Legendary Fort Worth basketball coach who touched thousands of lives dies at 82
John Gales Sr., who impacted thousands of lives in the 36 years he coached basketball and taught English in the Fort Worth school district, died Aug. 25 at the age of 82.
Gales’ list of accomplishments as a basketball player, coach and teacher is lengthy. But he will likely most be remembered for the values of hard work, integrity and goodness of spirit that he instilled in his students and the community.
Gales, a Fort Worth native, went to James E. Guinn Middle School and I.M. Terrell High School. He played basketball at Wichita State and returned to Fort Worth in 1962 as an educator and coach. He and Alice Gales had four sons: John Jr., Jeff, James and Jerrold. Jerrold Gales died in November 2020. The other three men still live in the Fort Worth area.
“We never had to look outside of our house for a hero,” Jeff Gales said. “He was our hero. That in and of itself is something to be grateful for.”
Alice Gales met her husband of 62 years at a Valentine’s Day party when she was 16 and John Gales was a freshman in college. He and his brother were star basketball players at Terrell High School, and John Gales went on to play at Wichita State. He returned to Fort Worth after college to work at Guinn Middle School for six years.
In 1968, Gales became the basketball coach at Trimble Technical High School, where he would teach and coach for the next 30 years. The title made him the first Black coach for an integrated basketball team in Fort Worth schools.
The impact he had on the community was “tremendous,” said Sarah Walker, president of the Tarrant County Black Historical and Genealogical Society. Walker went to middle school with Gales and grew up with him.
“We will certainly miss that young man,” Walker said.
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John Gales was an obvious choice for the coaching position, Alice Gales said, and he had attracted notice since high school as a future leader of the community.
But his first few years of coaching were not without some challenges, Alice said. For two years, police officers stopped him every single day as he drove away from the school. He was usually taking a few of his players home because they did not have a ride, and the officers would ask him where he was going.
John handled the harassment each day with his usual steady demeanor, Alice said. She did not even know about the stops until years later.
“He never taught us to hate, he did not show it,” his cousin Marian Eastman said. “If he disliked somebody, he never showed us that.”
Coach Gales
Gales spent his days caring for his players, his students and his family.
“We saw our dad get up and go to school in the morning and come home after midnight for 30 years,” John Jr. said. “My dad touched hundreds of thousands of lives; probably affected millions of people.”
He did not just coach his players on the court; he mentored them in life. He went to hospitals, courtrooms and homes when needed. He bought shoes, socks and ties.
“He saw every kid needed a chance, not just the ones who people thought were going to be the glorious leaders,” said Eastman, who co-founded Jubilee Theater in Fort Worth. “It was part of life for us all. To share and to nurture. You didn’t cast anybody out if you could help.”
Some of the best athletes to come out of the Fort Worth school district were taught and mentored by Gales. He also played with and against an array of basketball notables including Jerry West, Bobby Knight, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson and John Havlicek.
James Cash, who was named an Academic All-American in basketball at Texas Christian University and recently honored with a statue at the university, said Gales was the person who inspired him to become a basketball player. Cash led TCU to the 1968 Southwest Conference championship and his jersey is one of four retired at TCU.
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Cash knew Gales growing up as a family friend. But he became a role model for Cash when Cash’s father took him to watch Gales play at Wichita State. In the locker room after the game, Cash was awestruck by Gales.
“I felt like I was a nobody,” he said. “He took an interest in me and it was very clear that the respect they had for him made them respond to the respect they had introducing me.”
Despite his family being made up of baseball players, Cash decided then he was going to play basketball. When Cash signed with TCU and was not performing well his sophomore year, Gales called him and gave him a talk he would remember for the rest of his life.
“He was helping me understand what I was experiencing at the time,” Cash said. “The fact that he clearly had not lost confidence in me — it was very clear that my performance wasn’t indicative of my capabilities at that point — it was really one of those turning points ... it really made a difference.”
Cash was the first Black student-athlete to enroll at TCU. Throughout his life, he continued to break racial barriers. Much of the strength he needed to do that, he said, came from Gales.
“Every time there was an opportunity to be the first Black to do something, I could think back to his encouragement of me to ignore whatever negative there was, to take on a challenge. To try and pave the way for others later,” he said. “A person like John just helps you build the inner strength and confidence that it takes. And they’re always with you even when they aren’t with you in a physical sense.”
Even those who did not play for Gales saw him as a mentor. Andre Allen, one of John Gales Jr.’s best friends, looked up to Gales like a father. John Gales used to take his son and Allen to basketball games at Trimble Tech and teach them the fundamentals of the game in the gym.
Allen played basketball at Dunbar High School under Hall of Fame Coach Robert Hughes. Gales would whisper advice in his ear and give him tips as Allen and John Gales Jr. played one-on-one games at the Gales’ home. The ball would bounce erratically on the dirt floor of the makeshift court, but Gales told Allen and his son the added challenge taught them the elements of the game.
Later in life, Allen became a referee and saw Gales often at basketball games. He remained a father-like figure for him.
“He was just a big leader in my life,” Allen said. “He was always a very encouraging person for me.”
‘He was everything’
While John Gales was a legendary basketball coach, perhaps the biggest impact he had was in people’s lives off the court.
Cash said Gales may have encouraged his basketball career, but “the thing that I will be most indebted to him for is his teaching me through his actions, not his words, to be a good husband and a good parent.”
“And that has turned out to be far more important than all the other stuff that other people might look at in terms of blessing in my life,” he said.
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For Jeff Gales, his father taught him, and others, the importance of a strong work ethic. His father worked a second job early in his career to make sure his family had everything they needed. And despite his own dedication to basketball, he did not pressure his own sons to play — although all four of them did decide to join the basketball team at Trimble Tech, with their father as their coach.
“In the game of life and in basketball,” Alice Gales said, “he was the best father, in my opinion, that a child could have growing up.”
The family liked to go to the movies together and play scrabble. John Gales was known as a jokester, and gatherings were always filled with laughter, Eastman said. He was an avid reader and enjoyed word puzzles and giving English lessons to his grandchildren.
When asked what his father meant to his life, John Gales Jr. had one word: “God.”
“He was God,” he said. “He was everything.”
John Gales retired in 1998. He was a scorekeeper and book keeper for high school basketball teams for some time before officially retiring. His legacy continued well after he stopped coaching. In 2009, the gym floor at Trimble Tech was named after John Gales.
A tribute to Gales is planned on Friday at 7 p.m. at Trimble Tech High School. A visitation will take place on Friday at noon until 8 p.m. at the Gregory W. Spencer Funeral Home at 4000 Miller Ave. Funeral services are planned for Saturday at 1 p.m. at New Rising Star Baptist Church, located at 5000 Wichita St. in Fort Worth.
This story was originally published August 31, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
