Norfolk City Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....O'Hara, John Joseph September 6, 2008
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Virginian-Pilot  September 9, 2008
John O'Hara, a former athletic director at Maury High School, will be remembered 
as a man who touched many lives in South Hampton Roads.

O'Hara, 61, died Saturday after a long battle with cancer.

He began his coaching career in 1972 at Norfolk Catholic, where he was an 
assistant football and track coach and head swimming coach. He later became the 
school's head football coach and athletic director.

In 1997, he moved to Granby, where he was the swimming coach and an assistant 
football coach. He left Granby for Maury in 1998 to become the school's athletic 
director and head swimming coach. He stepped aside as Maury's athletic director 
several years ago but was the swimming coach at the time of his death.

News of his death shocked many because his cancer had been in remission. Even when 
it returned, doctors felt they had it under control.

"I talked to him Thursday and he said he was tired from the chemotherapy but said 
everything was going well," longtime Maury basketball coach Jack Baker said. "Then 
I got a text message Saturday morning that they had to rush him back to the 
hospital Friday night. Then he passed away Saturday morning. It was a pretty big 
shock."

Baker had known O'Hara for more than 30 years. Their paths crossed when Baker did 
his student-teaching under O'Hara at Norfolk Catholic.

"He's probably one of the nicest people I've ever met in my life," Baker said. "He 
never said a bad word about anyone and he always had a bright outlook on life."

O'Hara also was a practical joker - especially when it came to his glass eye.

"He put that in my drink more than one time," Baker chuckled . "It was strange to 
look at an eyeball looking back at you."

David Blaha knows the feeling. He played for O'Hara at Norfolk Catholic from 1984 
to '88.

"He used to make us line up in a three-point stance and go under this steel cage 
called the 'Iron Mike,'" Blaha said. "And a couple of guys kept hitting it so 
coach O'Hara took out his eye and put it on the end of the steel cage and said, 
'Now I've really got an eye on you.'

"You didn't want to knock it off after that, but one kid did - and coach O'Hara 
picked up his eye, put it in his mouth and put it back in."

Blaha also remembered the softer side of O'Hara, including Blaha's first day at 
Norfolk Catholic.

"I was scared out of my mind and didn't know what to expect," he said. "And he 
sort of took me in. He was an inspiration whether it be on the football field or 
in the classroom."

Dealton Cotton remembered how O'Hara welcomed him when Cotton became Maury's 
football coach.

"Anything I ever needed, he was there for me," said Cotton, now the defensive line 
coach at Old Dominion . "He made it a lot easier on me without putting pressure on 
me. He was about building a program up the right way. He's definitely going to be 
missed."

Survivors include his wife of 27 years, Marilou; his daughter, Virginia ; and his 
son, Joseph .

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