Former Anderson football coach and longtime educator Robert “Bob” Reid died on Sunday, Nov. 16.
Reid coached the Cubs from 1970-99 and built the program into a powerhouse, winning four Northern Section titles and 13 Northern Athletic League championships throughout his coaching tenure.
Reid, a member of the Shasta County Hall of Fame, holds the record for most wins by a coach in NSCIF history and led the Cubs to seven undefeated seasons.
He earned NSCIF Coach of the Year three times and was selected as the Cal-Hi State football Coach of the Year for medium schools in 1995 and the All-Superior California football Coach of the Year for large schools in 1986.
Following Reid’s retirement from coaching, the Anderson community memorialized his iconic career by making him the namesake of the school’s football stadium.
There might not be a more iconic figure in Redding-area sports history. He set the foundation for what a successful coach looks like; he showed the community what a successful program looks like.
“He laid the foundation. He established the way to do things, how to coach and the way to reach kids,” current Anderson football coach PJ O’Connell said. “That foundation that he laid, and the legacy that he left, I just want to be able to do right by him.”
When O’Connell accepted the position to lead the Big Blue earlier this year, Reid played a big role in getting O’Connell prepared for his first high school coaching job.
The pair met for lunch to discuss football, family and life in general, and the legendary coach even shared some of his old plays with O’Connell. Yet, it was a 45-minute conversation stemming from a chance encounter in a Costco parking lot that stands out to O’Connell.
“Just in those 45 minutes, we talked about life, he talked about being a father, he talked about what it is to be a good husband, how to be a good friend,” O’Connell said. “I walked away feeling like I have more tools, not only to be a good football coach, but to be a good husband and a good father.”
It wasn’t just Reid’s impact on athletics that made him so successful. It was his unique approach to building relationships both on and off the field that Reid impacted the lives of hundreds of students.
“I have been involved in long counseling sessions, angry eruptions, yelling tirades, and actions that stopped just short of murder,” Reid wrote in a column published in the Record Searchlight in 1998. “I have also observed great creativity, sudden maturity, keen insight, wonderful achievement and vast improvements in my personal relationships.”
He could even remember the names of every football player who played for him during his three-decade reign.
Along with coaching the football team, Reid was a teacher at Anderson from 1964-98.
Brian Parker, the superintendent for the Anderson Union High School District, knew Reid when Parker was a student at Anderson, and the two also worked as colleagues when Parker came back to work for the school after college.
“Kids loved him; kids wanted to be in his class,” Parker said. “He was very passionate about teaching. People think of him just as a coach, but he was a great teacher too.”
As a high school student, Parker took a local history course taught by Reid. Parker said that class was a popular elective amongst students at the time, and it helped shape the way Parker learned about his own community.
“It was one of my favorite classes I took in high school,” Parker said. “He just had a way to bring the curriculum into your life. It was relevant to you because the things we talked about were local. It was just a really cool class.”
Reid, with a background in psychology, was also known for his ability to hypnotize people and perform mind tricks.
“He had a kid sitting up front in a folding chair, and he would have four big guys try to pick him up, and they couldn’t do it,” Parker said. “And then he did something where the kids would put just their fingers on each corner of the chair, just their index finger and their middle finger, and they were able to pick him up.”
It was a mystery for those who witnessed it first-hand, and something people could add to the legend behind the man.
“I don’t know if it was mind control or if he hypnotized them,” Parker said. “I don’t know how he did it; he was just an amazing man.”
For Lon McCasland, a former football coach at Shasta High and co-founder of the Nor-Cal Retired Coaches’ Association, Reid’s understanding of the mind contributed to his success as a coach.
“He would get into people’s heads and understand how they worked and was able to help them become better people because of it,” McCasland said.
He didn’t just coach, he taught. It’s what made him such a unique coach.
“Bob was just a really good coach and good person,” McCasland said. “He was a great teacher on top of that. That’s what makes a good coach, to teach as best you can.”
Reid brought his teaching philosophy into coaching, and it led to three decades of dominance for the Big Blue.
“He taught techniques to fit the kids, not the other way around,” McCasland said. “A lot of coaches get caught up with systems. He had his own system, but it was built around necessity and the talent he had.”
Reid will forever be known as one of the greatest football coaches the North State has ever seen, but his legacy extends far beyond his coaching career.
“He’s a local legend,” Parker said. “You won’t find anybody in the community who doesn’t like Bob Reid.”
Brett Abrams is a sports reporter for the Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. He covers high school and local sports in the Redding area. Reach out to Brett with any sports tips or news on X (formerly Twitter) @brabrams_ or by email at Brett.Abrams@Redding.com. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today. Thank you.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Former Anderson football coach, longtime educator Bob Reid dies at age 87
Reporting by Brett Abrams, Redding Record Searchlight / Redding Record Searchlight
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