Hasler loses battle with cancer -- Good friend calls him a gifted athlete, who loved family and county

Greene County Commissioner Larry Hasler passed away on Saturday. He was 68. [Click to enlarge]

He passed away at 11:41 a.m. Saturday at Greene County General Hospital in Linton.

He was 68.

Hasler, a Democrat, was elected three and a half years ago. He had filed for re-election to a second term in the upcoming May Primary Election .

Aside from his duties as a county commissioner, he served on the Greene County Drainage Board, the Greene County Solid Waste Management Board of Directors and the Greene County Hospital Board of Trustees.

He had been recovering at home following surgery Jan. 30 to remove a tumor from his brain.

Hasler was first hospitalized Jan. 28 at Greene County General Hospital after he became ill and collapsed prior to officiating a junior high basketball game at White River Valley-Lyons Elementary School. He was later transferred to Bloomington Hospital and then went to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis.

Just over a week ago, Hasler attended the hospital board meeting and last Tuesday, he was in attendance for the county commissioner's meeting.

Hasler was a gifted multi-sport athlete in his youth, a teacher, coach and athletic official.

Those who knew him called him a quiet, thoughtful man, who loved his family, his county and all kinds of sports.

One of Larry best friends, Tom Oliphant, says he has a lot of good memories of his days with "Hass".

"I've known Larry Hasler since I was six years old. Larry had a little brother named Dale, he and I were best buddies. Larry was six years older than me. He kind of watched out for us. We lived uptown in the big town Lyons," Oliphant recalled with a laugh.

Oliphant remembers Larry as being a very good high school athlete, who excelled on the basketball court.

"He scored over a 1,000 points at the old Lyons High School. Larry was one of those guys who got to play when he was a freshman -- so he had four years of varsity basketball. I was a little kid, but I always remember him as being very competitive in everything he did -- basketball, baseball, track or whatever," he said. "All around he was just a very good athlete."

Hasler once held the individual scoring record for the Switz City High School gym -- now White River Valley High School gymnasium.

After high school, he attended Butler University in Indianapolis and received his undergraduate degree in education. While at Butler, he was able to watch and learned from coaching legend Tony Hinkle.

He brought some of that knowledge to his own coaching career.

"He coached everything like many of us did back in the day," Oliphant said.

Larry was also one of the coaches for the Greene County Babe Ruth All-Stars to the state championship in 1964.

Hasler also coached basketball at the old Switz City High School 1967-70. His 1970 team won the coveted Wabash Valley Tournament.

From there, he was assistant coach at Linton-Stockton High with Tom Oliphant, Sr., Les Newman and others. He was also a head coach at Linton, but was a part of one of the most memorable seaons for the Miners.

Roger Weaver, of rural Switz City, recalled that in 1971 Linton only won three regular season games, but won the sectional.

Sitting on the bench for the Miners was Hasler and Weaver. Both had served as junior high coaches and were assistant varsity coaches.

Weaver and Hasler were friends.

"He encouraged me in my coaching career. I remember seeing him in high school play. He graduated in 1958 from Lyons. I saw probably every basketball game that he ever played." Weaver said. "He was a good athlete and a scorer."

In the mid-1980s, Hasler hooked up with Tom Olphant, Jr. as an assistant coach at the old L & M High School during the 'glory days' when the Braves made their good tournament run in the 1983-84 year going undefeated and falling in the regional final to Terre Haute South.

Oliphant remembered how South Coach Pat Rady asked to talk with his team after that loss. He told them to hard work all summer and things would turn out better for them the next season.

Hasler and Oliphant spent hours with the team in the gym over the summer months -- perfecting their skills.

The next year, the team came back and again won the sectional, won the regional and lost in the night game of the Evansville Semi-State to Southridge -- one game short of the state tournament.

Oliphant said Hasler and Bob Patterson coached and encouraged several of the younger players at L & M during the formative years leading up to those successful 1983 and 1984 squads.

"Larry was assistant coach, but my thought on that was he and I coached together. We both coached that team. I guess you could say we were co-coaches and that's the way I viewed it. He and together coached that team," Oliphant said. "He was so much help. He always had a Plan B. Larry always knew what Plan B should be. He was right many more times than he was wrong."

Oliphant continued, "Larry was a quiet kind of a guy. But he was very wise about the game of basketball and everything else that he was ever involved in. He might be talking about it to a lot of people. But he knew a lot about what he was doing -- whether it was coaching basketball or refereeing or involved in his business with the political office he held."

Oliphant said he will never forget the on-going friendly golfing challenge between competitors from the city of Linton and the town of Lyons.

The "Scalded Cat" golf traveling trophy was the reward of the yearly golfing outing that originated in 1985.

There are about 20 players on each team.

Larry organized the Lyons team and set up the foursomes.

Larry's team won last year.

"It was a heck of a lot of fun over the years. We really had some good times," Tom said.

Oliphant admits he lost a very good friend when Hasler passed away.

"He was a friend to a lot of people," Tom said with his voice cracking with emotion. "He served Greene County very well. He coached kids. He taught school and had a very definite effect on a lot of kids when they were growing up. He was a commissioner on the hospital board and a couple of other boards. He served the people of Greene County in many ways. A lot of people might not want to do those jobs, but Larry Hasler did. He was just one heck of a good guy. I know his family will miss him, but a lot of people in Greene County will miss him too."