• 2017

Teaching and coaching have been lifelong pursuits of Anspach, who spent 26 years, until his retirement in 1991, doing both at Cuyahoga Falls High School. He was hired at Cuyahoga Falls in the summer of 1965 to teach American history and be an assistant football coach.

Three years later, Anspach became an assistant to head baseball coach Dick Shine, and when Shine passed away in 1970, Anspach took his place as head coach. During his tenure with the Black Tigers, Anspach’s teams compiled a 412-214 record and won one regional title (in 1990), two district tourneys and several sectionals. In 1985, he was inducted into the Ohio High School Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame.

Anspach’s involvement in baseball began in when he was 12 and played for the local Kiwanis team in Ada, Ohio, where he grew up. He played American Legion ball and was a pitcher/first baseman at Ada High School. Anspach continued to play for four years at Ohio Northern University and worked part time at Wilson Sporting Goods, stringing first basemen’s mitts and turning footballs. Today, past 80, he is actively involved in baseball, helping to coordinate the Cuyahoga Falls Parks and Recreation summer program, a task he has undertaken for 47 years.