Bucknell loses a legend in Depew
Near the end of his 31st season leading the Bucknell baseball program, Gene Depew (left) switched offices with his assistant Scott Heather, who would take over the Bison after the 2012 season.
On his last day as head coach, he took one thing from the office: a big chair shaped like a glove, the chair he offered recruits as he made his best pitch to lure them to Bucknell.
“He left everything in there for me,” Heather said. “He told me, ‘I left it in there, keep whatever you want and throw out whatever you don’t want.’ At first, I thought he didn’t want to clean it all up. As I went through it, I realized he was showing me how he built the program. He kept everything. I spent two days looking through everything…classic Gene, he was able to guide me without making me realize he was even doing it along the way.
“I owe him everything.”
Many in the Bucknell community share that sentiment.
Depew, who coached football and baseball over 40 years at his alma mater, passed away Monday morning at the age of 66, leaving a lasting legacy as a coach, mentor, friend and family man who simply did things the right way.
Navy coach Paul Kostacopoulos said, “He was just a gentleman.” Lehigh coach Sean Leary offered, “He was what the Patriot League is all about; he was an institution.” Lafayette coach Joe Kinney reminisced, “I’m honored to compete against him as a player and a coach.”
Depew starred in football before graduating from Bucknell in 1971. He began an incredible coaching run that saw him serve as an assistant football coach from 1972-92, assistant baseball coach from 1974-81 and head baseball coach from 1982-2012.
That’s right, he still coached football on the side 10 years after became the head baseball coach.
Depew’s baseball teams won 591 games and made five trips to the NCAA Tournament, none more thrilling than in 2008, when the Bison stunned No. 4 national seed Florida State 7-0 behind Mathew Wilson’s complete-game gem on the first day of the tourney.
That Friday night, Depew told CollegeBaseballInsider.com, “To be able to come in front of this kind of crowd and do what we did, it’s a momentous occasion for us.”
“The Florida State game was probably the biggest win of the 591 he ended up with,” Heather said.
Brian Hirschberg, Drew University’s baseball coach who played at Bucknell under Depew added: “It put Bucknell Baseball on the map…I’m sure Coach Depew had 1,000 people who wanted to talk to him, and I’m pretty sure he got back to every single person.”
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There’s a lot of people wasting their lives sleeping right now.
Bison baseball players over the past three decades heard this often at the start of early-morning practices or workouts. According to Hirschberg, it was one of Depew’s favorite lines.
And it was effective, setting the tone for a workmanlike baseball team in a workmanlike baseball conference devoid of scholarship players.
Three years after leaving football to put all his effort into baseball, the Bison slipped past Navy in the Patriot League Championship Series in 1996 for the program’s first trip to the NCAA Tournament. Depew then guided Bucknell to NCAA trips in 2001, 2003, 2008 and 2010.
“When he was promoted to just the full time baseball coach, Bucknell’s fortunes changed dramatically,” Kinney said.
In 2004 – a year removed from an NCAA tourney appearance – the Bison were underperforming. According to Hirschberg, Depew was never big on yelling or screaming at his players, but the players knew their play was wearing on him.
“At no point did he come down on us,” said Hirschberg, then a senior who had blasted a mammoth shot over the University of Texas’ Disch-Falk Field’s center-field monster the year before.
In fact, Hirschberg said Depew went to the seniors and asked, “What do you need from me?”
“Coach Depew was so good at understanding his team and understanding the personnel that he had,” Hirschberg said. “He was really good at knowing the pulse of his team.”
Added Heather: “He’s probably the most consistent man I’ve ever been around. You always knew what to expect.
“His biggest asset is that he set up the program for our players to be able to exceed both academically and athletically at the highest level. He kept the balance there to allow our guys to be successful day in and day out.”
His teams were known for having a few top-tier arms. Coaches around the Patriot League this week threw around words like “laid-back,” “loose” and “prepared.”
“They were courageous,” Kostacopoulos said. “His kids played in the moment. He had a way of getting his kids to play when they needed to play. Those kids never played tight; nothing bothered them.”
Kinney added, “He treated his kids with respect and got that in return I am sure.”
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In 2006, Lehigh won the Patriot League title and headed to Charlottesville, Va., for its first NCAA Tournament appearance.
The day of the Mountain Hawks’ first game against Virginia, Leary got a phone call from Depew, who said “you don’t have to listen to me” and proceeded to offer Leary ideas on how to prepare and encourage him to get his players to relax.
Two years ago, Lehigh and Bucknell met at Depew Field for the Patriot League championship. As game time approached, a visitor entered the Lehigh dugout with a big hello and warm greeting.
“It didn’t seem strange for either one of us,” Leary said of Depew stopping by to wish Leary luck.
Last year at the Patriot League Championship in Annapolis, Depew casually dropped by Navy’s dugout before the Midshipmen were set to play, not Bucknell, but Lehigh.
“He just wanted to come by and say good luck,” Kostacopoulos said. “He was happy for people when they had success.”
As Kinney described him, Depew was a caring person.
He was the kind of guy who looked out for people, as he did when Kostacopoulos was a young coach at Maine who arrived for a coaches’ clinic in Omaha at the College World Series only to find he wasn’t on the hotel’s rooming list and didn’t know many coaches there. “He’s with me,” the Navy coach remembers.
And he was the kind of guy who could command a room, as he did year after year at the Best of Virginia summer camp in what Kinney described as “the best card trick I’ve ever seen in my life.” Toward the end of night, Depew would dive into a 20-minute performance that mixed storytelling with card trick, capturing everyone in the room with the story of “Johnny the Bellhop.” Kinney said appreciatively, “That’s probably going to be my most lasting memory.”
Forty years of coaching. Memories made. Lives touched.
And little wasted time sleeping.
Bucknell has lost a legend, one whose success on the field is trumped only by his kindness off of it.