Terry Mosher
I have never been associated with a memorial service so large (an estimated 1,000 people) that was so wonderfully done, so amazingly moderated (by David Rill) and so full of love and laughs as the one for Elton Goodwin last Saturday at the SouthKitsapHigh School auditorium.
It was unbelievable.
It showed just how much Goodwin was revered and loved and how easy it is to be thought of that way when one just keeps it simple and doesn’t worry about what other people think as long as you don’t hurt people and as long as you do what we all should do – love each other.
I’m far from being the only person who will miss Elton terribly. He was what we all should try to be – loving, determined, focused, humble, hard-working, passionate about all he did, disciplined and tough.
Elton Goodwin
Elton had it all.
And, man, I’m going to miss him, and the phone calls from and to him. But that is the way it is when you get to my age (73) and outlive friends, family and people like Elton. It hurts big time.
I’m written a column and a post-tribute story on Elton for the Kitsap Sun, but I just scratched the surface with them. I’ll never be able to completely write about him (I did a large story on him for the print issue of The Sports Paper years ago) and do him the justice he deserves. But there are some things I want to add about him before we all shake out all the sadness and move on with life, as we all must, even when at times we don’t feel like it without taking Elton along with us.
This will be it for me and Elton, and I’m starting to tear up as I write this. I don’t want it to be the end, but it does me no good to cling to him as my life moves forward. I’ll never forget him, but without the phone calls and the ability to run into him from time to time, it’s useless to drag myself down with the sadness that he is no longer here.
I will always have the memories, as you will, that you and I can cling to. So here are some more memories and stories that mostly came out of the “A Life Remembered” for Elton last Saturday at SK.
You must know by know that there were four primary speakers at the Tribute – Ed Fisher, longtime SK football coach who is retired from teaching and coaching and lives in Spokane, Eric Canton, the current SK football coach, Ernie Hahn, who was Elton’s mentor, as he was to countless others in his 30-plus years as a teacher and coach, mostly at the junior high level in the SK School District, and Wayne Gibson, a close friend and former basketball coach.
Then, of course, there was Rill, who has lived in Port Orchard, played sports for SK and played football, and played it well, for the Washington Huskies as a linebacker. Rill was incredible. He brought the Tribute together so well and was so good.
It was Rill who read comments from family – Elton’s brothers Arlond, Billy and Aaron, wife Debbie, twin sons Joel and Jeff, and various nieces – and directed the Tribute, which was unlike any other I have seen or heard about, and certainly set the bar awful high for future ones.
Gibson said he first saw Elton Goodwin in 1967. Goodwin was a sophomore on the South Kitsap junior varsity basketball team and he couldn’t take his eyes off this little guy who was racing up and down the court with determination he had never seen.
“He was totally out of control,” Gibson said. “He was running here, running there. He was running all over the place. His eyes were maniacal.
“What he would do is steal the ball. He’d go down on a breakaway layin. He’d never hit the rim. It would always bounce off the backboard.
“But the amazing thing to that story is he would never skip a beat. It would never faze him at all. He’d race back to the other end and three or four plays later he’d steal the ball again, and go down and miss it. And he didn’t care. It was like a dog in heat, he just needed the basketball.”
Gibson said he looked in the program to see who this guy was – Elton Goodwin. Gibson said he felt like suggesting to Goodwin’s coaches that once he stole the ball that he should give it to somebody else to shoot it.
“I know one thing, having played some basketball, I would not have wanted him to check me,” Gibson said. “In fact, I was a little surprised that during a time out he didn’t go over to the other teams’ huddle and stand by the guy he was checking.”
“If you look up the world intensity in the dictionary that is an understatement for Ellie. My wife, Dana, used to love to have Ellie come over to our house and watch a football game or basketball game. He would bring over his six-pack of Busch lite and sit on the sofa, and he would always lean forward – the whole game. He never went backwards, he was so intense. And Dana would get such a big kick out of it.
“And he would say to me, ‘Buddy, look at these players today. F …, man. You see that one receiver. He went down on one play and now he has to take three plays off. What is wrong with our society?”
Gibson also told about moving in with Goodwin in 1978 while he was going through a divorce. Elton suggested they cut trees two hours a day for five days a week, sell the wood, save the money, and then go to Las Vegas for a week.
Although Gibson had never cut wood, that sounded like an idea. But part of the deal was that they would not drink water only until a scheduled time.
One day it was so hot, around 90 degrees, that Gibson snuck away and went to Goodwin’s truck – the so-named Green Beast – and drank water out of the jugs they had filled.
Then as Gibson was ready to go back to work, he put the jugs back in the truck and slammed the door shut – right on the tail of Goodwin’s dog, Sheba. It broke her tail and Gibson was out of sorts.
When he finally returned to work with Goodwin, he admitted that he had drunk some water, which upset Goodwin. But that wasn’t the worse news, Gibson added.
“I broke Sheba’s tail,” he said. “Ellie didn’t speak to me for three days. He used to cook all my meals and for a week he didn’t cook anything.”
They did go to Las Vegas, though. Elton made Gibson promise not to gamble all the money away on their first day there. It had to be spread over the week.
Gibson said he isn’t much of a gambler, but he got carried away that first night and gambled all their wood-cutting money away.
“Geezus, Wayne,” Goodwin said.
The pair slept in their car.
Hahn recalled that he became like a second father to Elton when his dad died and then coached and taught with him at CedarHeights when Goodwin came back from Central Washington with his degree.
Goodwin helped Hahn coach football and basketball and baseball.
“He even came down and helped me with wrestling,” Hahn said. “He didn’t know sh.. from shinenola. But he rolled around on the mat and his intensity rubbed off on a lot of kids. He was great.”
Hahn jokingly said he would take credit for Elton growing the South Kitsap baseball program into a state power. He did that because when Elton was a ninth grader at Marcus Whitman Junior High and playing for Hahn’s baseball team, they lost five games that year, four by one run and one by two runs.
“I think it became indelible on Ellie’s life that you got to learn how to hit, got to learn how to advance when you got on the bases,” Hahn said. “So I will take credit for that part.”
Hahn added that Elton when he became the head baseball coach at SK, instituted early morning drills at the gym, becoming a stickler on fundamentals, repeating basic drills over and over and over again.
Goodwin won three state baseball titles at SK and Hahn said he never saw one of them. He would go to the playoffs, but SK would always lose. The first SK state championship in 1983, Hahn had to take a group of ninth-graders to a field trip to the San Juan islands.
“We were gone for four days and when we got back on the boat to come back one of the headlines in the paper said, ”SK wins state title,” Hahn said, choking up. “I thought I better stay away from (state championships games) from then on.”
Hahn then paused, and said to great laugher, “And Elton told me to.”
Goodwin was an extreme competitor and Hahn said he didn’t want to come in second no matter whether it was cutting wood, playing a game, coaching a game, hunting or fishing, or whatever.
Then Hahn told a story about fishing with Elton in Ilwaco.
“Usually I was pretty good. I would take the prize,” says Hahn. “One day we are out there and started fishing. Elton got on a good fish in the high 20s or low 30s (pounds) and he plays it for about an hour. He gets it in the boat and damn he gets another on. In about three or four hours Elton’s got three nice fish in the boat, Doug (Green) has two and I got a snake that weighed about seven pounds.
“But the real story is one of the fish Elton caught. I can’t remember whether it was the second or third one. It was the darnest fish I have ever seen in my life. It probably weighed in the high 20s or low 30s. It took three nice runs about 150 to 200 yards. After about the third run I figured he was about ready to come in the boat.
“I picked up the net and showed it and all hell broke loose. This fish runs like 200 to 300 yards. It gets out and comes straight right to the boat, underneath the boat. It takes a turn and comes back and smacks the boat. It hit the boat two or three times during the fight.
“Anyway we get the fish in the boat and it has four sets of hooks in it. And two of them are trebles. And I just figured Elton finally caught up with a fish that matched him.”
Hahn, who is 81, said he gave up fishing a few years ago. Elton would go fishing, come back and drive the beast into Hahn’s driveway, get out of it and say, “Coach, you need a fish.”
I anxiously waited for Canton to speak, because I knew emotionally he was pretty much a wreck over Elton’s death, and I wondered how he would perform once he was faced with the task in front of so many people.
No need to worry. Eric was great.
He started out by saying his senior year at SK he was not going to play baseball. But his dad, Keith, insisted that he would. Canton said his parents knew who the good people where and wanted him to experience life from those people, and Goodwin was one of them.
So Canton played baseball his senior year.
“My dad had a keen sense of who the good people were, and he always wanted my sister and I to be around those good people,” Canton said. “And there was no way in the world I wasn’t going to be playing baseball for Elton in my senior year.”
Canton said in the last few years he tried to get Goodwin out to coach with him. The last attempt was to get him to help with the SK football program. But Elton said he couldn’t because his hips hurt him too bad.
“He wouldn’t come and watch the games either,” Canton said, “because he couldn’t stand that long along the sidelines. I knew how to piss him off so I told him I would get him a wheelchair.
“I’m sure you can imagine his response: “I’m not sitting in a Goddamn wheelchair on the sidelines. I apologize for all the language. These are all quotes.”
Canton went on to talk about Elton’s characteristics – passionate, old school, demanding, perfectionist (“You could tell that by the way he dressed (bib overalls, flannel shirt, ball cap). He had that perfected, put it that way.”), proud.
Goodwin used to go fishing up in Alaska almost on a yearly basis. After one trip he got home and called Canton and told he had to come over. Canton said he couldn’t, so Goodwin said he was coming over to Canton’s house.
“All right, come over, coach,” Canton said.
Goodwin gets there and tells Canton he has to show him something. So he pulls down his pants, and then he pulls down his underwear.
“He’s got a South Kitsap shirt on, but he’s stark naked from the waist down,” Canton says.
“I got to show you this,” Goodwin says. “See that right here?”
Canton says, “He’s got a bruise that is going from his hip all the way down to his knee. Oh my God, what happened?”
“I went fishing up in Alaska,” Goodwin shouts. “I caught Shaquille.
“Shaquille?”
Yeah, Shaquille O’Neal,” Goodwin says, still shouting. “I caught it. Seven feet four inches. Three hundred twenty five pounds. Caught it. This bruise right here is from the rod. I had that thing up against me the whole time. Four hours.”
“It was incredible,” Canton said. “But that was him – relentless. And obviously he didn’t worry about getting arrested for nudity.”
”Fisher talked about him and Elton cut down trees for firewood, primarily alder trees. After one day of cutting, Fisher went back to the woods the next day to scout out other possible good trees to cut. He found three and the following day at school told Elton about them, and their location, planning on going with him the following week to cut them down.
The following week Fisher went back to the woods and discovered the trees he had picked out had been cut. The next day at school he informed Elton of that and Elton just hung his head, looked at the cup of coffee he had in front of him and nervously picked at his mustache, and said nothing.
“So I said, ‘hey Goodie, did you hear me?’ ” Fisher said. I said the three trees we were going to cut down, someone’s already taken them. He slowly turned his head, his ear was almost in the Styrofoam, and he said, ‘I cannot lie, coach Fisher, I’m sorry, I sold those two cords of woods from those trees.’
“That’s him.”
Aaron Goodwin provoked a huge laugh when Rill read his letter about his brother. It told the story about the time Aaron told Elton he had purchased a new Acura and was told in response that Elton had bought a brand new 8-foot Olympic boat. He was invited over to dinner so the two of them could celebrate their new toys.
“When (wife) Lynn and I arrived,” Rill said, reading from the letter, “Elton stood outside with his legs spread apart, hands on his hips, chew in his mouth, and wearing the same South Kitsap attire with slippers.
“The boys (Joel and Jeff) were eight years old at the time and were also outside in their PJs. I told my wife, man, watch this. I’m going to jump in the car and scare him. Not realizing how fast I had done it on his gravel driveway, the Acura went right through the tongue of the trailer and missed the boat by an inch.”
“Elton’s remark after he had swallowed his chew: ‘Un f…ing believable. My wife got out of the car and said to me, ‘What the f… did you do?
“With that, the boys dashed into the house and yelled, ‘Aunt Lynn just said the F word.
“Needless to say, it was pretty quiet at the dinner table. Until Elton and aunt Lynn started to laugh.
“The trailer had to go in for minor repairs, and the Acura had $2,000 in repairs.
“Stories like this are what made my brother so special. He was just so full of fun and energy.”
Canton said, “I can’t tell you how much he meant to me, I never, ever will forget him.”
Goodwin’s sons, Joel and Jeff, talked about how their dad included them in everything he did, from cutting wood, fishing, duck hunting, camping.
“You did these things with such tenacity and love,” they said in their letter. “For that we will always be indebted to you. But it’s the simple things you did, your day-to-day love that we hold the closest to our hearts.”
The sons drew a loud laugh when they talked about going to their first junior high dance and their dad came down from upstairs and told them he was going to show them how to dance.
“He started bending and shaking around the room,” they said. “We laughed so hard. These are the things we will continue to talk about.
“Thank you, dad. Thank you for showing us the meaning of respect, discipline, strong work ethic, and more life-long characteristics that we only hope to achieve.
“Your desire and commitment to live a great life is something we all should strive to achieve. We love you always and forever, your sons, Jeff and Joel.”
The sons choose the song, “Fisher of Men”, as their dedicated to their dad. The closing lyrics by singer M. Ward is telling:
“He’s a fisher of men, he’s as wise as a prizefighter
He’s like a soul martyr, mining souls on down the great divide
Always a fisher of men, fisher of men
He’s got a lot on the line.”
Family members selected a song each that they dedicated to Elton. Debbie choose “In the Arms of an Angel”, (sung by Sarah McLachlan) and that also says it all.
There is little question that when Elton died from a heart attack a day after having hip replacement surgery, the first visitors he likely had were Angels, who probably gathered him in their arms and whisked him to the Promised Land, leaving us heartbroken, but likely leaving him grinning from ear to ear.
McLachlan’s haunting voice produced tears, especially from Debbie. In part, McLachlan sang:
“Spend all your time waiting
For that second chance
For a break that would make it okay
There’s always some reason
To feel not good enough
And it’s hard at the end of the day
I need some distraction
Oh beautiful release
Memories seep from my veins
Let me be empty
Oh and weightless and maybe
I’ll find some peace tonight
In the arms of the angel
Fly away from here
You’re in the arms of the angel
May you find some comfort here.”
Hahn said his wife Barb said Elton, “Always reminded her of a banty roster. Not very big, always walked proud with a little strut. A little loud.
“He may be gone,” Hahn added, choking on his words, “but his spirit lives on as long as we do.
“We love you, man.”
So it went last Saturday. Elton Goodwin lived the good life. It wasn’t complicated. It wasn’t always easy, but he lived it with deep passion, with realism, with toughness, teaching those he met in his 63 years a love that was as true as he was.
It’s likely we will never see another one like him. And we miss him already.
God speed Elton.