Remembering a Legend
The South Jersey sports world lost one of the giants of high school baseball with the passing last week of former Delran baseball coach Rich Bender at the age of 74.
Bender had one of the more remarkable careers in South Jersey history, one that went well beyond the wins and the losses—and there were plenty of W’s.
He compiled a 672-349 record at Delran. The Bears won the NJSIAA state Group 2 championship in 1983 and 1995. Delran also won five sectional titles and qualified for the state tournament in 41 of his 43 seasons.
What is more remarkable about that is that Bender started the Delran program the year the school opened for the 1975-76 school year.
There were few people who showed the enthusiasm for the game as much as Bender. He was a huge personality, but for Bender it was always about the youngsters.
“The only thing he loved more than the program was his family,” said Jim Goodwin, who replaced Bender as coach in the 2019 season and continues to guide the Bears.
Goodwin had such a unique perspective to what Bender was all about. Not only did Goodwin’s father play for Bender at Delran, but so did Goodwin, graduating in 2009. Goodwin, who used to attend Bender’s baseball camps as a youngster, also served as a Delran assistant coach before taking over as head coach.
Nobody was as great at manufacturing runs as Bender. If anybody played for Delran, they would have to know how to bunt, because Bender always emphasized the importance of moving runners over.
“He loved to bunt,” Goodwin recalled. “I was batting cleanup and was asked once to suicide squeeze (bunt) and everybody knew how to bunt on our team.”
Bender was also great for the media, never at a shortage of offering an interesting quote or two. He understood the media had a job, but also saw it as a way to promote his own program.
He helped build a passionate fan base for Delran baseball and always wanted the players to give their best effort for the fans. He was also keenly aware of history.
After Bender won his 499th career game, he anxiously awaited for the next home game to attempt to earn the milestone win in front of the Bears’ faithful.
The only problem was that mother nature wasn’t cooperating. It had rained for two days before the game and the field was simply a mess. That didn’t deter Bender.
“That day he wrote us passes for lunch and when we were done eating, we had to go on the field and rake it and get it ready to play,” Goodwin said. “He did that because the next three games we had were on the road and he didn’t want to win his 500th on the road.”
He won that 500th game and many more.
The only time this reporter saw Bender sad about talking baseball is when he resigned. Typical Bender, he called a press conference at Ott’s Tavern in Delran, and was emotional, but seemed relieved as well. He said he was experiencing some health issues and didn’t want to coach baseball when he couldn’t give 100 percent effort.
Bender was a history teacher for Delran for 34 years and then continued to coach baseball for nine seasons after that.
He is among the all-time great South Jersey coaches in any sport.
Those who got to play for him or even cover his games were truly fortunate to see one of the giants in coaching work at his craft. He will be sorely missed.
Photo: Rich Bender / Courtesy of DelranHSBaseball Twitter
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Author: Marc Narducci
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