Man who helped build VWU sports dies
Something kept nudging Larry Ward to reach out to Don Forsyth, his former Virginia Wesleyan basketball coach, last week.
And he’s glad he did.
“We talked for about 15 minutes,” Ward said. “He asked me how my kids were and how I was doing.”
That was Forsyth. Always thinking about everybody else.
That’s why the news of Forsyth’s death the following day shocked Ward and many others. Forsyth was 84.
“He was always worried about everybody else,” said Ward, who played for Forsyth from 197678. “He put everyone in front of himself. That meant a lot to me.”
Hired in 1969, Forsyth was the first full-time employee at Virginia Wesleyan. He served as men’s basketball coach, golf coach and athletic director. He helped with the formation of the 14 varsity sports programs and guided the development of the athletic fields and gymnasium.
In men’s basketball, he led Virginia Wesleyan to two conference championships in 1978 and 1979, three NCAA berths, nine consecutive winning seasons and two 20-plus-win seasons.
He was named Dixie Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the Year three times and was National Association of Basketball Coaches South Atlantic Region Coach of the Year and won the Virginia Beach Sport Club Director’s award.
He retired in 1998 and moved to Reading, Pennsylvania, but he remained close to the school and the athletic department.
Forsyth also was instrumen
tal in guiding former players into coaching, including Ward and Mark Butts.
“He was one of the most influential men in my life,” said Butts, who retired last year after 23 years as boys basketball coach at First Colonial High in Virginia Beach. “Because of his influence, I chose to be a teacher and a basketball coach. He was a true gentleman, a coach, mentor and friend.”
Ward coached high school basketball for 25 years at Cape Henry, Nansemond-Suffolk and Norfolk Christian.
“We all coached and tried to do good by his teachings,” Ward said. “He was a tremendous mentor and friend who was very humble and kind to so many of us. I was blessed to have him in my life.”