Former athlete, World War II veteran and coach Jesse Cummings died Wednesday at the age of 90, leaving a legacy of physical and moral guidance to at least two generations of local children.

In 1958, Cummings coached the baseball team that went all the way to state, losing in the final championship game to San Antonio. It was the closest the Tigers ever got to that particular title.

Jimmy Dawson was a junior on that team, and he remembers it as a wet and rainy spring that year.

“We had a pavilion we could throw balls and make bunts, but there was water standing in the outfield. (Cummings) put a base out in the biggest pool of water he could find and said ‘we’re going to practice sliding.’ We had a good time doing it. We thought it was fun.”

Former players, even other coaches who knew Cummings, described him as a good man who emphasized the basics, both in sports and life.

Born in Burkesville, Kentucky, Cummings’ family moved to Texas during the Depression, to help work an uncle’s farm in Fannin County. He played football, baseball and ran track at Trenton High School, then went to Fort Worth to attend business school.

When World War II broke out, the young Cummings joined the Army Air Corps, the predecessor to the Air Force. He spent the next four years in Europe, both as a soldier and as an athlete. His arsenal of stories included having landed on Normandy during the D-Day offensive, and competing in hurdles and track in Nuremberg and Wimbledon.

After the war, he had a shot at joining the Fort Worth Cats, a minor-league baseball team that fed into the Brooklyn Dodgers.

“He missed trying out because he got food poisoning,” explained Cummings’ daughter, Lynn Kidwell. “So, he went to East Texas to go to school.”

Enrolled in East Texas State Teachers College, now Texas A&M; at Commerce, Cummings played football, baseball and track, and majored in physical education.

It was also in college that he met his life-long partner, Lou. She remembers him as a handsome, energetic man always ready for fun.

“He was always ready to go,” Lou Cummings said. “He was very attractive, and he always thought of you first.”

After graduation in 1949, the couple moved to Corsicana, where he became a baseball and football coach. On the side, he continued to play semi-professional baseball.

Ray Jacobs, who went on to play professional football for 10 years, was one of the athletes who played for Cummings in those years.

“He was just a super guy,” Jacobs said. “He took me home many a time when I was in junior high, and we lived out there on the farm. It would be close to dark, or we’d be getting home from a game and he’d take me home. He just did so many things for me. He was always looking out for me.”

In addition to emphasizing the fundamentals —particularly running — students remembered Cummings for his encouragement and strictness. He wanted students to succeed, but there was a right way and a wrong way.

Frankie Rouse was the pitcher on the baseball team that went to state.

“He didn’t run anybody down. About the ugliest thing he’d say was ‘Come on, now,’ and he never embarrassed anybody, no matter how we played,” Rouse said.

However, that didn’t mean the coach put up with any nonsense, Rouse noted.

“One night, he saw me drinking a Coke in the Palace Theater, and the next day he had me run from home plate to center field as hard as I could,” Rouse recalled. “He didn’t like anybody to drink soda water.”

Dawson remembered other lessons Cummings shared with his teams.

“He tried to tell you about your responsibilities to your family, and your school and keeping up with your book work in school,” Dawson recalled. “We didn’t have ‘no pass, no play’ but he made sure you were doing OK in the classroom.”

Cummings left in 1963 for Palestine, and helped coach that district’s 1964 state championship football team. In 1979, as he prepared to retire, he and his wife moved back to Corsicana. Cummings finished his professional teaching career at Drane Middle School in 1985.

Former Superintendent Don Bowen recalls him as a hard worker, but popular.

“He was tough, but the kids liked him,” Bowen said. “When he coached his teams, he coached them to really put forth the maximum effort.”

Retirement didn’t mean the end of Cummings’ active life, however. He contributed as a volunteer coach at Navarro College, for both baseball and football. A softball field at Navarro is named after Jesse and Lucille Cummings.

In 1987, he began competing in the Senior Olympics in the 400-meter run, discus, javelin and pole vault, winning numerous medals in those competitions. He continued to participate until he was 83 years old.

In 2000, he did an interview for Seniors On the Go, a Daily Sun publication, in which he talked about his philosophy of fitness for seniors, which was to keep moving.

He is survived by his wife, Lou, three children, Lynn Kidwell, Sandra Daniels, and Randy Cummings and six grandchildren. Services are pending at Corley Funeral Home.

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Janet Jacobs may be reached via e-mail at jacobs@corsicanadailysun.com