Remembering Greg Greenday: ‘He was just good people’
Former West Chester East football coach Joe Carroll first met Greg
Greenday when the two were attending St. James High School in Chester
in the mid-1960s.
They’ve been good friends ever since. With Carroll getting into
coaching and Greenday choosing sports journalism, their professional
paths crossed often, but it wasn’t enough. So they got together to
play golf a couple of times a year. And they would meet to tell
stories over a meal and a few beers.
When Greenday was named the sports editor of the Daily Local News in
2007, the two friends once again found another common endeavor: The
Valor Bowl, Chester County’s annual charity high school all-star
football game to benefit Special Olympics. Carroll and his former
assistant, Scott Allison, started the game in 1999, and Greenday
helped it flourish in the last three plus years.
A lot of people, stretching from his native Delaware County to Chester
County and beyond, knew Greenday, who died Saturday. But very few knew
him for as long as Carroll.
“We were real good friends,” said Carroll, who also coached at Chester
High School. “I remember the back-and-forth trade of sarcastic humor.
He had a big heart. He loved St. James, he loved North Carolina, where
his older brother (Mike) played. He loved his family, his couple of
kids. He was just a great guy, a lot of fun to be around. I have a lot
of good memories.”
Carroll’s fond memories of Greenday, 61, date back more than four
decades, but they aren’t unique. Former Widener and current West
Chester University head football coach Bill Zwaan first met Greenday a
quarter century ago when Zwaan was coaching football at Monsignor
Bonner and Greenday was a sports writer at the Daily Times.
“When I think about Greg, I keep coming back to the fact that Greg
looked for the good way to write a story,” Zwaan said. “He wasn’t
looking for negatives, but the positive side of a story. I thought he
approached it the right way.
“When I was at Bonner in the early ’80s, Greg was covering the high
schools back then and everybody knew him. And then I really got to
know him when I was at Widener. And I was thrilled when he came to the
Daily Local. It was like being reunited with an old buddy.”
Zwaan wasn’t alone in that. Carroll said he couldn’t recall Greenday
ever writing anything negative, and former West Chester University
basketball coach Dick Delaney said Greenday was an empathetic
reporter.
“I’ve known Greg for most of my professional life,” Delaney said.
“Greg was a real good guy and he had great insight into dealing with
coaches after losses and wins. You felt like when he talked to you, he
was celebrating with you after a big win or agonizing with you after a
tough loss. I thought he had a great feel for the coaching profession”
When Greenday arrived at the Daily Local News there was not yet a
Chester County Sports Hall of Fame. Before long, there was, and
Greenday was an integral part of getting that up and going, starting
the inaugural class of 2008.
“Greg was one of the intricate and extremely valuable parts of
establishing the Chester County Hall of Fame,” said former West
Chester mayor and former WCU athletic director Dick Yoder. “He was
extremely enthusiastic about establishing such a group. He worked so
hard to make it work. Without Greg, we wouldn’t have gotten to first
base.
“We’ll really miss him. He was a really creative mind in terms of
sports information and how to get it out there. The Chester County
Hall of Fame will forever be indebted to Greg for his initiative and
enthusiasm.”
For Greenday, there were any number of things to be enthusiastic
about, and many of them revolved around kids. He was involved with the
Sunshine Foundation, an organization that granted wishes to sick
children.
“The kids, whether it be high school or the Special Olympians, that
was his No. 1 concern,” Allison said. “Since he took over, he did such
a great job promoting high school kids and the Valor Bowl cause. He
was awesome. He will be greatly missed.”
Greenday had a gusto for many things. Carroll said he remembered
Greenday talking about a trip to the Masters when he worked at the
Daily Times.
“He would let me know the greatest part of being down there was he was
up at five o’clock watching the sun rise over the 13th hole down
there,” he said. “I’m gonna miss him, gonna miss his stories. He was
just good people.”
And a good writer.
“He was a cornerstone to the Delaware County Times for years,” Delaney
said. “It was like you had breakfast with him every morning.”
Zwaan summed it up best: “He always had a smile. I just really liked
Greg Greenday. It’s a sad day for local sports.”
Obit credit to Dave Burman