Cheney’s Oswald dies

Tom Oswald was a man whose life was measured by numbers, but not the obvious ones.

Oswald, who logged 165 games in 25 years as the football coach at Cheney High School, died Friday evening after a long battle with cancer. He was 57.

“Think about how many kids he got through school because they came across Tom Oswald’s path,” former Cheney principal Jerry Knott said. “It wasn’t just athletes. He helped thousands of athletes, but he helped a lot of students.”

“He was a warrior,” Ray Hare, another former Cheney administrator said. “He was a tough, tough, hard-nosed guy, but he had a kind heart for people.”

Hare graduated from Gonzaga Prep in 1967, the same year Oswald, a star quarterback, graduated from Cheney. They played together one year at Spokane Falls Community College. Oswald went on to Oregon State to play. After a year as a graduate assistant, he spent two years coaching at Grants Pass, Ore., where he met his wife Susan.

Oswald then went to Illinois as a graduate assistant before becoming the head coach at Kennewick for two years. He returned to his alma mater in 1977, which is where Hare finished his career in education.

“He was a coach’s coach,” Hare said. “He lived it and loved it and the players loved him.”

John Hook, the principal at Mt. Spokane who coached 17 seasons at Lewis and Clark beginning in 1983, said Oswald was one of the first friends.

“We weren’t a very good program and he was one of the first people that reached out to me,” Hook said. “He invited me to his cabin, where we’d talk football. He was a great friend and a great competitor. He was very dedicated to his family and he genuinely cared for every kid in his program.

“He said you can’t run those marginal players out of your program. He said you might need them to win, but, more importantly, they might need something to hang on to.”

Cheney and LC met in preseason jamborees or in non-league games many times and Hook, the coach from the larger school, was usually impressed.

“His teams were just like him – tremendously competitive, good basic fundamentals, hard-hitting, a great deal of enthusiasm,” Hook said. “Our kids loved going against them.

“He had a strong faith. He was a strong, competitive man that battled to the end.”

It was Oswald who convinced Knott to apply at Cheney and he stayed for 16 years, the last 15 as the principal.

“He touched so many of us and made us better people,” said Knott, who retired in 2002. “Not just the players he coached – his coaches, other students, principals, too. I told him that. I’m sure glad I got to do that.

“He was pretty good to remind you that you were a young kid once, or a young teacher one time yourself, and we all made mistakes.”

Oswald tried to retire after 20 years at Cheney, making the announcement after the 1997 season, but had a change of heart before the position was filled and coached for five more years.

The CHS football field was dedicated as Tom Oswald Football Field in January.

“My most prevalent thought about Tom is he got along with all kinds of people,” said Joe Richer, a longtime Cheney coach and athletic director, now retired. “He was able to get along with … all different diverse personalities. He was a people person. It’s a pretty sad day.”

Oswald is survived by his wife of 31 years; three children, Sarah, 29, of Spokane; Aimee, 27, and her husband Shane Kernen, of Cheney; and Drew, 22, attending school in Yakima; two sisters, two brothers, and his father, Mike, in Airway Heights.

There will be a memorial service at the high school on Saturday at 11 a.m.

“I’m not sure that will be big enough to hold everyone,” Richer said.

In lieu of flowers, the family asked that donations be made to the Tom Oswald Memorial scholarship fund that will be set up in the coming week.