Former Eastern wrestling coach Ralph McCausland got a phone call last week from Dennis McCormick.

McCormick told him Ron Clinton, another former Eastern coach, was in failing health.

McCormick and his wife Marcia cared for Clinton during the last two years of his life. Clinton died Thursday at the age of 69.

McCausland said he was grateful to see his former coach one last time.

“The older I get, those things are more meaningful,” he said. “When you’re younger, you think about it a little bit. Those chances, you don’t want to have any ‘I wish I should have.’ I’m glad I went. We got to spend the entire day with him and his family.”

McCausland was in Clinton’s first recruiting class in the late 1970s. McCausland was a NCAA Division II National Champion at 142 pounds in 1978 and led the Panthers to a national runner-up finish as a senior.

“He took a chance on me and many other guys that wrestled,” McCausland said about Clinton. “I didn’t consider myself the blue-chip recruit. I had the work ethic. I had the drive. He was the coach that could read into that very well.”

McCausland said Clinton was a dynamic coach and had an innate ability to get whatever he could draw from his team. He said Clinton invested himself in his wrestlers and in his team.

“It just created an atmosphere where you wanted to give,” McCausland said. “He gave us such a positive direction to go from.”

McCausland said he and Clinton were similar as coaches because they were both quiet and reserved. But that’s where the similarities ended for the most part. McCausland said he was more of a physical coach when he took charge of Eastern’s wrestling team in 1984. He said Clinton was more of a technical coach.

“We were in that time at the early 70s, and we hit the weight room real hard,” McCausland said about his time wrestling at Eastern. “That wasn’t heard of. He didn’t care if we hit the weight room or not.”

Clinton coached the Panthers from 1975-83 before moving on to a coaching position at Illinois. In his time at Eastern, the Panthers’ wrestling team were Division II national runners-up in 1979 and 1981, and Clinton coached six individual NCAA Division II champions and 45 All-Americans. Clinton was an NCAA Division I champion himself as a wrestler at Oklahoma State in 1962. He also was an Olympic alternate for the 1964 Olympics.

McCausland said he formed a close bond with Clinton first as a wrestler-coach and then as colleagues. He said that happened because of the experiences the two shared in their time together at Eastern.

“During my duration we went undefeated for three years,” McCausland said. “We lost the national championship by one-quarter of a point. There’s like a family bond that forms. With the wake and the funeral, that bond really showed through with everybody coming back.”

Scott Richey can be reached at 581-7944 or at srrichey@eiu.edu.