The proposal may have been symbolic in nature, but for Bob Oberhardt it made all the difference.
Stricken with cancer, the longtime Flagstaff High statistician engaged in a heartfelt talk with then Eagles football coach Craig Holland in the early 1990s to discuss his sickness and the possibility of not being able to log the team's stats during the upcoming season.
What Holland said has stuck with Oberhardt ever since.
"Craig said, 'I'll put a rocking chair down on the sidelines so you don't even have to move,'" recalled Oberhardt, who has since recovered after losing a kidney to the disease. "That meant a lot to me. Craig made me feel like I was really important."
Truth be known, the 63-year-old Oberhardt means a lot more to the FHS athletic family than he may realize.
The retired history teacher has diligently recorded football and basketball stats for the district since the early '70s, and has compiled exhaustive record books that detail every game played dating to the school's inception in 1923.
So when Holland sensed a part of the school's history and tradition was in peril 15 years ago, he felt it necessary to take the necessary steps to keep Oberhardt in the game.
"I can remember that evening perfectly clear," Holland said of the day Oberhardt acknowledged he had cancer. "I said, 'Whatever it takes, we'll provide it.'
To Holland, Oberhardt was more than a statistician.
"He was a coach," Holland said. "We all called him coach."
And they still do.
When Holland's teaching contract wasn't renewed in January of 2007, Oberhardt decided to hang up the clipboard and take care of his beloved wife Sherry, who has multiple sclerosis.
Oberhardt's hiatus lasted one season.
Upon his hiring last summer, coach Jeremiah Smith promised to bring back some of the traditions shed by Holland's successors last year. To do that, the new coach thought it prudent to bring Oberhardt back to the sideline.
"When I became head coach that was one of the first calls I made," Smith said. "I think I just barely beat him to the phone.
"I can't say enough about Bob 鈥� he's brilliant," the coach added. "He's just happy to be a part of the program; he's been an Eagle his entire life and he likes watching these kids grow and do good things with their lives."
The notion of being a mentor within the realm of athletics was Oberhardt's driving motivation to get involved in statistics.
The son of a soldier, Oberhardt attended 14 different schools in 12 years. He finally found a home in Flagstaff when he came to NAU to pursue a masters degree in 1970 and never left.
He landed a teaching job at the Flagstaff Junior High in 1971, and began keeping stats the following year.
"I realized at a young age I was never going to be an athlete," he said. But 鈥� A, I love kids; B, I love sports. And if there was a way I could keep up with both those things, I had to reinvent something, and it was stats. Stats were the way to keep in touch with sports and with kids."
But Oberhardt's contributions at FHS have stretched far beyond the stat sheet. He used to drive the equipment van to all the away football games, and he also helped coordinate the football team's annual camps while Holland was the coach.
"He's paced a lot of sidelines for me over the years, and he used to drive the equipment van - all volunteer work, mind you," said Holland, who now coaches at Avondale Agua Fria. "He never asked for anything other than just to be with the coaches and players.
"It's amazing how much energy he expended and the labor of love that he provided for us. Now that I'm coaching in Phoenix, I thought about it this fall, 'man it sure would be nice to have Bob around.'"
Oberhardt doesn't intend to leave his post at FHS anytime soon, though.
He prizes the countless connections he's made through athletics over the past four decades, and acknowledged he'll continue in his current role as long as he has the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of students and coaches.
"How long will I stay with it? As long as I'm wanted," he mused. "I think you have to stay involved in things. When you retire, you can't just sit down and watch the world go by. You've got to feed off other kinds of energy. For me, it's neat being around kids; it's neat being around coaches.
"If I'm 80, and I'm still running up and down the sideline, that's fine."
Rory Faust can be reached at [email protected] or 556-2257.