Harry Bird

Harry Bird was born in Chicago, Ill., on January 29, 1916. But it was in the Puget Sound where Bird became something of a legend as a football and wrestling coach.

Bird graduated from Lakeside High School in Seattle in 1935. Four years later, Bird graduated from the University of Washington.

When Bird finished a 15-year coaching career in football and wrestling at Wilson High School in Tacoma in 1973, Tacoma News Tribune reporter Ted Pearson wrote of the longtime coach:

"There is no way of accurately estimating Harry Bird's impact on the game of football or on the youth of Tacoma. Harry was first class, a gentleman all the way."

Bird compiled an 82-40-9 record in football at Wilson, but he began his coaching career many years earlier as an assistant at College of Puget Sound. By 1952, Bird had taken a job with the Tacoma School District and began coaching at Lincoln High.

Bird stayed with the Abes from 1952 to 1957 before moving to Wilson. During his years with the Rams, he won five City League Championships and one AP Poll State Championship and took his undefeated 1970 squad over to Hawaii to play undefeated Punaho. He was inducted into the Washington State Wrestling Coaches Hall of Fame after winning five league championships and was inducted into the State Football Coaches Hall of Fame in 1987.

Bird's career, and life, came to an abrupt end doing the thing he had spent most of his adult life doing - coaching. Bird collapsed at halftime of a September football game and died an hour later.