Rich Township coach, educator and longtime high school athletic director George Egofske is being remembered as a trailblazer in high school sports. Egofske died Jan. 15 at age 93, according to his family. His son, Lemont Mayor John Egofske, recalled his father as a positive, competitive force who “always wanted the best out of people.” “He did it in a very passionate way,” he said. “He was always one of a kind.” Egofske was born in 1931 as the third of five children. When he was about 5, George Egofske’s father, who was a machinist for meat processing company Swift and Co., moved the family from Chicago to Oak Forest. As World War II ended, he attended Thornton High School, where he played football. “I was always a competitor,” George Egofske previously told the Daily Southtown. “I wanted to be in first place all the time.” He studied education at Illinois State University, becoming the first member of his family to pursue a college degree. While at ISU, Egofske wrestled and was captain of the football team when his first wife, Josephine Egofske, was homecoming queen, George Egofske previously told the Southtown. She died of cancer in 1987. After he graduated in 1953, Egofske was drafted into the U.S. Army during the Korean War and served two years at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. John Egofske said his father won an all-Army wrestling championship. He obtained his master’s degree as a football graduate assistant at ISU in 1956. Egofske coached at Central Catholic High School in Bloomington, launching a successful career in athletics, his son said. He coached in Bloomington for two seasons before he was hired at Rich East High School in Park Forest in 1958, just six years after the school opened. Egofske, who coached the wrestling team, took over football head coaching for the 1959-1960 season and was head coach through the 1971-1972 season. Under his leadership, the  football team recorded four undefeated seasons between 1961 and 1967. He coached several players who went on to play professional football including Larry McCarren, who played center for the Green Bay Packers for 12 seasons. A newspaper clipping from 1959 reported that George Egofske was about to begin his first season as head coach of the varsity football team at then-named Rich Township High School in Park Forest, later called Rich East. (Ted Slowik/Daily Southtown) After Rich South High School opened in 1972, Egofske transferred to become an administrator there, where he was the division chair of athletics, health education, driver education, physical education and special education, John Egofske said. “His famous thing was going down the hallways and slapping people on the shoulder, saying, ‘hey, fire up,'” John Egofske remembered. “He was just high energy and just loved life and always exuded that to not just the athletes but the students as well.” As an athletic administrator, he pioneered and started long-standing sports tournaments, and helped create athletic conferences and educational programs, his son said. He launched the Big Dipper Holiday Basketball Tournament at Rich South in 1973 and was the first to introduce the shot clock and 3-point play into high school basketball years before it became adopted at the state level. “He went to the state and said, ‘hey, I want to try a 3-point play just for the tournament,'” John Egofske said. “And that was a big deal. They had to sanction it. And they only sanctioned it for the tournament. He was using stuff way before it was ever permanently put into play at the state level.” “I always said, if he wasn’t in education, he would have been just a marketing genius,” Egofske added. As athletic director, Egofske said his father was a key advocate in rolling out girls athletics, including winning the first Illinois softball championship in 1976. Egofske was inducted into the Illinois State Athletics Percy Family Hall of Fame in 1979. He was also inducted into the Illinois Athletic Directors Association Hall of Fame in 1999, according to the association’s website. “His passion for athletics and the important role he felt it played in young people’s lives was evident during any conversation with his colleagues,” the association wrote. Egofske was program chairman, assistant chairman and speaker at multiple state and national conferences for the association. However, officials said he is best remembered for creating the awards format for honoring Class A & AA athletic directors of the year and chaired the Illinois Athletic Directors Association awards committee for nine years. John Egofske said his father married Elizabeth Martin when they were both in their early 70s. Both widowed in the late 1980s, they formed a connection and married 15 years later. Martin died in 2020 at 90 years old, according to her obituary. After Rich Township High School District 227 voted to close Rich East High School in 2019, George Egofske spoke with the Daily Southtown about his time at the school, sharing stories that highlighted the deep emotional impact of closing a high school that served the community for generations. In October, Egofske published an autobiography on his life called “Not Good, Not Great, But Fantastic.” In the book’s dedication, Egofske honored the students, athletes, teachers, coaches and faculty he worked with. “I love you all! You all have made everyone not good, not great, but fantastic!” he wrote. The family will receive friends at Kurtz Memorial Chapel, 102 E. Francis Road, in New Lenox, from 3-8 p.m. on Jan. 22, according to Egofske’s obituary. Funeral services will be at 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 23, starting with prayers at the funeral home and followed at 11 a.m. by a Mass of Christian Burial at St. Jude Catholic Church, 241 W. Second Ave., New Lenox. The family is holding a private burial on Jan. 24 at St. Mary’s Catholic Cemetery in Bloomington. [email protected]