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Luther Bedford Passes From Us PDF Print E-mail

By Lotty Blumenthal

In 1963 Luther Bedford came to Marshall High School, where he became football coach, basketball coach, athletic director, founded the Chicago Public League Basketball Coaches Association, became its President, was an active officer in Illinois Basketball Coaches Association and was a member of the American Legion.

 

He became one of the famous teachers at Marshall for the film “Hoop Dreams,” which chronicled two high school basketball teams. He, like most Marshall faculty, were active unionists, especially during the strikes in the more proactive days of the CTU. In an unusual memorial, the memorial service was held in the auditorium of Marshall High School with speakers from the organizations to which he belonged, Arne Duncan, Michael Scott and Marshall’s Principal, Gwen Boyd. A selection was played by a student violist from the school and a viewing of Coach Bedford was held with his family present. The entire auditorium was filled, and as the evening lengthened, the crowd increased to long lines.

Many members of the Substance staff, including this reporter, editor George Schmidt, and columnist Grady Jordan worked with Coach Bedford at various times during his career. “One of the highlights of my career was the year I taught at Marshall High School,” said Schmidt. “One of the hearbreaking things about today is that the Daley administration is destroying Chicago’s great public high schools — and wiping out their traditions — with each passing year. Marshall High School’s gym still holds the banners from the great basketball teams of the 1940s, as well as the teams coached by Luther Bedford and Dorothy Gaters during the 1970s and later. But it’s now clear that Arne Duncan will destroy Marshall on orders of Mayor Daley— just as he has begun to destroy Collins and has already destroyed Lucy Flower, Austin, Bowen, Calumet, Lindblom, and others.”

Some of the thousands of mourners noted that Luther Bedford became the “good guy” in the movie “Hoop Dreams”, which followed the careers of two high school basketball players from the west side. While suburban coaches exploited the talents of west side athletes, Bedford and his colleagues at Marshall High School treated the students almost as members of their own family. Some suggested that a viewing of “Hoop Dreams” would be appropriate as part of any memorial to Luther Bedford.

A few weeks after Luther Bedford died, his colleague, Dorothy Gaters, was noted in the Chicago Sun-Times as the winningest coach in Illinois history — at either high school or college level.
 
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