Havelock Legendary Coach Wilbur Sasser Passes away

[Ram60]

Coach Wilbur Sasser coached the Havelock Rams Football for 25 years and had over 200 wins. He was an inspiration to many young men who played for Havelock. He will be missed in a great way here in our community. Please pray for his family as they go through this time in their lives.

Hope this link works, it's an inspirational speech he gave to the team:
http://www.wcti12.com/news/local-ne...k-football-coach-wilbur-sasser-dies/591277752

 

[CatholicCougs14]

Prayers to the Havelock community. Sounds like he was one helluva man!

 

[Otis4411]

Coach Wilbur Sasser coached the Havelock Rams Football for 25 years and had over 200 wins. He was an inspiration to many young men who played for Havelock. He will be missed in a great way here in our community. Please pray for his family as they go through this time in their lives.

Hope this link works, it's an inspirational speech he gave to the team:
http://www.wcti12.com/news/local-ne...k-football-coach-wilbur-sasser-dies/591277752

Wilbur was a great guy. I always looked forward to seeing him when we played Havelock after he retired. It still don't seem right looking across the field and not seeing those taped up fingers. I was hoping to go see him in Newport once they got him settled there. The off the field stories about Wilbur Sasser are legendary. I wish Clay Jordan would share a few here.

 

[jabr]

Wilbur was a great guy. I always looked forward to seeing him when we played Havelock after he retired. It still don't seem right looking across the field and not seeing those taped up fingers. I was hoping to go see him in Newport once they got him settled there. The off the field stories about Wilbur Sasser are legendary. I wish Clay Jordan would share a few here.

Got to ask, why the taped up fingers?

 

[Cookieman50]

Coach Sasser was very superstitious. One year early in his career he was sending in plays and his QB read them wrong. From then on he taped them for visibility
He was a great man to play for and taught me lessons that I use in life and business today. His locker room speeches are something I will always cherish

 

[Otis4411]

Coach Sasser was very superstitious. One year early in his career he was sending in plays and his QB read them wrong. From then on he taped them for visibility
He was a great man to play for and taught me lessons that I use in life and business today. His locker room speeches are something I will always cherish

I can remember years ago going to watch West Craven at Havelock and during a timeout Wilbur came out to the Havelock huddle. They didn't huddle in a circle but in a row with those in front kneeling down and then some behind them crouched over the front and the last line standing bending over the 2nd line. Wilbur was standing in front of them giving a dramatic pep talk, probably one of his blood and gut speeches but he would slap a kids helmet on the side start looking at another one and slap him on the side of the helmet going across the line. Looking at this from the stands and seeing it for the first time you were sure you was looking at a nut. But later on you find out they did this in practice with each other as well as him doing it. He could fire you up! Truth is I would have loved to have played for Wilbur Sasser. I'm jealous of you guy's that did. He had 207 wins in 25 years. That is an average of 8 wins a year. He was a helluva coach and a guy you could not dislike.

 

[Otis4411]

Got to ask, why the taped up fingers?

As Cookieman50 stated for visibility. We had a baseball coach that was an assistant on the football team that was great at reading signals. Wilbur made it easy for him with those taped up fingers. We would know the plays before the first qtr was half over. Drove Wilbur nuts he couldn't send the plays in by hand. Any team we played if they sent the signals in by hand Tim could pick them up in just a few plays. He built a batting practice machine in the shop at West Craven and made millions off it and retired.
One time playing Havelock in a close game at West Craven I remember a kid making a mistake and Wilbur called him to the sidelines and was chewing his butt out. The kid was positioned inbounds and behind the line of scrimmage but nobody noticed they didn't send another kid in. The ball was snapped and this kid Wilbur was fussing at took off going deep for a pass with Wilbur cheering him on. Touchdown Havelock. I'm not going to claim he was the first to do that but I had never seen it done before. He was slick.