When Kenny Truster started teaching physical education at Riverside High School, Richard Nixon was president, Hank Aaron was chasing Babe Ruth’s all-time home run record, Ali and Foreman duked it out in the “Rumble in the Jungle”, and “Happy Days” was beginning to elbow its way to the top of the TV ratings.
But after teaching three generations of Pirates the finer points of bear crawls, tossing a softball or baseball, or just being part of the team, Truster hung up his whistle at the end this past school year.
During Truster’s 50-plus year stint at Riverside — he taught in the friendly confines of the old high school (since razed) for a quarter-century — Truster is more commonly known around the Riverside halls, with ultimate respect, as “T-Bone” or simply “T.”
In addition to running the phys. ed. department, Truster also taught American history, Ohio history, health and the better part of the populations of Miami and Pleasant Townships how to drive.
Talk to anyone who attended Riverside High School, a demographic that includes lots of grandparents, and they all have a Truster story, even if it’s just the memory of receiving one of the thousands of lollipops that he handed out to students over the years following a made free throw or a good kick.
He often rode his bike back-and-forth to work when he lived in Jackson Center and frequently challenged any and all to one-on-one hoops games for a soda or a buck, always claiming that he’d never played the game before, this prior to him drilling his patented line-drive jumpers.
Truster is such a pillar at Riverside that the high school gym was named for him, but nobody calls it the Kenny Truster Gymnasium. It’s the “T”.
Over the years, Truster, a Wilmington College graduate, coached Pirate basketball, football and track — junior high, JV, and varsity, you name it — for 30 different seasons, and became as well known for his aphorisms as he did his coaching, as in “Freeze ‘em like a popsicle,” “Down the middle solves the riddle,” “Kick it to Logansville,” or “Oh yeah, I could do that in kindergarten.”
Rather that having a big to-do celebrating his half-century teaching in the district (it’s not his style), Riverside organized a card shower for Truster and scores of notes and cards, including one from as far away as Alabama, which were presented to him last week.
While Truster may be leaving Riverside, he’s not going full-blown retirement in his New Bremen home. He said he’ll continue to teach as a substitute when he’s needed and if the mood strikes.
When asked what he’ll miss most about Riverside, Truster was non-committal, but he was sure of one thing.
“I’m not gonna miss getting those bleachers out every day,” he said with a smile.
