Muskingum News

Former Muskingum men's basketball and football coach and All-American student-athlete Robert (Bob) Stokes '53 recently passed away at the age of 88.

Bob attended Muskingum and received All-American honors in football and All-Conference First Team accolades in basketball. He was co-captain of the football and basketball teams his senior year. After graduation in 1953, he signed a contract to play football with the Chicago Cardinals of the National Football League and earned his master's degree from Kent State.

In 1955, he returned to Muskingum as an assistant coach in football and basketball for three years. The 1955 football team went 8-0 and won the Ohio Athletic Conference Championship. Following a successful seven-year stint as head men's basketball coach at Ashland, Bob returned to Muskingum in 1965 as head basketball coach and assistant football coach. The football team won the Ohio Athletic Conference Championship in 1965 and 1965. They also went to the Alonzo Stagg Bowl in 1965. In 1967, Bob became the head football coach at Muskingum and over the next three years recorded an impressive 19-5-3 record.

In 1970, Bob returned to Ashland to serve as the director of athletics, a role he held until 1975. He was also an associate professor of sport sciences and was the director of the graduate program in sport science.

Bob was inducted into the Muskingum Hall of Fame in 1983, the Ashland Hall of Fame in 1992 and into the Ashland County Sports Hall of Fame in 2002.

Bob married Joyce Ann Cosby and had 3 children, Steve, Debbie, and Chris.

Funeral services will be held Saturday, July 13, at 11:00 a.m. at the First Presbyterian Church, 320 Church Street, Ashland, Ohio. Friends may call, Friday, July 12, from 2:00-4:00 p.m. and also 5:00-7:00 p.m.