For nearly 40 years, Larry Bobbie coached high school badminton at Korah Collegiate and Sir James Dunn in Sault Ste. Marie.
Today, the man known by some as ‘Mr. Badminton’ is being remembered as much more than that.
One of his former students, Dan O’Connor, was coached by Bobbie at Korah Collegiate during the mid to late 1970s. The two remained friends right up until Bobbie’s passing. He would later follow in Bobbie’s footsteps and become a teacher and coach himself.
“He was first a coach, but he quickly became a close friend, and I think if you talk to any of his players, they’d say the same thing,” O’Connor said. “He was more a friend than a coach.”
“He was a great mentor for me, especially having no father. He became a father figure almost immediately.”
In addition to being a longtime coach and mentor to several Sault area high school students throughout the years, Bobbie also received the Leadership in School Sport by the Ontario Federation of School Athletics Association (OFSAA) for the 1992-1993 academic year.
The Northern Ontario Secondary School Athletics (NOSSA) midget team badminton championship even bears his namesake - ‘The Larry Bobbie Trophy.’
O’Connor said that Bobbie traveled extensively with his local badminton teams throughout Ontario, often offsetting tense moments on the badminton court with laughter.
“A great sense of humour,” said O’Connor. “He never took anything too seriously, although when you needed him to be tough, he was tough with us.”
Longtime friend and fellow teacher Skip Bailey remembers Bobbie fondly. Bailey, a Lively native, grew up with Bobbie, who hailed from the nearby town of Creighton Mines. The two graduated from Laurentian University together in Sudbury, before relocating to Sault Ste. Marie to work as teachers at Korah.
Bailey recalls several times where Bobbie was the centre of attention as a teacher and coach at Korah, whether it was dressing up in a toga for chariot races during a school fundraiser, or dressing up as a member of KISS and playing in band comprised of teachers to the delight of their students.
“We did a couple numbers, and the kids were falling out of their seats. It was that funny,” said Bailey. “It was just the kind of guy Larry was, he was the life of the party, no matter where you were with him.”
“He was probably the best friend I ever had,” he continued. “He was always there if you needed him, you never really had to ask him for help, he would just show up.”
Meanwhile, O’Connor credits Bobbie’s students for keeping the former teacher, coach and guidance counsellor young at heart.
“The guy never aged, even when he was in the hospital,” said O’Connor. “I went to visit him last summer and he still looked the same way he did when he was in his 20s coaching us. He seemed to be timeless.”
“That was one of his virtues, he never let himself get old, and I think coaching young kids throughout the decades kept him that way.”
Bobbie is survived by his wife of 49 years, Darlene, his three children and two grandchildren.
He was 72 years old.