Bob Drucker, a teacher/coach at St. Ignatius for decades, died on Thanksgiving Day. He was 84. He was SI's boys' basketball head coach in the 1970's and 1980's. His teams won multiple WCAL and CCS championships. He was a graduate of SI in 1958.
Bob Drucker passes
- Thread starter colhenrylives
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Fifty years ago, he termed the Serra home court advantage as being akin to playing in a jungle for visiting teams. The name stuck. The annual SI vs. Serra game in San Mateo has been "The Jungle Game" ever since, with the old Padre Palace festooned with palm fronds and occasional camo drapery. Serra kids dress in appropriate jungle attire and the joint rocks to the rafters. It's a yearly sellout. Tickets go for a premium.
Bob had a front row seat to hoops history as a teen at SI when the school was located on Stanyan Street, adjacent to the USF campus. The Dons were a dominant college program from 1954 to 1958, winning back-to-back NCAA titles and 60 games in a row at one point during that period (with former SI coach Phil Woolpert at the helm). USF, with stars like Bill Russell, KC Jones, Gene Brown and Mike Farmer in the vanguard, practiced in the cramped SI gym. So SI students like Bob got to see the Dons up close and personal if they chose. The NBA had not arrived in San Francisco yet. USF was the biggest basketball attraction in town back then.
I had Mr. Drucker for english or math for summer school. I just remembered how incredibly kind that man was. What a life Mr. Drucker! What a life!
Just a legend! Can still visualize him, stomping his black, hard heel dress shoes, and kicking the wooden bleacher if he was upset after a bad call.
I had him as a coach at the old Cardinal Basketball Camp BITD. RIP coach.
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