TimJ
Well-known member
Sorry this is going to be long.
You might remember me posting last winter about stuff I had and wished I had. Some of the stuff I wished I had belonged to a gentleman who was a long time coach and teacher in my home town. He had been diagnosed with cancer at that time and on Thursday he passed away.
For most in my age range he was 'Coach'. He was always Mr. Coplan to me, even in my 40s I felt strange calling him by his first name. I never played football and knew him before I ever had him as a teacher. My mom worked at a greenhouse he and his wife owned and my dad duck hunted with him a couple times a year.
He was a serious crow hunter. The couple times I went with him we had trouble with educated crows. I think we shot one or two and that was it. In my teens and 20s when we hunted together it was normally duck hunting. He was a great shot and if I was having a bad day shooting I would get to see his coaching ability.
For the past 10 years we mostly pheasant hunted when we were able to go out. Even though he was in great shape up until he became ill last winter he liked to have someone alone when he hunted. I'm not sure if it was so his wife and daughters wouldn't worry or if he just liked someone along to tell stories too. Doesn't matter I enjoyed going. The stories alone where worth it. The man once made a story about missing a train for argyle socks interesting.
We had very few limits when we hunted but we usually got into something. I remember election day 2000 when we went out in an approaching blizzard to a small public pond he had seen a few days before. It was with my dad and we sat up in a corner where we had chased hundreds of mallards off of when we arrived. The wind was fierce and it was hard to see with the heavy wet snow. We ended up with a half dozen mallards and a gorgeous wood duck. We saw more waterfowl that one day then I think I have ever seen in one day.
Almost exactly a year ago was the last time I hunted with him. We walked about a half mile water way where pheasants would hold late in the day. We had nothing get up when we walked north and were a little disheartened. I wasn't nearly as ready as I should have been walking back south along the other side so when a rooster finally flushed I missed an easy one. At the end of the walk it still amazed me how this man in his mid 80s was walking right along with me. I always took the heavier cover and would help him up a bank or over a ditch but he would have made it though without me.
It was hard seeing how much cancer had drug him down this past summer. I had been busy over the winter so it was a few month between visits with him. He had went form looking like he was in his 70s to in his 90s in just a few month, not how I'll remember him. I took vegetables to he and his wife a few times this summer and he'd still go into hunting stories.
Saying he was old school would be a huge understatement. As a football coach he was a firm believer in the run game. As a hunter he liked to keep things as simple as possible.
He even made it to a couple football games this fall, one just a few weeks ago, while having been in Hospice care since August. He went home on Halloween to hand out candy, he always enjoyed the kids coming to the door. He never quit fighting and nobody who knew him expected anything different from him.
I never remember him swearing, he could have but never around me. He did have one saying that anyone who messed up in practice or maybe missed a pheasant heard. "Ah Nuts!"
http://www.andersonandsonsfh.com/2012/11/burdell-coplan/
He will be missed.
Tim
You might remember me posting last winter about stuff I had and wished I had. Some of the stuff I wished I had belonged to a gentleman who was a long time coach and teacher in my home town. He had been diagnosed with cancer at that time and on Thursday he passed away.
For most in my age range he was 'Coach'. He was always Mr. Coplan to me, even in my 40s I felt strange calling him by his first name. I never played football and knew him before I ever had him as a teacher. My mom worked at a greenhouse he and his wife owned and my dad duck hunted with him a couple times a year.
He was a serious crow hunter. The couple times I went with him we had trouble with educated crows. I think we shot one or two and that was it. In my teens and 20s when we hunted together it was normally duck hunting. He was a great shot and if I was having a bad day shooting I would get to see his coaching ability.
For the past 10 years we mostly pheasant hunted when we were able to go out. Even though he was in great shape up until he became ill last winter he liked to have someone alone when he hunted. I'm not sure if it was so his wife and daughters wouldn't worry or if he just liked someone along to tell stories too. Doesn't matter I enjoyed going. The stories alone where worth it. The man once made a story about missing a train for argyle socks interesting.
We had very few limits when we hunted but we usually got into something. I remember election day 2000 when we went out in an approaching blizzard to a small public pond he had seen a few days before. It was with my dad and we sat up in a corner where we had chased hundreds of mallards off of when we arrived. The wind was fierce and it was hard to see with the heavy wet snow. We ended up with a half dozen mallards and a gorgeous wood duck. We saw more waterfowl that one day then I think I have ever seen in one day.
Almost exactly a year ago was the last time I hunted with him. We walked about a half mile water way where pheasants would hold late in the day. We had nothing get up when we walked north and were a little disheartened. I wasn't nearly as ready as I should have been walking back south along the other side so when a rooster finally flushed I missed an easy one. At the end of the walk it still amazed me how this man in his mid 80s was walking right along with me. I always took the heavier cover and would help him up a bank or over a ditch but he would have made it though without me.
It was hard seeing how much cancer had drug him down this past summer. I had been busy over the winter so it was a few month between visits with him. He had went form looking like he was in his 70s to in his 90s in just a few month, not how I'll remember him. I took vegetables to he and his wife a few times this summer and he'd still go into hunting stories.
Saying he was old school would be a huge understatement. As a football coach he was a firm believer in the run game. As a hunter he liked to keep things as simple as possible.
He even made it to a couple football games this fall, one just a few weeks ago, while having been in Hospice care since August. He went home on Halloween to hand out candy, he always enjoyed the kids coming to the door. He never quit fighting and nobody who knew him expected anything different from him.
I never remember him swearing, he could have but never around me. He did have one saying that anyone who messed up in practice or maybe missed a pheasant heard. "Ah Nuts!"
http://www.andersonandsonsfh.com/2012/11/burdell-coplan/
He will be missed.
Tim
