THEODORE OHASHI's Obituary
Theodore “Ted” Ohashi - June 22, 1911 ' October 30, 2006 Last Year, Ted was hoping the Bears would make it to the Rose Bowl, and he was still enjoying watching Cal basketball on TV. Seventy-five years earlier, in 1931, Ted had received his letters for basketball and won the Gold Basketball award for the Pacific Conference championship. Ted was a starter when the renovated Harmon Gym opened in 1933, and he was honored in 1997 when it was renamed Haas Pavilion. His interest in sports, especially swimming and basketball, continued after he met his wife Kay in the Rohwer relocation camp. Right after the war, Ted joined the YMCA in Saint Louis, where he coached in the competitive swimming program, which in 1947-48 won the Men’s Swim Championship of the Ozark (Missouri) association of the A.A.U. In 1948 Ted and Kay returned to California, where he continued his work with the YMCA in LA. Three years later, they moved back to the Bay Area, where he began as physical director at the Central YMCA in Oakland. He served as adult division and assistant executive director before being promoted in 1959 to the branch’s top staff position, executive director. During this time, he was chairman of the Pacific AAU Volleyball Committee and Northern Californian president of both the association of Y Secretaries and the Y Physical Education Society Chapter. Ted was again promoted, this time to Assistant General Secretary. He retired from the Y in 1975. He then worked as a purchaser for the Berkeley Unified School District until 1978. In his youth, he was an Eagle Scout and later at UC Berkeley became the first Japanese-American to play on the varsity basketball team of a major university. Dozens of trophies are reminders of the days when he was active in sports. A newspaper article of January 11, 1932 reports one of Ted’s most spectacular shots in a game against the Bruins: with ten seconds to go, “Ohashi, taking the ball, shot from almost mid-court, to sink two points that tied the score.” In those days, without three-pointers, that meant overtime, which Cal won in dramatic fashion. Ted was elected a member of the Order of the Golden Bear and later as an alumnus served on the Board of Directors of the 'Big C' society. In 1990, he was inducted in the Stockton Athletic Hall of fame. The Japanese National Volleyball Association gave him an appreciation dinner in Japan in 1959. But his proudest achievements came as a coach and mentor. He often told of how rewarding it was that many of his students received swimming scholarships to college, where they succeeded beyond expectation, and some went on to become coaches and teachers themselves. Ted is survived by Kay, his wife of 63 years, his sister Hannah Miyahara, three daughters Charlotte, Carol, and Patricia, and a son Ted., eight grand children and six great-grand children. He was especially happy to see Ted and Vickie's baby son, Wade, in the last year of his life. A memorial service will be held on November 20, at 1pm, in the Julia Morgan Chapel, at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Avenue in Oakland.
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