THE FRONT ROW with JASON ELLIOTT May 7, 2011

From a boxer in high school to a legend of the game as a coach, not too many can compare to Norman "Norm" Everett Walker.

Born in the small town of Gem, just outside of Wallace, Walker became known as one of the greatest boxers in the Silver Valley by his teens and one of the top coaches in the state by the time of his retirement in 1989.

Walker, 83, passed away after a lengthy illness on Thursday at the Life Care Center in Post Falls, leaving behind a legacy and memory that won't be forgotten.

JOHN DRAGER was an assistant boys basketball coach with Walker in the early 1960s at Mullan High, helping the Tigers win the state A-4 boys basketball championship in 1965. The team was later named a Legend of the Game by the Idaho High School Activities Association in 2008.

Drager took over as head coach when Walker moved on to Wallace a few years later.

"We coached together for a few years and remained friends for over 50 to 60 years," Drager said. "He was a real good friend. Wallace lost a really great man."

Walker coached at Wallace for 25 years, won three Panhandle Conference titles and six titles in the A-2 Intermountain League. In 1972, Walker received the Outstanding High School Coach of the Year award from the Idaho High School Coaches Association. He was named coach of the decade in 1980.

"It was great to coach with him and then against him," Drager said. "We both wanted to win, but win or lose, we'd always meet at the Elks later that night and the next day, we'd talk again. We never didn't get along."

Drager added he'd only seen Walker speechless once in competition.

"We were getting ready for a big rivalry game in Mullan," Drager said. "Norm was so stern and just before the game started, the Mullan band director Ken Stroup came up to him and kissed him on the forehead and walked back across the floor. It took him until after the first quarter to get over it."

WALKER WAS inducted into the Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame in 1987 after a high school boxing career at Wallace High that left him looking for matches at times.

"Him and his brother Leonard were undefeated in high school," said James "Doc" Lynn, who along with Walker started the Wallace High Hall of Fame. "By the time they were seniors, they had more forfeits than matches."

In his senior year, Walker turned out for the basketball team instead.

"He was unbeaten in boxing in high school and one heck of a linebacker in football," Drager said. "But he always said he was the world's worst basketball player."

Walker then attended the University of Idaho in 1947 and completed his bachelor's degree at Idaho State. After serving in the Army from 1951 to 1953 during the Korean Conflict, he went on to teach P.E. and U.S. history at Mullan and Wallace and worked with Lynn at the Hecla Mining Company during the summer.

"I was four years younger than him and worked at a time when you could be 16 and work in the mines," Lynn said. "He was my straw boss and we worked together for three years. By the time he got back from the service, I was in dental school. I had a lot of good times with him."

Walker had entered coaching in 1965 when Lynn returned to the Silver Valley from dental school.

"He was a pretty good coach," Lynn said. "He gave advantages to a lot of kids that may not have stayed in school. He'd get them out for football. That was his best asset - he could get kids that didn't have much and got them to graduate."

WHILE TRAVELING to a football game in Bonners Ferry in the early 1980s, Walker had to use some quick thinking after all-league receiver Mike Pierce had forgotten his equipment at school.

"This poor kid's backup never got on the field since Mike was so good," former Wallace football assistant coach Nick Hoffman said. "As we were changing for our game, Mike realized that he had left all of his equipment at the high school and had nothing with him on the trip. Norm started calling the backup player's name over and over. This young man was so excited, thinking he was finally going to dress and be ready to play in the game. Norm just smiled and looked at him and said, 'Give Pierce your uniform.' Norm was never one to jeopardize our team's ability to field the best players."

HOFFMAN ALSO recalled a game with Sandpoint after a former Bulldog football coach had came out of retirement.

"I was coaching the defensive backs and talking with Norm, concerned we would not know what they might run against us," Hoffman said. "Norm pulled out a clean yellow pad and a black marker and stood behind our second-string offense and drew up a play for them to run, no notes, just from memory. He kept telling me that this coach always ran these same plays. Sure enough, when we played them in Sandpoint, the plays that Norm had drawn on that note pad were the plays we saw."

Those instructions went a long way on that night.

"They ran the goal line play we had practiced against and we stopped them twice inside the 5-yard line," Hoffman said. "Of course we won - Norm would not have had it any other way."

On vacation, Walker never failed to leave his sense of humor behind.

"He was a funny guy," Drager said. "We'd go to Vegas and play 21 and he'd always light up the tables with his personality. He had a great career, great life and was a great guy to be around."

"Whenever you went somewhere in Washington and Idaho and they found out you were from Wallace, everyone would ask if you knew Norm Walker," Lynn said. "Everyone knew him. The salesman from Kimmel always made Wallace and Mullan the last stops because they knew they weren't going to get out of town."

Drager and Walker remained close friends, vacationing and even sharing a morning cup of coffee together at a local cafe.

"Norm really started our little coffee group," Drager said. "There was always anywhere from 4 to 10 of us and we'd always sit and talk about the old days. He was a lot of fun to be around. He was a little crude at times - but everyone from Wallace was."

Crude - but one tough dude.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d'Alene Press. He can be reached via telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or by e-mail at jelliott@cdapress.com.