The Cardinal Gibbons School, Baltimore, mourns the loss of yet another member of their school community – 49-year-old former head basketball coach and athletic director Bob Flynn died of a massive heart attack in his Catonsville home Jan. 12.
Flynn was rushed to St. Agnes Hospital, Catonsville, where he later died, just a stone’s throw from his high school alma mater and coaching dream.
Coach Flynn was a household name to the local basketball community, coaching the Cardinal Gibbons Crusaders through six seasons in the prestigious Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland’s “A” Conference and the Baltimore Catholic League. Flynn turned in a respectable Crusader record of 103-76 before heading to McDaniel College, Westminster, for the start of the 2005-2006 men’s basketball season as their head coach.
Flynn and his Division III McDaniel College Green Terror were off to a 7-6 start, including a 4-3 mark in Centennial Conference play, after taking over the program last season. The start was the best in the team’s history since 1986-87.
But Flynn was true Cardinal Gibbons through and through. From his red coaching towel, perched faithfully on his shoulder while pacing up and down the Crusader sideline to his very successful off-season summer basketball clinics, Flynn was revered as a knowledgeable student of the game.
Of his many accomplishments while serving as teacher, coach and administrator at Cardinal Gibbons, Coach Flynn turned the Gibbons’ basketball program around and during the 2003-2004 season, put together 27-wins, securing a No. 1 ranking in the Baltimore Sun Poll and was selected as head coach of the 2004 McDonald’s All-American East Team, which he led to victory.
Before his tenure at Cardinal Gibbons, Flynn was the head coach at St. Mary’s College in St. Mary’s City from 1994 to 1999. His 15 wins in the 1997-98 season marked the most victories for the Seahawks since they joined the NCAA in 1977.
His first collegiate coaching stint was at his alma mater, Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, where he assisted under legendary coach Jim Phelan from 1984 to 1994. Flynn helped transition the Mountaineers from Division II to Division I during that span, averaging 17 wins a season and helped guide the Mountaineers to two South Atlantic Championship games, earning one conference title and an appearance in the Division II Final Four in 1985.
Flynn also co-directed the basketball camps of legendary coach Morgan Wootten of DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland.
Coach Flynn is survived by his wife Tina, daughter Caitlin , 16 and twin sons Michael and Ryan, 12.
The funeral for Coach Flynn will be Jan. 18 at St. Mark, Catonsville, at 10 a.m.