SPRINGFIELD — Several times a week, Dave Maurer leaves his room at Eaglewood Village and heads out in his red Ford Focus — just him and his memories on a driving tour he knows as well as any playbook.

"I go to all my spots," he said. "I go up to my street at home and visit with my old neighbors. I go over to (Ferncliff) cemetery, and Nancy gives me hell. I drive up behind the stadium and watch the guys practice."

Wittenberg University head football coach Joe Fincham sees him. Maurer parks near where the defense practices and later moves his car to the other end of the field to see the offense.

Because of health issues, Maurer doesn't leave the car. He sits and watches with the air conditioning on. Sometimes he yells hello out the window to the coaches and players.

Maurer can't remember the last time he saw a game at the stadium that bears the his name and that of his mentor Bill Edwards, but Maurer's presence is felt — and not just when he shows up at practice.

Maurer is 76 now. His wife of 50 years — the quintessential team mom Nancy — died in 2005. Twenty-five years have passed since he coached his last football game at Wittenberg. Seventeen years have passed since his induction into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Yet every time a recruit walks into the coaching office in the HPER Center, they pass the trophies Maurer helped attain. Every time Fincham talks about the expectations his Tigers face every year, he's in part talking about Maurer, who helped create them by winning two national championships and 129 games in his 15 seasons.

"I always refer to it as a time of magic," Maurer says. "It was just an unbelievable experience for me and my family."

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0351

or djablonski@coxohio.com.

[Reprinted with permission from the "Springfield News-Sun"]