Retired teacher at the top of his game
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By MARGARET REIST / Lincoln Journal Star
On Bob and Carlene Falos’ basement walls — above the rows of antique Wurlitzer jukeboxes radiating a soft neon glow — is evidence of what healthy living will get a guy.
There are medals there, and pictures and plaques that tell a story of a lifelong sports competitor. Football. Baseball. And, for the past decade and a half, basketball.
Hard work and drive have taken Bob Falos to Finland and Slovenia, to Chicago and Detroit, to Utah and Florida and Arizona.
It almost got him Geezer Jock of the Year, a title the national magazine bestowing the accolade actually renamed to Master Athlete of the Year, because editors didn’t think the term geezer accurately reflected the accomplishment being noted.
Case in point: Falos was nominated after winning the Most Valuable Player in the Master Basketball National Championship game in Coral Springs, Fla., in May. His team won, by the way, and Falos was asked to play in an all-American tournament in Italy, though he declined.
Did we mention he’s 74?
Or that on Wednesday mornings at 6 a.m., you can find him running up and down the basketball court at East High with a bunch of Lincoln Public Schools teachers and administrators at least 20 years his junior?
Or that all of this globetrotting basketball tournament stuff began when he retired after 35 years of teaching, 28 of them at LPS?
He’s excellent,” said John Matzke, a math teacher at Southeast who, some years ago (OK, like 30-some years ago) had Falos as a P.E. teacher at what was then Irving Junior High.
Now Matzke is among the players who show up at 6 a.m. at the East gym, which is why he knows his former teacher’s got a mean hook shot and has no trouble keeping up with the rest of the players.
“He can hold his own. We don’t give him any breaks just because he’s got a senior citizen card,” said Matzke, who went on to play high school and college ball before giving it up for a math classroom.
Falos got into the master athlete circuit when he was recruited by a couple of Lincoln men who played on a team made up of players from all over the U.S. called the Old Lawyers.
He started the first part of the season as a sub. After that he started every game.
The team won the Masters International Tournament in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 1997 and beat Russia for the title in Helsinki, Finland, in 2001. He’s played in national tournaments all over this country and his teams have claimed numerous titles.
He does it because he loves the game, of course. He’s been an athlete most of his life.
But playing as a retiree gives him a sense of satisfaction and pride, and he and his wife have met a lot of people through the master’s tournaments.
He’s suffered no major injuries, a fact that makes his wife happy.
“I thought at 70 we might stop,” said Carlene. “But he’s like an Energizer bunny.”
Falos calls his wife his worst critic and best coach. He got an MVP ring this spring, but at her suggestion it stays primarily in the box.
“She doesn’t let me get too caught up in all this stuff,” he said.
Carlene said she’s proud of her husband’s success but figures part of her job is to make sure he keeps it in perspective.
“That’s probably my primary goal, to keep him humble,” she said.
They share a devotion to fitness and healthy eating.
Every morning at 5 a.m. they go to Prairie Life Fitness Center, where they work out. Falos swims three days a week and plays basketball there regularly. He also plays once a week with a group at St. Mark’s Methodist Church. And on Wednesdays after he works out at Prairie Life, he goes to East.
“We’re kind of his cool-down,” said Matkze.
Falos said he figures if he wants to play, he’s got to stay in shape. Being in good physical condition also allows him to impart important wisdom and experience to his grandkids. Like how to do a belly flop on a sled down the ice-covered street on their circle.
“How are they going to learn to do that, if I don’t show them?”
As a kid growing up in Grand Forks, N.D., Falos played sports when he wasn’t flying down snowcovered hills on his belly.
The school gym didn’t have basketball hoops so he’d shoot into the tall wastebaskets.
“There was nothing else for us to do,” he said. “There was no TV, so we played sports.”
When he was 11, he organized a baseball team and convinced the owner of the local department store to sponsor it.
In high school he played on a basketball team that won the 1952 state championship. Lute Olson, who went on to become the legendary Arizona basketball coach, was a teammate.
He played basketball for a year at the University of North Dakota, before being drafted. In the Army, he played basketball and baseball.
Once he got out of the Army, he went back to the University of North Dakota, where he was catcher on the baseball team and quarterback on the football team.
“Always where the action is,” he said.
On his basement wall is a plaque of the 1958 football team, which won the North Central Conference championship and was inducted last year into the university’s Hall of Fame.
After graduating from the university in 1959 with degrees in history and physical education, he began his teaching and coaching career at high schools in Minnesota and California. In 1966, he and his first wife and two kids moved to Nebraska, where his brother lived.
He taught elementary P.E. at Havelock, Bethany and later Morley, and coached football at Lincoln High School and football and basketball at East.
He got divorced and a few years later met Carlene, who was teaching at Bethany Elementary. They married and raised his children from his first marriage.
In 1972 he became the P.E. teacher at Irving Junior High, and officiated high school football and basketball in his free time.
He got back on the courts as a player when he retired. When he’s not on the basketball court, he reads and paints and collects antiques to refurbish. That, and buys old Wurlitzers.
People tell him he doesn’t look 74. He tells them he doesn’t feel 74, though he’s not exactly sure how it’s supposed to feel because he’s never been there before.
He knows this, though. He’ll keep playing basketball as long as he’s able.
“When I don’t think I can contribute on the floor, then I’ll quit.”
Reach Margaret Reist at 473-7226 or mreist@journalstar.com.
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