So Long to a Beloved Teacher, Sports Coach, Mentor and Friend to Generations of Niagara Students

A Remembrance from a former student, John Nicol

Posted July 2^nd, 2024 on Niagara At Large

John Terrance (Terry) Nelson, with the utmost respect for his daughters Jennifer and Stacia, was once a father figure to me and hundreds of others at Stamford Collegiate in Niagara Falls.

Phys-ed teacher, football coach, basketball coach, track coach… I don’t know if he ever got compensated, but I feel I owe him hundreds of tanks of gas, just dropping me at home after practice before he drove back to his wife Lynda in St. Catharines.

I spoke to him late this past June in hospital, and he was not himself, afraid that he was not in control of his health, yet readily admitting he wouldn’t be around when I returned to Canada next month. He died a few days later, at age 77, on June 23.

But we have much to learn from his life.

Terry grew up in St. Catharines, and in his graduating year at St. Catharines Collegiate, he was MVP of the senior football and basketball teams, earning him Athlete of the Year. He went on to play football at McMaster University, and so excelled that he was offered a tryout with the Montreal Alouettes.

In 1970 he came to Stamford, and was part of a baby-boom core of teachers who did their best to make student lives as full as possible. We had a full slate of athletic teams, clubs in tech, chess, drama, choir, library and camera. The teachers did such a good job in fostering spirit that students packed the hill at football games and overflowed basketball gyms.

Terry was in the phys-ed department, but he was unofficially a guidance teacher for several generations of students. He earned the nickname Ozzie, after the TV dad (on the 1950s/60s show ‘The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet’) who known for his sage advice.

Craig Martin, who went on to play soccer for Canada, said Nelson gave him and his slight frame a chance to play football in Grade 11, and after Craig won MVP in Grade 13, Terry “took it upon himself to speak with the McMaster football coaches about me and he encouraged me to go to early tryouts.”

Even though Martin chose soccer, “it left a mark on how I could step up and help others when I saw they had potential,” said Martin, Class of ‘76, “which I carried into my business career.”

John (Kulik) Kumhyr, Class of ‘78, said he was 6-foot-2 in Grade 9, “Terry made me play guard. I hated him for it. I had no left hand and sucked at bringing up the ball. But starting in Grade 10 and extending to university, when I was one of the taller guards, I was always grateful for his foresight.”

When Kumhyr played at McMaster, Terry continued to give him wise counsel.

He felt so beholden to Terry he even helped him build a cottage. Vito DiMartino, Class of ‘75, benefitted from being both a student athlete of Terry’s, but also as a colleague when he returned to Stamford to teach.

He was around for the hijinx Terry got up to with fellow teachers Jamie Buell and Jim Bauer, but the students were always his focus.

“He always found a way of helping kids,” said DiMartino. “He took advantage of the Open Door Canada exchange program to bring them to British Columbia, providing the kids with a great experience.”

One of those kids was Matthew Moccio, Class of ‘86, whose team went to BC twice.

“Those trips were amazing,” said Moccio. “I was 15 and in Grade 10 the first time around and it was the first time I had been on a plane. Asidefrom the sights we saw, the new friendships we formed and the bonds that strengthened among us Stamford guys, I think those trips built our confidence.

“Terry sent a message to us that we were worth it.”

But Moccio said the nature of their rapport with him was special.

“He found the perfect balance between an authority figure and a friend,” said Moccio. “It’s probably why we’d include him whenever we got the gang together for pizza and wings over the years, right up until recently.

“I lost a mentor and a friend last week. I’m sad, but incredibly grateful. I’ll miss him.”

For me, as a journalist, he was a great source, always fighting the good fight.

In the late ‘80s, after some bureaucrat essentially turned the then four public city high schools into the campuses of the Niagara Falls High School, Terry pointed out how the identity of the schools changed, and the histories and traditions of Stamford and Niagara Falls C.V.I. were shown little respect.

Next came the unkindest blow of all.

In 1995, Mike Harris won an election by belittling teachers, for the temerity of having decent pensions.

For Terry, it demonstrated that giving back to his community–of staying all those extra hours after school to educate the next generation of leaders–wasn’t valued. It was a betrayal of the highest order.

Meeting up with him in later years he was more wistful than the effervescent teacher who used to demonstrate how an offensive guard should pull out for a sweep around right end. I can still see him rebounding a basketball, the hair of his comb-over flopping to one side as he outletted the ball for a fast break. His joy in his job was palpable, a smile never far from his face.

As his former charges met up with him at reunions, or dinners arranged to say thanks, he’d flash that old smile, and acknowledge the genuine love his players showed him, but he was quick to say that that world they enjoyed had gone.

After his retirement, one of his former players died, and Terry helped set up an award in his honour. For Terry, a father-figure, mentor, friend, who always gave of his time, who always fought the good fight, a similar tribute would be the least we could do.

It would be one way of saying that, although that wonderful world Terry and all those teachers provided us is gone, it is not forgotten.

A Celebration of Life will be held from 1 pm to 4 pm on Saturday, July 27 at the St. Catharines Museum, 1932 Welland Canals Parkway.

The auhoter of this Remembrance, John Nicol, is a former St. Catharines Standard reporter and columnist who went on to work for CBC and who now lives in Spain.

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