The sporting lives: the pitcher who stayed, the teacher who became Wooden, and the born-here champions

1889 – present

Stan Coveleski (1889–1984): the Hall of Famer who chose South Bend for his second life. Born Stanislaus Kowalewski on 13 July 1889 at Shamokin, Pennsylvania, a Polish coal town, Coveleski pitched fourteen major-league seasons, mostly for Cleveland: 215 wins against 142 losses, a 2.89 earned run average, and the 1920 World Series won almost single-handedly — three complete-game victories over Brooklyn. He was one of the last legal spitballers. In 1929, his career over, he moved his family to South Bend, bought a house on Napier Street on the west side, and ran the Coveleski Service Station; the Depression closed the station, and he gave free pitching lessons to neighborhood boys behind his garage for the rest of his long life. Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969 and to the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame in 1976, he died in South Bend on 20 March 1984, aged 94, the oldest living Hall of Famer. The city's ballpark, opened in 1987 as Stanley Coveleski Regional Stadium, carries his name, and a bronze statue of him stands at its center-field gate. His playing record belongs to the sports record; the fifty-five years of South Bend life after it — the gas station, the lessons, the west-side address — are his People record, and the stadium's name is the city's verdict on them.

John Wooden (1910–2010): the English teacher. Before UCLA, before the ten national championships and the Pyramid of Success, John Robert Wooden — born 14 October 1910 at Hall, Indiana, a Purdue All-American guard — spent his formative coaching decade in South Bend. From 1934 he taught English and coached basketball, baseball, and tennis at South Bend Central High School, nine seasons of it; it was at Central that he first worked out the principles that became his Pyramid of Success. He played professional basketball on weekends in those years, as teachers then did. He served as a Navy lieutenant from 1943 to 1946, returned briefly to Central, and left in 1946 for Indiana State and, in 1948, UCLA. He wrote in his autobiography that he might never have left South Bend if not for the war. He became the first person inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach, and the listed record of his eleven high-school seasons, 218–42, was compiled mostly in this city's gyms — a figure Wooden himself said was not accurate, since he never kept track; both the number and his disclaimer stand in the record. The sports record carries his teams; here he is what South Bend knew him as: a high-school English teacher who coached three sports and stayed a decade.

Skylar Diggins (born 1990): the city's own, at public-record size. Born in South Bend on 2 August 1990, Diggins starred at Washington High School — four trips to the state title game, the championship in 2007, 2,790 career points, Miss Indiana Basketball and national player-of-the-year honors — and then at Notre Dame (2009–13), where she led the Irish to three consecutive Final Fours and two championship games and left as the program's career leader in points and steals. On 15 April 2013 the Tulsa Shock took her third overall in the WNBA draft, the first South Bend native selected in the league's first round; in 2020 she became, by the Common Council's own resolution, the first South Bend native to win an Olympic gold medal in basketball. The Council honored her by special resolution on 18 October 2022. She is a living person and is carried here on the public record only.

Ryan Newman (born 1977): the Rocket Man. Born in South Bend on 8 December 1977, Newman took a Purdue degree in vehicle structure engineering in 2001 — an engineer's education rare in his sport — and raced in the NASCAR Cup Series from 2000 to 2023. He was the series' Rookie of the Year in 2002, and his 2003 season — a series-high eight wins and eleven poles — earned him the nickname "Rocket Man." His fiftieth career pole, at Indianapolis in July 2013, put him ninth on the all-time list. The racing record carries his wins and teams; his People entry is the birthplace and the degree: South Bend's most successful stock-car driver was also one of the few in the garage who could have engineered the car.

Sources:

1. Society for American Baseball Research, biography of Stan Coveleski — the Shamokin birth on 13 July 1889, the career figures, the 1929 South Bend move, the Napier Street house and service station, the free lessons, the Hall of Fame election of 1969, and the death on 20 March 1984.
2. Notre Dame Magazine, "Stan and Jake" — the 1920 World Series' three complete games, the 1976 Polish-American honor, and the South Bend retirement.
3. Daily Bruin (2010) and EBSCO Research Starters, biographies of John Wooden — the Hall, Indiana birth on 14 October 1910, the 1934 arrival at South Bend Central, the English teaching and three sports, the Navy years 1943–46, the brief return and 1946 departure, and the listed 218–42 high-school record.
4. MaxPreps, "John Wooden: An American Beauty" — the Pyramid of Success's South Bend origin, the weekend professional play, and Wooden's own disclaimer of the 218–42 figure.
5. City of South Bend, Special Resolution No. 4985-22 (18 October 2022) — Diggins's birth on 2 August 1990, the Washington High School record and 2007 championship, the 2,790 points, the Notre Dame career, the 15 April 2013 draft as the city's first WNBA first-round selection, and the 2020 Olympic gold.
6. EBSCO Research Starters and NASCAR — Ryan Newman's birth on 8 December 1977 in South Bend, the 2001 Purdue engineering degree, the 2002 Rookie of the Year award, the 2003 season and the "Rocket Man" nickname, the fiftieth pole of July 2013, and the Cup career span 2000–2023.