got me into the coaching job. You get it into your head to see if you can coach, and I accepted the challenge, becoming a full-time teacher (7 subjects) and coach. I thought I would give it a try for one year and see what came of it, but it turned out I had a lot of fun and I鈥檝e been at it ever since.鈥�
Painstaking research has come up with a pretty accurate coaching record for Nesser at St. John鈥檚, give or take a couple of games. He compiled a 434-233 mark with the Eagles from 1948-49 until the school closed after the 1975-76 campaign.
His early career at St. John鈥檚 was a source of great pride and great memories for Nesser.
鈥淭hose were great years in county basketball,鈥� he remembered. 鈥淓verybody was building a program, and we played anywhere and everywhere. We played upstairs in one building at Perryopolis, on a dirt floor in Masontown. Immaculate Conception played in the basement of a church with pillars that we had to weave around, and Dunbar Township had a court with a low ceiling at Leisenring where you couldn鈥檛 shoot an arching set shot, but had to fire the ball on a straight line because you would hit the ceiling.
鈥淎t Redstone, we played in the old 鈥楪lory Barn鈥� with a stove on the floor that acted as a post man for both teams, and we always packed plenty of Unguentine (an antiseptic cream). One year we played in the Pittsburgh Catholic League and we played over a meat market. At Point Marion, we played in a skating rink and Uniontown played at Lafayette Junior High until 1954. Honestly, those were great days in county basketball.鈥�
Nesser was known for his sideline antics and was one of the more animated scholastic coaches in America. He went after players and officials with a big booming voice. During a game he would gnaw on his knuckles.
鈥淲ith my big burly voice, a lot of people get the wrong impression,鈥� Nesser said in a 1983 Pittsburgh Press profile. 鈥淓ven when I talk in a normal voice people say, 鈥楲ook at him hollering at those kids.'鈥�
Nesser captured the PCIAA state Catholic Association Championship in 1965 when St. John鈥檚 downed Williamsport St. Joseph, 64-62. He also guided the Eagles to the PCIAA state semifinals in 1962 and the PIAA championship in 1976.
When St. John鈥檚 closed its doors in 1976, Nesser took over the coaching reins at Uniontown High School, where he compiled an 11-year record of 246-64 and a WPIAL championship and a state title in 1981. He is one of the few coaches with a Catholic championship and a PIAA championship on his resume. His combined career won-loss total at St. John鈥檚 and Uniontown was 680-297.
Nesser and the Red Raiders defeated Springfield Delco, 73-61, to capture the PIAA title in 1981 and they did so without a player taller than 6-foot-2.
鈥淚 doubt I鈥檒l ever have a team like them again,鈥� Nesser said following the victory. 鈥淲e鈥檒l probably have a decent team next season. But you just don鈥檛 get teams with that size playing the way that they played.鈥�
Nesser鈥檚 assistant, former Uniontown standout, the late Willie Bryant, said coaching alongside Nesser was an experience he鈥檇 never forget.
鈥淎ll the stories are true,鈥� Bryant said. 鈥淟et your mind do the imagining. I remember when we won the state title and the governor was in. I had to speak for a few minutes and I sat beside Lash鈥檚 wife Martha. I said I鈥檓 the only man that slept with her husband for two days without getting a divorce. He鈥檇 go to sleep with that cigar burning in his hand and I鈥檇 figure we鈥檙e going to burn to death before the day is over.
鈥淗e was something. He was a character from the days of coaching at St. John鈥檚. During the season my side was one big bruise from him hitting me when he got excited.鈥�
The induction into the Pennsylvania Hall of Fame is a long overdue honor for Nesser. He was inducted into the Fayette County 缅北禁地 Hall of Fame in 2011. He was enshrined in the Saint Vincent Athletic Hall of Fame in 1976 and the Uniontown Area High School Academics, Arts and Athletics Hall of Fame in 2015.
Laurel Highlands Athletic Director and the Mustangs鈥� long-time basketball coach Mark John, who is also Nesser鈥檚 nephew, was pleased with the honor bestowed on his uncle by the Pennsylvania 缅北禁地 Hall of Fame.
鈥淚 was fortunate enough to have played for him, coached with him and coached against him,鈥� John stated. 鈥淧eople ask me how could you play for that guy? My response is if you didn鈥檛 play for him don鈥檛 ask me that question.鈥�
The Nesser family is also thrilled with the honor.
鈥淲e feel collectively as a family to be honored that the legacy of Lash Nesser (lives on) at this point almost 32 years after his death,鈥� said his son James Nesser. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a further tribute to not only him as a coach, as a winner, but also as a man who lived his faith every day and lived for his family every day, including my late, great mother Martha, who stood behind him in everything he did, and we as a family feel it not only honors our father, but equally honors our mother. As a family, we are all bursting with tremendous pride.鈥�
The Pennsylvania 缅北禁地 Hall of Fame banquet is slated for Nov. 14 in Pittsburgh. That could be changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Should the banquet be canceled, it will be rescheduled to Oct. 30, 2021, in Pittsburgh.