Most of Gaston Santi’s basketball players at Denver West and Thomas Jefferson high schools knew not to take him on in a game of 21 if they had fragile egos. Their coach was an all-conference player and team captain at Grinnell College and owned a deadly two-handed set shot.
At 96, Santi deserves some leeway about his memories, but he thinks he lost only once.
“When I coached,” he said, “I always participated in practices until I was 65 years old and I beat every player I had at 21 until Dudley Mitchell came to TJ. He beat me.”
Santi acknowledged that Mitchell, who went on to play at Colorado, was the best shooter among the players he coached at West from 1944-54 and at TJ from 1960-75.
When looking back, Santi breaks his coaching career into two parts. He first looks at West, where he focuses on his 1949-51 teams. From those teams he singled out Hal Kinard, who went on to play at Colorado A&M, as the best all-around player he coached.
“Our 1950 team lost to Manual by one point in the state championship game,” Santi recalled. “That was the team with Stan Luckert, Gene Orvis and Andy Vassios.”
Kinard played on the 1951 team that included Bob Mantooth, Pete Gaton and Mort Zerobinick.
“I made a terrible mistake with that team,” Santi said. “We played the last game in the first round of the state tournament and I took them to a downtown restaurant after the game. We stayed out too late and we lost to Greeley the next night. We didn’t play with any spark.”
Games in the Denver Prep League were played in the old Auditorium in those days. Santi’s Cowboys faced coaches Bill Weimar at Denver East, Roy Byers at Manual, Bob Salen at North and Bob Wilson at South.
Mitchell played an important role at Santi’s next stop at TJ. With Mitchell, Roy Wilson, Steve Mountjoy, Steve Kreiger and John Stearns, the Spartans won the state championship in 1967.
“The Denver Prep League was a very good league,” Santi said. “When I got to TJ, some other coaches had come into the picture, like Al Oviatt at Manual and Mike Jurich at West.”
Before starting his coaching career in Denver, Santi coached Walsenburg High School in his hometown.
“I grew up in the coal-mining camps around Walsenburg,” Santi said. “I coached three brothers at Walsenburg, Mike, Bob and Frank Stimack; and three brothers at TJ, Bill, Rich and John Stearns.”
Two of Santi’s favorite venues – the Auditorium Arena for basketball and the Trocadero Ballroom at Elitch Gardens for dancing – are gone. But the memories linger.
“They brought in all the big-name bands to the Trocadero,” Santi said. “I can’t dance anymore, but I probably could still coach.”
Irv Moss: 303-954-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com
Gaston Santi
Born: March 16, 1911, in Walsenburg
High school: Walsenburg, 1926-29
College: Grinnell, 1929-34
Honors: College, all-conference, team captain
Honorary: Grinnell College Hall of Fame, Denver Public Schools Hall of Fame, Colorado State Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Today: Retired and spends a lot of time watching sports on television.
Favorite Broncos player: John Elway
Favorite Rockies player: Todd Helton
Favorite food: Pasta, of course
