GAMBIER — Scott Thielke was inducted into Kenyon’s Athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday night at Pierce Hall when his thoughts pondered on his place at the school.
“I am probably not even the second-best coach ever at Kenyon,” the Lords’ longtime tennis coach noted to the 130 people in attendance. “Jim (Steen) is by far the best Jim Steen is the most successful coach in the history of college sports.”
Steen, Thielke’s friend and mentor, was among those gathered for the ceremony.
Steen was the head swimming coach at Kenyon for 36 years and in that time, he was the first coach in NCAA history to have his men’s and women’s teams win a combination of 50 Division III national championships.
While the evening was about Thielke’s career he was generous with his praise for Steen, a man he considered his role model.
“One of the reasons I can joke with him is because we are such good friends and he taught me so much,” Thieke said.
One of Steen’s lessons elicited a laugh from the crowd when Thielke related one of the lessons he learned from the swim coach.
“Jim told me ‘always go over budget, if you stay under budget they will think you have enough money’, so for 28 years I was over budget,” the tennis boss said.
Thielke said his lengthy career was a blessing.
“The greatest thing for me is getting to see people from five different decades that I coached in tennis, I mean that is the best part,” he said.
Thielke has plenty of hardware in his den at home, 17 times he was named North Coast Athletic Conference Coach of the Year. Eight times with the men and nine times as the women’s coach.
Thielke was also the tennis coach at South Alabama and Colgate, amassing a record of 146-54 with the men’s programs and 108-59 with the Division I women’s programs.
Steen was pleased with the evening honoring Thielke.
“It made me feel good because we are such good friends,” Steen said. “He started when he was 25 years old and I had started at 25 as well, eight years earlier, so we were both young and he was quite good.”