Whether you meet Tom Bechtel for the first time, or you talk to him for the 1,000th time, he will have the same thing for you: a story.
The story, any story, he tells you will be: 1. Long; 2. Funny; 3. True; and 4. Probably about a sports event, an athlete, a game, an official, etc., etc., etc. For Tom Bechtel was and is the Ohio Valley athletic version of the television show “The StoryTeller.”
And the reason Bechtel has so, so many stories to tell is because he has been active and supportive in so many sports to so many athletes, especially youth and high school athletes, for so many years. His career helping athletes is legendary. And a story in itself.
Bechtel, affectionately known as “Bear,” has had an amazing career, and life, affecting youth, young adults, and adults in their athletic pursuits. In many ways. He served as Recreation Director for the City of Wheeling for more than 40 years, developing and cultivating summer leagues that attracted thousands of players through the years.
He also ran adult leagues for softball and basketball. As if that wasn’t enough, he officiated football, basketball and softball for more than 50 years. Combine that with his service as softball commissioner for the OVAC for more than 20 years, and you have a man who: impacted thousands, cared about thousands and influenced thousands. With knowing that many people come a lot of stories, and Bechtel likes to tell them.
Underlying his story is Bechtel’s passion, which was the driving force for such a long, successful career(s). Motivation wasn’t found in money or material objects; it was in fun and enjoyment.
“I always wore shorts to work,” Bechtel joked. “I never had any pressure. The administrations (City of Wheeling) were always good to me. I was actively running leagues and doing this kind of stuff. I was working 18-hour days running softball leagues. We had 170 teams in our softball leagues. What a job that was; people didn’t realize. Nowadays they have six teams.
Basketball was the same way. We started summer basketball, we had hundreds of teams. I don’t think people realize the spectrum of what we did. Consequently I worked 70-hour weeks. But I loved it. I worked all those hours, then I’d go umpire in a softball league four games a night. There were times in the month of June I’d work every day. I’d umpire 21 days in a row beside doing all the running the softball leagues, the basketball leagues, all that.
“When you enjoy what you’re doing. . . never once did I hate going to work,” Bechtel said.
“Let me give you the first funny part about stories,” longtime friend and fellow official Doug Costain said, “because Tom is ‘the guy.’ My son started working for Tom at the fields at a pretty young age, 13 years old. Pick up trash, drag a field, things like that. Not only do I know every story Tom tells, so does my son. We all know the stories. We know where they’re going. We can finish them. They are the same over and over. It’s kind of like whatever avenue he’s going to go down you’re going to get that little junket of stories.
“He called me the other day and he just ran into someone at the (WV) state softball tournament. ‘I was only going to stay there 10 minutes, an hour-and-a-half later we were both telling stories. We knew everybody in each other’s stories!’”
The story of Tom Bechtel is amazing in how he has given himself to others. He has run leagues, dragged fields, run scoreboards and game clock, served as announcer. In Costain’s summation, Bechtel is “committed, dedicated, a giver.” And it started at an early age.
A lifelong resident of Wheeling, Bechtel was the second of seven children born to Joe and Eleanor Bechtel. He has one older brother and five younger sisters. The family lived in East Wheeling, moved to Mt. Lebanon Avenue in Bethlehem and then back to East Wheeling; Bechtel attended Cathedral elementary and middle schools, then high school at Wheeling Central Catholic High School, graduating in 1969. He then graduated in 1973 from Wheeling College with a degree in sociology, where “he learned to deal with people.” Bechtel loves to joke he walked to grade and high schools and hitchhiked to college.
He played four years of basketball and baseball at Central, then two years of basketball at Wheeling College. In his twenties, Bechtel began working as an umpire for softball games, and he also served as a men’s basketball assistant coach (first volunteer, then a small stipend) for Wheeling College head coach Paul Baker. During that period Bechtel began playing in fast-pitch softball leagues, initially playing as a teenager, until the leagues dissolved. So his connection to softball and basketball are obviously rooted in a foundation of youth involvement. Then he added in junior high basketball and high school football and softball officiating for good measure.
Finally, Bechtel found what would turn out to be his life-long calling: working for the City of Wheeling Recreation Department. He began in March 1974 as a program director; one week later the Recreation Department Director left the job, and Bechtel transitioned into the spot over time, admittedly at first knowing “nothing about the job.” Recreation department senior staff associate Barb Janetski was there for Bechtel’s first day, and she was there for his last day, helping Bechtel celebrate his retirement after 45 years. Janetski herself worked full-time in the department for 52 years.
“Tom was my boss for over 45 years,” Janetski said. “We had a great working relationship. I have always been blessed to call Tom my friend as well as my boss. The City of Wheeling was very fortunate to have Tom as Recreation Director. No one gave more of their time as Tom has. He was a mentor to thousands of kids over the years.
“Kids were his business, his only business,” she continued. “And that still holds true today. Tom and I were beginning to see third generations on our payroll. That is a testament to Tom and how he ran the Rec Department. There will never be another director who gives their life to the City of Wheeling as Tom has.”
According to the OVAC website, Bechtel was inducted into the OVAC Hall of Fame in 2012. In addition to serving as OVAC softball commissioner, he has been Game Director of the annual Samuel A. Mumley All-Star Basketball Classic since 2005. The site also lists Bechtel as the: first West Virginia recipient of the National Federation of State High School Associations’ Officials Award; and recipient of the Robert S. McKelvey Memorial Award from the Upper Ohio Valley Dapper Dan Club in 2008.
Bechtel, now 72, fills some of his time as part-time director of the I-470 baseball/softball fields in Wheeling. At the recent OVAC girls softball championship, appropriately named after him, Bechtel was awarded by the softball umpires board a lifetime achievement award. It’s the same board he helped initiate several decades ago. The YMCA honored him in 2022 with a Light of the Valley award, and his alma mater, now known as Wheeling University, honored him with the 2022 Ignatius Loyola Award given to distinguished alumni.
Softball. Basketball. Football. Umpire. Referee. Wheeling Recreation Department Director. OVAC Softball Commissioner. Understandably, so many stories exist. What does Bechtel think the story behind his career is?
“I’d say the story is I enjoyed every moment of it, and I’d do it all again. Not many people officiate three sports for 50 years besides being a recreation director and all that time involved. I’ve done really well in all those sports but I’ve never hung my hat on it. I think I was a pretty decent official in all three sports. But I never hung my hat on that.”
“I enjoyed more working with the kids, running the little girls softball leagues,” Bechtel said. “We did a lot for the kids. We made it happen for girls softball in Wheeling and the valley.”
“I’ve known Tom since 1990 when I first got into softball,” fellow official/umpire Bob Gabel said. “He was my first contact. He is very well known throughout the sports world in the Ohio Valley. He helps with anything and everything in any sport, and he is very knowledgeable with everything.”
Gabel’s story about Bechtel is, “Every weekend Bear and I and a gentleman by the name of Denny Mader who’s a good friend of our’s, we go out to dinner every weekend someplace different throughout the Ohio Valley. And the stories that Bear tells over and over, they get more into it. We all know they start out small and they finish huge.”
Costain too has several “favorite” stories involving Bechtel, but he carries one around in his back pocket like a wallet. “One of my favorite stories is if we’re only going to a Pirate game Tom will probably get in my car with three newspapers. When Tom gets out of my car those three newspapers will probably be on the floorboard of my car. I get to pick them up,” Costain laughed.
“We were down at the old West Virginia Conference (college) tournament one year, and I’m telling you every time we left the Marriott back in the days when there were still newspaper boxes, Tom would look at me and say, ‘You got 50 cents? You got 50 cents?’ And he would buy two or three Charleston papers, the USA Today. He would read them immensely. So every time I want to mess with him, I say, ‘Do you need 50 cents?’”
The stories, both told by Bechtel and by others, go on forever. For every story, there are hundreds more left out only because of time. And attention span! So who should get the honor of the last story? Why, the latest focus of the Local Legends series himself, Tom Bechtel. And the story meets all four criteria: long, true, funny, and about local sports.
According to Bechtel, “I was refereeing out at Triadelphia (middle school) just a few years ago a little girls basketball game. This lady comes down out of the stands; she’s 84 years old. This is about 10 years ago.
She said, “Suzie, I want you to meet the Bear.”
I said, “How you doing Suzie?”
She (the elderly woman) says, “This is my great granddaughter.”
I said, “Nice to meet you Suzie.”
The old lady goes, “Bear used to umpire my softball games.”
“And I looked at her like, ‘Are you kidding me?’”
She says, “Don’t you tell me. 1974 Tunnel Green we had a good women’s league. I played right field for . . . (she named the team). I played right field.”
“I looked at her. I was 25 years old. I was umpiring that game. Me and George Kellas, I guarantee you! She was 45 at the time, but she was playing in the league. With that being said, between basketball, football and softball, there’s hardly anybody alive that I might not have officiated their games.”
Article compliments of Howard Karnell
For story ideas or to nominate other Local Legends you can contact Mr. Karnell at (hkarnell@comcast.net)
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