Teacher, coach led champion track team
5/26/2010SANDUSKY - Jimmy D. Hauser, 64, a teacher and coach at Perkins High School for more than 25 years who led the boys track team to its first state championship, died Sunday in his Huron, Ohio, home of leiomyosarcoma, a rare cancer.
He retired from Perkins High School near Sandusky about a decade ago. To keep his cancer from spreading, he had his right leg amputated about two years ago, his daughter Kaylin said. Less than a year later, an X-ray showed growths in both lungs.
Still, he continued to work at a sports uniform store. Despite intensive treatment, he attended his grandchildren's events. Eight days before he died, he was at grandson Benjamin's baseball and soccer games.
"He would not have wanted it any other way," his daughter said. "He had a 2 1/2-year battle, but he was living life to its fullest."
His daughters last year held what is planned as an annual run and walk to support research into the rare cancer and since have formed the Jim Hauser Sarcoma Foundation.
Mr. Hauser went to Perkins in 1973 from his alma mater, Fostoria High School, where he taught biology and physical education and was an assistant coach in track, football, and boys basketball.
In 1975, he became head football coach at Perkins, where he also taught science and physical education. In 1976, he became boys track coach, a post he held until he retired. In 1983, he began a 16-year run as girls basketball coach. His four daughters were on his teams.
His football team captured the school's first Sandusky Bay Conference title in 1975 and the track team its first conference title in 1976. His 1984 track team won a state title; the 1997 team finished second in the state, and the 1989 team was third. His 1999 team won a district title.
His approaches to coaching football and track were different, said Mike Powell, a mid-1970s athlete on both teams. But he was demanding in both.
"He was teaching us and instilling in all of us a can-do attitude," said Mr. Powell, later a volunteer coach for Mr. Hauser. "He had such a huge influence in the school system and in the community. He shaped a lot of people, hundreds of athletes, male and female.
Mr. Hauser in 1998 was named to the Ohio Association of Track and Cross Country Coaches hall of fame. A track invitational at Perkins, the Pirate Relays, was renamed for him.
He was a former president of the Perkins teachers union.
He was born April 30, 1946, to Jean and Carl Hauser. He was a 1964 graduate of Fostoria High, where he lettered in track, basketball, and football. He received a football scholarship to the University of Toledo and played under legendary coach Frank X. Lauterbur.
Mr. Hauser was a member of St. Stephen United Church of Christ, where he'd been president of the church council and chairman of the trustees. He taught Sunday school; sang bass in the choir, and took part in the bell choir.
Surviving are his wife, Jacqueline, whom he married June 17, 1967; daughters, Kaylin Schaefer, Kelly Gardner, Kristi Sas, and Karla Gailey; brothers, Bob and Don, and 13 grandchildren.
Services will be at 10:30 a.m. Friday at St. Stephen United Church of Christ, Sandusky, where the body will be after 2 p.m. tomorrow. Arrangements are by the David F. Koch Funeral Home, Sandusky.
The family suggests tributes to the St. Stephen United Church of Christ senior choir fund or the Jim Hauser Sarcoma Foundation, Sandusky.
Contact Mark Zaborney at:
mzaborney@theblade.com
or 419-724-6182.