Sad news for the basketball community in this town: Glenn Parrish is with us no longer. Parrish, who won 414 games in 34 seasons at Concordia, died Wednesday from complications related to diabetes. He was 74.

With him goes a piece of the glory days of hoops in this town, when Parrish was stalking the sidelines at Concordia (and no one could stalk a sideline better), By Hey was giving the refs what-for at North Side, Don Reichert was coaching Willie Long at South and Will Doehrman was coaching Rosie Barnes and Al Gooden at Wayne. Throw in Bob Dille, who coached the city's last single-class boys state champ at Northrop in 1974, and you had quite a cast of characters going at it on winter nights in the city.

Parrish's big claim to fame was his longevity and the fact that he coached Eugene Parker, one of the two or three best players ever to come out of Fort Wayne. He was also a splendid piece of work -- a blunt, curmudgeonly guy who was, as we say in our business, good copy. And I for one always suspected there was a good heart beating under that crusty exterior of his.

Rest well, Coach. You've earned your reward and then some.