San Antonio Express from San Antonio, Texas • Page 114

PAGI 22 THE SAN ANTONIO 29, 1974 HALF BUND ACE FACES TOUCH FICHT By PETER BODO PHILADELPHIA Heather Ashbee, 13, was in the kitchen pouring a Coke. Her brother Danny, 10, was at the door bringing friends in. The television was turned to the furious playoff game between the Rangers and Flyers, but neither child saw the wicked slapshot that sent their father sprawling on the ice in agony, before 20,000 rabid spectators at Madison Square Garden. better that they reflects Barry Ashbee, who will never play another game of hockey because he has lost almost all vision in his left eye. I found out I would never play again, I had a little talk with them and they understood.

They took it very Almost as well as Ashbee himself, the top Flyer defenseman, an all-star and full- out competitor who was erased from the Stanley Cup picture at the very brink of Philadelphia's historic victory. know I can never play says Barry, I don't fool myself. 35 now, so you figure got another 35 years to go and I would like to make the best of them in or out of Ashbee is an assistant with the Flyers now, coaching defensemen. The team, he insists, has been terrific. The guys have accepted him as a coach when just a year ago he was just another paystub.

They come to him for advice, and treat him like a man, without mooning over the past. But heart may not be in coaching and he has dis- BARRY Ashbee coaching CLUTCHING head in pain, Barry Ashbee lies on Madison Square Garden ice after blow from puck during a Stanley Cup hockey game. 15 years, hockey was everything to met covered that despite the number of coaches who were former players, it is a different job with different demands. told the Flyers I would take the coaching iob for one year, then tell them how I felt about explains Ashbee. made it clear that I just want to have a charity job.

I really think cut out for coaching. guy like Fred Shero. a born coach. He loves it and spends all his time at it. a situation similar to playing.

It has to be in your blood. You have to love it and live it. Strenuous 15 years, hockey was everything to me. I need the feeling I had then, which I nave now. 1 don't really feel as involved as a coach, and 1 felt I was helping more as a player.

miss the strenuous physical work when after a game, you feel like done something. very happy when we win. 1 love the team, but a different feeling altogether and I just know how to explain One anecdote explains the kind ot mental conflict that still works within Ashbee. as long as there is a pair of skates near him. His worst moment, worse than the blinding flash of pain when he was hit by Dale slapper and worse than the day he got the news that he couldn't play again, came when he showed up at the pre-season camp in Canada as a rookie coach.

Barry says, the bad part I showed up at camp with the rest of the team. guys put their un- itorms on and went out onto the ice to skate. It was like that for a lew days, the team skating and me hanging around. 1 didn't have very much to do." Yet. Ashbee is a tough man.

a man who is actually on his third hockey life. Fight years ago. he had to undergo a pamtul spinal fusion, before which he had been told that he would probably never play again. He survived to become a key to the expansionist coup the Flyers pulled last year. He knows he ill survive this too He was offered a tew hockey jobs during the season.

but decided to stick with Philadelphia to see how the cards turned up. He is. by his own admission. set for life. Always a man of simple tastes.

Ashbee is well sei. with real estate interests and a few other business ventures. Busy won become a millionaire," he laughs, then I never wanted to be one." His coaching job keeps Ashbee plenty busy, traveling with the team, directing at practice and coaching at games. He now puts on his suit before every practice and skates with the team, a special shatterproof pair of glasses protecting his face. He even gets to play when someone is injured and the Flyers need another body on a practice line.

But he still feels like the odd man out. and with each push of the skate he is reminded of how different it was just a year ago. There is only 15 percent vision in his left eye, and his depth perception is bad. What his accident has taught him is to value the good eye he has on the other side of his nose. Driving down a Philadelphia street recently, the ash from his cigar flew into good eye.

Automatically he moved to rub the ashes out, without realizing that his bad eye was unreliable. He hit a parked car. Fortunately, he wasn't going fast. getting used to it, though, and I really value what I have." he explains. anything, my accident made me realize how many good people there are in this world I got about eight letters when I was in the hospital offering me an eye." The letters came from Canada, but from Omaha.

Nebraska and Florida as well. Adjusted Barry turned all the offers down, but does like to remind people that donating to the eye bank is a humane gesture that could help an awful lot ot people. But Barry doesn't figure he's one of them. He has adjusted and is learning how to live with his livelihood pulled out from under him and he isn't afraid to step away from hockey. You might say he has 20-20 vision.

Coryell credits his family By MIKE EVANS ST. LOUIS Don Coryell, leading candidate for Coach of the Year honors in the National Football Conference, credits his success with the St. Louis Cardinals this season to his understanding, devoted family. "My wife, Aliisa, my son Mike and my daughter Mindy are the greatest thing that ever happened to me," said Coryell. "Football is a rough way to go for a family man.

I never would have stayed in this game without them." The coach guided the surprising Cards into the NFL playoffs for the first time since the club moved to St. Louis in 1960. "This is the first time ever talked to the press about my family," Coryell told the Star. "We keep our life very private. are what some would call the perfect family.

We do everything together without the press, fanfare or people even knowing who we are." Sleeping Coryell has hardly had time to do anything with his wife and two kids this season. He spends two nights a week sleeping in his office at Busch Stadium going over and O's late into the night. He had a day off since July 14, and the hard work has paid off tor the resurgent Cardinals. The family, meanwhile, kept busy with their own interests, waiting for the day when they can be reunited with Don. "On Sunday when home, I go to the game by myself, but afterwards I join my family and we have a Sunday dinner.

don't believe in these parties some clubs have. I want to get home where I belong. the season Aliisa is busy taking care of things around the house, Mike is the captain of his high school football team and Mindy keeps up with all the new rock singers. take a month off in June and go camping in the middle of no where. can't tell you how lucky a man I am.

I thank God my family understands me and my job. It's easier for my family this year, now that winning. "But even when everyone was on the team because we were losing, I always got love and understanding at home. that I never would have stayed with this game. With my family at my side, never leave football." PUZZLE SOLUTION (Crossword on Pago 18.