James Weber, Cincinnati Enquirer
PARK HILLS - Covington Catholic is mourning the loss of one of its most legendary figures.
Jack Kaelin died March 30 at age 75. He was a teacher there for more than 50 years before retiring in 2013. He was most visible as the head scorekeeper for the boys basketball team during that span, but was also a coach in multiple sports and an athletic director.
The Enquirer profiled Kaelin upon his retirement in 2013.
"He has been an educator, coach, athletic director, alumni director, mentor and friend," said current CovCath principal Bob Rowe in that article. "Many people have been positively influenced by him throughout the years. The greatest compliment that I can give Mr. Kaelin is that everyone in our community is a better person because of knowing him."
After graduating from Newport Catholic High School and then Villa Madonna College (now Thomas More University), Kaelin taught German the second semester of the 1963 school year at Newport Catholic. But with that language being phased out of the curriculum after that year, he applied to teach it at Covington Catholic, Roger Bacon and Princeton.
Kaelin said then he chose CovCath to save money on gas.
"It might have been the greatest decision I ever made in my life," Kaelin said in that same 2013 article. "I was welcomed into Covington Catholic as part of a big family. No one really realizes how much of a family CCH is until you get involved in the school. People that I taught 50 years ago are just as close to me now as they were all those years ago. The teachers I have taught with are like an extension of my real family."
In addition to German, Kaelin taught business law, typing, accounting, business math, personal finance, economics and has helped with Junior Achievement for three decades.
His involvement with the athletic programs at CovCath began his first year at the school when legendary basketball coach Mote Hils noticed Kaelin watching practice on a regular basis. Hils asked him if he wanted to keep the scorebook during games.
Kaelin never stopped doing that. Kaelin was scorekeeper for basketball after he retiredas a teacher. He was the scorekeeper for CovCath's loss in the state final in 1967, and the Colonels' first state championship win in 2014.
In a separate Enquirer article, he recalled the tough 54-53 loss to Earlington in the 1967 final. Earlington won that game on a last-second tip-in.
"It was a heartbreak memory."
Kaelin served as cross country coach from 1965-2001 and track coach from 1966-82 before receiving his Kentucky High School Athletic Association license to become a track official, which he was from 1982-2007.
He started the Covington Catholic Invitational cross country meet that quickly became one of the state's best. His teams won 14 regional titles, two state titles and were state runner-up five times. His track teams won five regional championships.
He helped start a club bowling team in 2004 and served as coach until his retirement, including the first two seasons that the sport was sanctioned as a varsity sport by the Kentucky High School Athletic Association.
The annual Northern Kentucky freshman boys basketball tournament at Covington Catholic was named after Kaelin several years ago.