Phil Krouskop played football and baseball at Bluffton in the 1960s, but he is best known as Coach K due to his nearly four-decade coaching career at Perry High School. Krouskop compiled a record of 503-336 as head baseball coach of the Perry Commodores from 1968 to 2007.
During his 39 years of coaching high school baseball, he racked up six league titles, 24 sectional titles, seven district titles, four regional final berths, one regional championship and a state appearance in 1998. In 2011, Krouskop was inducted into the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame. The Perry High School baseball field was named in his honor in 2012.
Krouskop graduated from Bluffton in 1965 and earned degrees in social work and psychology. He was a member of the 1962 baseball and football teams that were previously inducted into the Bluffton Athletics Hall of Fame.
Krouskop stays active in retirement by volunteering. He reads to local youth at the Mizpah Community Center in Lima, tutors at Perry schools and is a volunteer custodian at his church.
Jackson graduated from Bluffton in 1954 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He was a three-sport athlete as a Beaver, with his greatest accomplishments coming on the hardwood. In the first basketball game in Founders Hall, Jackson scored the winning basket against Ashland. In addition to being a four-year letter winner and captain of the basketball team, he lettered three years on the baseball diamond and once in track and field.
d 220-yard dashes, the long jump, javelin and mile relay. Conrad once threw the javelin more than 166 feet, which stood as the school record for many years. A history major, he also participated in several non-athletic extracurricular activities, including three years in the Men’s Glee Club and the Choral Society.
10 years, coaching basketball, football and track.
“Participation in sports was meaningful and enjoyable,” he said. “Winning is always nice, but sports are a great leveler in life and learning to accept the outcome of the game graciously provides a hedge for the game of life. I continue to see Bluffton as a place of opportunity and growth academically, physically, morally and spiritually.”
Following stints at Ottawa-Glandorf and North Central high schools, Rob moved his family to Bucyrus, Ohio, and took over as head basketball coach at Wynford High School—a position he held for 24 years. In addition to coaching, Sheldon served as assistant principal and athletics director at Wynford.
r the fifth-longest in school history. He also had a 72-yard run from scrimmage as a freshman and a 70-yard run as a senior.
s an athletics director in the U.S. Army Air Corps for four years and was in education rehabilitation for three years in Veterans Administration hospitals.
ports along with clean Christian living. This interest led me to teaching and coaching and as a school administrator who developed a strong athletics program. I firmly believed in good discipline, a strong academic program and a well-rounded athletics program. The school yearbook stated that ‘you could see Mr. Schaublin at just about every school function.’ That’s the way I stayed close to the kids.”
onship in the Hoosier Buckeye Collegiate Conference.
luffton in 1946 after serving in World War II. The Bluffton native played basketball, football and tennis, earning multiple varsity letters. He was named the outstanding athlete of 1947 at Bluffton, where he was also involved in music and theatre, among other campus activities.
ois and Missouri. Along the way, he earned master’s and doctoral degrees in education from Bowling Green State University and Ohio State University, respectively.
all and basketball.
ber of a national association of school administrators and served three and a half years in World War II, attaining the rank of staff sergeant.
He was undefeated in regular-season play during his college career, with his only loss in the quarterfinals of the NAIA national tournament. He went on to win the Lima city singles and doubles titles several times in the 1970s.
o previous hall of fame inductees, “due respects for the fine spirit of sportsmanship … and to the fine brand of ball that they played.”
my life. Athletic participation was both a recreational activity and a learning experience.” He was secretary-treasurer of Varsity B, Junior Hi-Y adviser and Senior Hi-Y adviser.
Stan held master financial planner status with American Express Financial Advisors Inc. prior to his retirement in 2000. He is a long-time member of the local Lions’ Club, having served three times as president, and recently received the Melvin Jones Fellowship Award. In Bluffton, he served as Bluffton United Fund chairman, Mennonite Memorial Home Fund Drive treasurer, Bluffton Family Recreation Board president and Bluffton Child Development Board’s director of finance.
A native of Antwerp, Ohio, Hollabaugh scored 687 points and grabbed 421 rebounds in her career at Bluffton. Her point total ranked fourth when she graduated and her rebound total ranked third. Hollabaugh’s .771 career free throw percentage was a Bluffton record when she graduated and today is tied for fifth, while her 140 steals now rank eighth.
He received two national awards his senior year, gaining second-team NAIA All-American recognition and honorable mention Little All-American. Only he, Elbert Dubenion ’59 and Greg Gilcrease ’89 have received first- or second-team All-American honors among Bluffton football players.
1929 football team and was named to the all-league team from 1927-29. At one time, he held Bluffton records for the longest punt return for a touchdown (90 yards against Findlay in 1928) and the most passes intercepted in one game (five against Cedarville in 1926).
out volleyball player from 1983-86. Blosser’s 1985 volleyball team was enshrined in the Athletics Hall of Fame in 1996. She was also a three-year letter winner on the basketball court.
