JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – Don Bailey led the Forest Hills High School football program to 375 wins in 45 years, the seventh-highest total in Pennsylvania history. But his former players and area coaches remembered Bailey as more than a Hall of Fame football coach.
Bailey, who died Sunday at age 74 after several years of health issues, was an educator, administrator, community leader – and a family man and friend.
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“It’s hard to put into words what Coach meant to me,” said Josh Rearick, a former Forest Hills multi-sport athlete who played for Bailey and is currently the Westmont Hilltop High School football coach.
“In my opinion, and I think in the opinion of many others in the Forest Hills community, he was the greatest coach we ever had,” Rearick said. “Probably one of the greatest mentors we ever had. Most importantly, one of the greatest educators we ever had.
“In my opinion, the greatest Ranger of all time. What he meant to the Forest Hills community went far above just a football field.”
Rearick is one of seven Rangers graduates who played for Bailey and eventually became head football coaches.
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Among them is Brandon Bailey, the son of Don and Diane Bailey and longtime coach of the successful Richland High School football team. Brandon Bailey was among the best quarterbacks his father ever coached. He played NCAA Division I football.
When Brandon Bailey coached Richland against his father’s Forest Hills teams, the games were known as The Bailey Bowl.
After Don Bailey retired, Brandon’s parents attended many of the Rams games he coached over the years, even after Don Bailey’s health deteriorated.
On Sunday, Brandon Bailey made a Facebook post featuring a photo of him and his father standing on the sideline after a football game, and he later posted Don Bailey’s obituary. Those posts drew hundreds of condolences online.
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After graduating from college in 1973, Don Bailey coached, taught or served as an administrator at Forest Hills for 46 years, the final 10 as superintendent.
On the football field, his Rangers produced a 375-120-8 record. The win total still ranks seventh all-time in Pennsylvania, according to PAFootballNews.com.
Bailey’s teams won 10 PIAA District 6 titles and advanced to the 1994 Class 2A state championship contest in Altoona, where the Rangers lost a 20-14 double overtime game to Mount Carmel Area.
Under Bailey, Forest Hills appeared in 17 of 34 district title games in the Rangers classification during the iconic coach’s tenure.
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‘Like a second father’
“Coach Bailey was like a second father to me,” said Justin Myers, who took over as the Forest Hills football coach following Bailey’s November 2018 retirement.
“He literally was there through my schooling in high school,” said Myers, the quarterback on the 1994 state runner-up Rangers team and a longtime assistant coach under Bailey. “When I graduated high school and was playing through college, he was always there, checking up on me or talking to me or giving advice.
“We never lost touch. We actually grew so close over the years coaching together.”
Kevin Marabito spent 42 football seasons as either a high school head coach or assistant coach throughout the region. After a few difficult seasons, he considered stepping away until Don Bailey made him an assistant coach at Forest Hills.
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“He meant a lot to me. When I was thinking about getting out of coaching, he brought me on the staff at Forest Hills,” Marabito said. “Don was just a terrific person. We became close through the years. I spent six years with him and he treated me as well as you could be treated.
“He was more than a football coach. After I got back into being a head coach, I carried a lot of lessons that he taught me. I was down in the dumps and finished when he gave me a call and offered me a job.”
Marabito went on to coach the United High School and United Valley co-op football teams to successful seasons before retiring.
His friendship with Bailey extended beyond the football field.
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For years, Marabito joined Bailey, former Forest Hills athletic director Larry Celmer and former assistant coach Rick Ruddek for breakfast at the Corner Coffee Shop in Richland Township.
“We had our breakfast club every three weeks,” Marabito said. “The best memory I got was this past Friday. We had breakfast and we sat there and talked for over three hours. He was sick, but I’ll carry that memory forever. It was a great conversation. It was a great day that we spent together.”
‘Very competitive’
Ernie Fetzer coached five area high school football programs to 182 wins during 30 seasons – most of those at Westmont Hilltop High School.
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Fetzer’s Westmont Hilltop and Bailey’s Forest Hills teams at one time were among the best in the region. The Rangers and Hilltoppers produced a few classic meetings throughout the rivalry.
“He was very competitive. He was very special in terms of what he accomplished, and he was respectful of everybody else around him,” Fetzer said. “There weren’t too many people the way he was. My heart goes out to his family.”
Two area coaching icons, Bailey and Fetzer occasionally would see each other at games or football-related events. Fetzer recalled one memorable encounter.
“We were at a function not long ago and we were talking,” Fetzer said. “I teased him and said, ‘I could have had a lot better record if I didn’t have to play you twice a year.’ He said, ‘You know what? You won some big games.’ I said, ‘Never enough.’
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“We really got along well. Whether you won or lost, there was just a tremendous respect for each other. He was a special person, and his accomplishments – I don’t know if anybody will ever accomplish what he accomplished.”
The Cambria County Sports Hall of Fame (2020) and Pennsylvania Football Coaches Hall of Fame (2010) each inducted Bailey. He also received a Lifetime Contribution to Football Award during the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame Central Pennsylvania Chapter’s 20th annual banquet in 2017.
‘Sat in every seat’
In addition to his football record, Bailey held a much more important role as a teacher, principal, director of curriculum and superintendent at Forest Hills School District, where the new field house was named in his honor in September 2023.
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“He sat in every seat that the district ever needed filled,” Rearick said. “I remember sitting in his office whenever he was superintendent and he was laying out the plan for the new school.
“He had the plan to go from three schools (in the district) to two, and how they were going to be able to save money and build us a beautiful school that everybody could be proud of with the savings they had,” Rearick said. “He was so smart. I don’t know how many people recognize that. Everybody thinks of him for his football accomplishments.
“He set up the Forest Hills community for success in ways that many people don’t understand.”
Don Bailey is survived by his wife of 53 years, Diane, as well as sons Brandon (Heather) Bailey and Derek Bailey. There are five grandchildren. Charles O. Dimond Funeral Home, Inc. in South Fork is handling the arrangements.
