Editorial:

This past Sunday was one of those days in sports where we enjoyed the best that sports has to offer, only to have this great sports weekend put into proper perspective with the loss of one of the most endeared persons in San Diego when it was announced that Jerry Coleman had passed away that same day.

Sunday started out great with the excitement of the game between the San Diego Chargers and the Cincinnati Bengals. We were still pinching ourselves that through a minor miracle, the teams that needed to lose the week before, lost, and the missed field goal in the last seconds of Kansas City game, and the Chargers were in the playoffs.

As fans, we new the chances of the Chargers beating the Bengals in Cincinnati was going to be tough at best. The Bengals had not lost a home game all season long. Nationally all the sports talk shows were predicting a victory for the Bengals. However, the Chargers did what most thought they couldn’t do and that was to win!

Sunday was off to a great start and for those sports fans who follow the Aztec Basketball program they had the delight of getting to watch their Aztecs, which followed the football game on CBS, against a very good basketball team, the Kansas Jayhawks. The game was in Kansas where the Jayhawks hadn’t lost a non-conference game since 2006. The Jayhawks are one the blue bloods of college basketball and a victory over this team would be a tremendous boost to the Aztec prestige.

This was a tough exciting game, which the Aztecs pulled out, beating the Jayhawks 61-57. The Aztecs moved up in the polls to #13 and after beating Boise State on Wednesday, extended their winning streak to 12 games.

Sunday afternoon was a great day for San Diego sports fans, two of their favorite teams were on a role and the city was excited. Then reality came crashing down around us.

On Sunday afternoon, we also learned of the passing of Jerry Coleman, war hero, baseball player, and San Diego Padre announcer.

Even if you are not a sports fan, you have become aware of the passing of Jerry Coleman and have heard all the accolades of his life. Of his four World Series championships, as a pilot for the Marine Corps and fighting in WWII and the Korean war, and as the radio voice for the San Diego Padres.

For 42 years of the Padres’ 45 year history Jerry Coleman was the voice of the San Diego Padres, with the exception of the one year he became the Padres’ manager. His voice is the one voice we have known, enjoyed, and learned about baseball from.

But the relationship we have Coleman goes beyond baseball. Jerry Coleman made us feel comfortable, he was not brash or braggadocios, his stories were enjoyable, and he was a beacon as to what was right. For many of us we grew up listening to Jerry Coleman call Padre games.

Moreover, as he has been quoted, there are only two important things in life: family and country. Coleman lived by those words.

Jerry Coleman passed away at the age of 89. He lived the life most of us dream about and he will be missed.