Golden Hawks Coach Retires

Tuesday, 12 April 2016 07:37

A local basketball legend goes out on a high note and leaves behind a legacy after a 34 year career.

A local basketball legend has coached his last game for the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks.

Peter Campbell won his final game 104 - 82 over the Waterloo Warriors and now has a lot of time on his hands to reflect on his career which lasted 34 years. Campbell's first coaching job was with a girls' basketball team at Oliver Stephens Public School in Woodstock. His University coaching career actually started as a bit of a fluke. He was working as a principal in Tillsonburg and was about to enjoy a year off when he got a call from Sudbury.

"It was the Spring of '85 when I got a call from Sudbury and their men's coach just quit and it's too late to get anybody good and he said you got next year off. I had a 4 over 5, he said why don't you come to Sudbury and coach the men's team here for a year and then we can have lots of time to research and find somebody good to coach our team and I said sure. When we went initially we left Oxford County for really only 1 year with the potential to hang through the Olympics for 3 years to make it easier for everybody in Oxford County."

He tells Heart FM that he still considers Oxford County home and a lot of people from this area helped him along the way.

"I have been so lucky and Oxford County has been such an important part of what I go to and guys like Brian O'Rouke, Dick MacKenzie, Bill Gillespie, and Peter Ewing have had such a big impact on me and all my ties are in Woodstock."

Campbell still isn't certain what the future will hold for him; he plans on staying involved in the game at some level and will continue to work at his Celtic basketball camps in the summer. Campbell shares with Heart FM what he considers the highlight of his storied career:

"The biggest highlight of my career is all the people I have had the pleasure of coming in contact with, whether it's the NBA guys like Todd McCullogh and Steve Nash and Jamal Magloire and Jay Triano, or the university guys I have had the pleasure to coach, or the National team guys I have had the pleasure to coach, and the kids I get to coach as a councillor for the Celtic basketball camps in the summer."