Former players, students, and friends are remembering a longtime Galesburg junior high school teacher and coach regarded by many as of the face of Lombard Junior High School.
Phil Erickson, a Galesburg native who taught thousands of students and coached hundreds of athletes during a 43-year career as an educator, died at 4:04 p.m. Monday, Nov. 7 at OSF St. Mary Medical Center, Galesburg. He was 83.
Erickson was a teacher and a coach at Lombard Junior High School for 43 years before retiring in 2004. Lombard named its gymnasium Erickson Gym after the former coach on May 15, 2015.
“When I think of Lombard, I think of Phil Erickson,” said former Silver Streaks basketball standout Joey Range, who played 8th-grade basketball for the Zephyrs in the early 1990s. “If you say Lombard, that’s who I see in my head. Whether you were a basketball player or just any student, everyone knew Mr. Erickson.”
Obituary: Philip R. Erickson – Sept. 9, 1939 ~ Nov. 7, 2022
Erickson graduated from Galesburg High School in 1957 and later graduated from Knox College in 1961. He served in the United States Army from 1962 to 1964 and was a tank commander stationed in Korea.
Erickson left his mark on baseball, too
While many remember Erickson roaming the sidelines as the eighth-grade coach of the Lombard Zephyrs boys basketball team, he also was a longtime youth baseball coach in Galesburg.
“I first met Phil when I was 8 years old in 1965,” said Eric Doss, who went on to play basketball for Erickson at Lombard in 1972-73. “He ran Farm League baseball at the time, and he let me play as an 8-year-old on the Indians. I was technically too young, but I would hang around and help him, and he would let me pitch.
“He was always positive and motivated people. Just a fun guy to be around.”
A 1976 Galesburg graduate and a key player on the Streaks’ Elite 8 basketball team of 1975-76, Doss has vivid memories of playing basketball for Erickson.
“He always liked to press, and he had names for them,” said Doss, who resides in suburban Chicago where he’s a director of distribution for a global distribution company in the health science industry. “I remember ‘the bullet,’ which was a 1-2-1-1 press.
“And I remember having to face some big free throws one time, and he was like Gene Hackman in the movie Hoosiers. He would aways say, ‘After Eric makes these free throws, we’re going to go into the press.’
“He was just a true treasure for Galesburg.”
Erickson squared off against Coach Bob Morgan for many years in the legendary Lombard-Churchill rivalry. Steve Cheesman later took over for Morgan and was an opposing coach against Erickson.
“I actually played against Phil’s teams in junior high baseball and basketball, then coached against him in basketball,” Cheesman said. “I played for Dom’s Sporting Goods, and Phil coached A&W, and we faced each other in the championship game in Babe Ruth baseball.
“Phil was a great competitor. He was very much a competitor. But away from the field or the court, he was always very personable.”
Erickson was inducted into the Galesburg Athletic Hall of Fame in 2008.
‘You can be a millionaire with a basketball’
Range laughed when he recalls how his days of playing football came to an end.
“Going into my seventh grade year, I was trying to decide if I wanted to continue playing football,” Range said. “He pulled me into the classroom and said, ‘Joey, I know you like football, but you can be a millionaire with a basketball.’
“And I stopped playing football because of Coach Erickson.”
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Range described Erickson as “honest, caring, inspiring and uplifting.
“Mr. Erickson was always a supporter of me, long after I left Lombard. He always checked on me, always asked how my kids were doing, asked how life was. Every time I would see him, he had a smile on his face. He was a happy man.”
Range paused, and added, “This is a tough loss for a lot of people. My phone has been blowing up with friends reaching out about Mr. Erickson.”
Would-be Blue Streak turned Zephyr
One former Zephyr went to great lengths to ensure his son would play for Erickson from 1987-90. Joe Steck lived in a Galesburg neighborhood that should have seen his son Shad attend Churchill, but the family used an alternate address to enroll their boy at Lombard.
“We used my grandparents’ address because it was that important to my father that I play for Phil,” said Shad Steck, longtime Galesburg High School varsity assistant baseball coach. “My father had played for him when he was at Lombard and knew that the lessons he had learned at an early age from Coach Erickson would be instilled in me as well.
“Playing for Coach Erickson, and the lessons he taught on the court and off, are things that I have taken with me and used as I raised my two sons, Tyler and Easton. Wins and losses were important to him. But not nearly as important as teaching his athletes and students to be good human beings.”
Another Zephyrs great says he wasn’t so great when he first came to Lombard in 1977.
“I really wasn’t a good basketball player until I got with Coach Erickson. I was terrible,” said Clay Britton, who went on to be all-stater for the Silver Streaks in 1979-80. “I didn’t get much playing time growing up at Carver Center, but Coach Erickson started playing me.
“He always stressed, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. I’ve been thinking about him a lot the last few days. All the drills he taught us and just his overall approach. He had a family approach to coaching, and I always respected that.”
Like other former Zephyrs, Britton noted Erickson’s lifelong allegiance to Lombard.
“There was a real pride playing for Lombard and Coach Erickson,” said Britton, who served 24 years in the Army and now lives in Savannah, Georgia. “I have many memories of playing in that old, cold gym under Mr. Erickson. I’m all about Lombard, because that’s where it all began for me.”
‘He liked nothing more than to beat Churchill’
And Britton said the Lombard-Churchill rivalry was real.
“Coach liked nothing more than to beat Churchill,” Britton said. “Every time I would be back in town and see Coach Erickson, he would always say, ‘We beat Churchill twice, Clay.’ He was proud of that.”
Shad Steck believes Erickson ranks with John Thiel, and brothers Bob and Bill Morgan among Galesburg’s Mt. Rushmore of basketball coaches.
“They all were successful and meant so much to the success of Galesburg basketball,” Steck said.
“It would be awesome to see the signs for Morgan Gym (at Churchill) and Erickson Gym be moved into Thiel Gymnasium somehow so that their names are always there and those of us that were lucky to play for them can tell the younger generations how great they were.”
Erickson is survived by his wife Terri, who — as I and anyone who ran into Erickson around Galesburg’s many local eateries can attest — was always by his side. Also surviving are two sons, Scott (and Carrie) Erickson of Knoxville and Lance (and Erika) Erickson of Washington, D.C., four grandchildren, a great granddaughter and several nieces and nephews.
Visitation for Phil Erickson will be 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13 at Faith United Methodist Church. Funeral service will follow at 3 p.m. at the church. Memorials may be made to Faith United Methodist Church or Wounded Warriors Project.
