A mentor to Central College softball coach George Wares, and many others in the division three community, passed away yesterday.

Clyde Washburne was the head coach at Eastern Connecticut State from 1977 through 1987, and tussled with Wares during the early part of his career in the mid 1980s.

The Warriors swept the Dutch in the 1986 NCAA Finals in Storm Lake to win the national championship, and also beat Central at nationals in 1987 on Eastern’s home field in Willimantic, Connecticut.

After Washburne retired, the Dutch broke through by winning the first of their four NCAA Championships in 1988.

After that title, Washburne wrote Wares a congratulatory letter.

“He said ‘Hey, you remind me of me when I was that age. I’m going to give you a couple words of advice – don’t get full of yourself, don’t ever think you’ve arrived, make sure you understand that the game is bigger than all of us, always treat the players fairly, and remember that a win is a win and a loss is a loss and there’s a whole lot more more to it than that’. And that just stuck with me.”

Washburne was inducted into the NFCA Hall of Fame in 2006, alongside two Division I giants – Sue Enquist of UCLA and Carol Hutchins of Michigan. Wares, who inducted Washburne into the Hall, joined his mentor one year later.