Its times like a funeral where we find ourselves with our memories of those gone. With Bob Mason there are many.

One of my first memories of Coach Mason is him driving Bobby, his oldest son, and me to Flint for a summer baseball game. Don't remember where it was, but the field didn't have a fence and had a big oak tree out in left field. Sometime during the game I hit a long fly ball towards the tree and got a home run. On the way home Coach says, "Chris, you hit that ball as far as I ever hit one". I was shocked...I thought I hit it pretty good, but as far as this former minor league power-hitting first baseman ever hit one? No way, and I didn't believe him, but it sure felt great to hear him say something like that.

Or how about me buying beer at Higgins Lake with Bobby and Ed and Dean when I was 16, wearing Bobby's glasses and smoking a cigar to fool the guy behind the counter - I'm sure he was not - and asking for a case - "make that 2 cases while you're at it" - of Drewrys because that's the only brand I knew, because Coach drank it. Or sitting down at Grondins barber shop at the old elevator building and watching a semi run over the back end of his brother's car...

Or Coach out on the football field, with us running a full-contact scrimmage, and him playing defensive end without any pads or helmet and kicking our asses. Was there any coach who was more adaptable, never with enough players...winged T, spread offense, "herd of turtles", wishbone - he switched to the wishbone in the middle of the season without a hitch, having the quarterback calling plays at the line of scrimmage...and could he throw a football? He once had me run a down, out and down pattern and kept waving me to go and hit me in the helmet at 75 yards...coming up with an offense that didn't use a center in basketball because we didn't have anybody big enough and still winning the league championship. He was legendary with a fungo bat, hitting perfect infield grounders and towering popups.

I remember after high school graduation and playing fast-pitch softball and hearing Dave Wilcox call him "Mase" the first time - What? Not "Coach"? Or Phil calling him "Bob"...WTF? "Bob"? I mean, Phil was always irreverent but calling the Mason Coach-God "Bob"? Holy shit!!! And during softball tournaments and our team "spring trips" to Tennessee, Mase just sitting back and listening to all the bullshit and watching the shenanigans of his former players carrying on, with that little smile of his...

I can't think of another athlete to ever be in Dryden who was better - at everything. Football? He was the starting quarterback - and played defense too - at Western Michigan. Baseball? All-American and minor league player and damn close to making The Show. Basketball? I remember watching him dominate the teacher's games against other schools and their hot-shots. Maybe a couple of guys were better but overall? Golf? Hockey? Hell, the school board made him stop playing because he broke his hand - if he got hurt who was going to coach football, basketball and baseball simultaneously as he did for many years? Fast pitch softball hitter...or pitcher? Or blooper ball? How about horseshoes, shuffle board, darts? Even though he wasn't from Dryden, he was the best that ever was here. And most of us saw him past his prime and still shook our heads in wonder. The last year he played organized softball was 1991, when he was around 60 years old. Still respected as a hitter and pitching, too. And he's in the Upper Peninsula Sports Hall of Fame.

He taught and coached at Dryden High School and lived in the community for almost 50 years. The impact he had on his players and students over the years cannot be measured. Bob Mason was far from perfect...but he was one of a kind. They literally don't make them like that any more. Rest in peace, Coach...