When he was a young man, his friends called him “Dee;” during his 22 years as a resident of Newtown, the young and old alike referred to him as “Coach;” and when Harold S. DeGroat left Newtown in 1966, and later passed away at the age of 80 in 1973, he was simply called a legend.

Nobody before DeGroat, or ever after him, did more for recreation and athletics for the young people of Newtown. And nobody was more loved and respected.

DeGroat happened upon Newtown in 1944 when he was transferred in from Springfield College - where he was the director of athletics - to head up the physical education department for a new regional school for Southbury, Middlebury, and Newtown. The school was never built, and DeGroat ended up at Hawley High.

There, DeGroat became the town’s first physical education instructor where he made PE an every-day part of the curriculum. His motto was: “a strong mind should be supplemented by a strong body,” and he made sure the administration knew that physical education was as important as science or math or social studies. DeGroat ran the boys’ PE and Ann Anderson, who also started at the school in 1944, ran the girls’ PE classes.

DeGroat coached the Newtown High School six-man football team, the basketball team, and the baseball team for 15 years until Bob Sveda took over the NHS PE department in 1959. At that time, DeGroat went down to run the elementary school PE, but remained coach of the NHS baseball team.

Ken Smith, a 1960 graduate, played baseball for DeGroat’s team.

“He was a very dedicated guy,” Smith said, “He really loved the kids and worked hard with them. Winning and losing wasn’t a big thing with Coach DeGroat. He was very big on learning the fundamentals. He’d tell you things like how many square inches of the bat you needed to make contact with the ball. Little things like that I remember most about him.”

While DeGroat put a lot of time into coaching the school’s top athletes on the NHS sports teams, he enjoyed working with all of the students regardless of their athletic ability. He stressed participation and self-improvement and always said that he strived to accomplish three things: that the students learn at least one more thing about the activity that they are involved in, that they exercise their muscles, and that they have fun.

During the school year DeGroat would keep detailed charts of each students scores in a variety of fitness tests. The results were frequently posted so that they could follow their improvements, and the scores were included on the report cards.

He also ran enormous Gym Shows, which included elementary school students and quickly became very popular in town.

“Those gym shows were amazing,” remembers Sveda. “Every kid would participate whether they did square dancing, or skipped rope, or tumbled. It was like a three-ring circus. The important thing was that everybody who wanted to be in it was in it. Participation was his big thing.”

Away from school DeGroat would organize ski trips and excursions to West Point and the Yale Bowl. He became involved with the Cub Scouts and the Rotary Club, began a ROMP recreation program, and then started an organization called the Teen Canteen - a social club that would meet on Friday nights at the Town Hall. He was also responsible for the town’s first playgrounds.

For all of his innovation, DeGroat’s physical education program was featured in a 1957 issue of Sports Illustrated where it was rated as one of the finest in the country.

An excerpt from the article read; “They [the children] idolize DeGroat . . . and each youngster works hard to increase his proficiency . . . The childrens’ enthusiasm for DeGroat and his program is shared by the adults in Newtown . . . He holds a place as a beloved and well-known member of the community enjoyed by few men in his position. Everywhere he goes, he is greeted affectionately.”

In 1963, DeGroat retired from teaching and became the town’s first Parks and Recreation Director. The NHS class of 63’ dedicated its yearbook to Coach DeGroat and in the inscription wrote; “We who are personally acquainted with the character and the accomplishments of Coach DeGroat hardly know what to emphasize in a career which has been so vital in its contributions to human beings . . . Coach always maintained that the task of every educational leader is to incorporate his teachings in such a way as to develop a whole person - strong in body, sound in mind, and kind in heart.”

“Harold was a super guy,” Sveda said. “He helped me with PE a lot. I was new and just out of college. I’ll never forget, he use to tell me ‘all the learnin ain’t in books.’ And he was right on that one. He just did so much for the young people of Newtown. He was involved with just about everything that went on. He did just about everything that you could imagine.”

DeGroat’s work did not go unnoticed. He was honored by the townspeople continuously right up until the day he left town when Newtown First Selectman, Carl Schutz, signed a proclamation officially declaring May 5, 1966 as Coach Harold S. DeGroat Day.

Before he retired to North Carolina to live with his oldest son, Eric, DeGroat was honored by 300 people at a dinner held in his honor. Newtown High School also began a scholarship in his name, The Harold S. DeGroat Award, still given today to the school’s top male athlete.

Over the years there has been talk of naming a Newtown ballfield or even a school after him.

“I don’t think there was a kid who grew up in Newtown, during that era, who wasn’t influenced by Coach in some way, shape, or form,” said former NHS principal Earl Smith.