Friends, family gather at Royce Brook
By: John Beisser
Otto Gsell did everything in a big way. He was a big, brawny man, with a big and distinctive gruff voice but the recurring theme at Monday’s 7th Annual Otto Gsell Foundation Charity Golf Classic at Royce Brook Golf Course was the size of the heart that beat inside the chest of the former Hillsborough High coach.
Jim Ruh, a former football and baseball standout from Hillsborough High’s class of 1992, serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Otto Gsell Foundation and is chair of the foundation’s golf committee.
The outing, which attracted approximately 150 golfers this year, raises scholarship dollars for a select group of Hillsborough High student-athletes each year. Having an annual golf outing in Otto Gsell’s name is only natural, said Ruh, because the fiercely competitive Gsell loved his players and the game of golf very deeply.
"He was a good golfer. He’d call his drives a power fade, most people would call it a slice," Ruh said kiddingly.
"This year we gave three $1,000 scholarships to Hillsborough senior-athletes," said Otto’s widow, Betty. "My sons, Otto, Jr. and Paul play in the outing every year and basically all of my husband’s nephews play, so many kids that he coached, whether it be football, wrestling or golf, are playing. And of course the people in Hillsborough that loved him. The core is local and the money is generated every year and it’s just a great get together of family and friends. I have to thank Jim Ruh, who runs the outing, and all of the volunteers who put in so much work."
This year’s affair had a special touch and turned into a multi-day affair as Otto Gsell, Jr. was married on July 14, two days prior to the golf outing.
"Otto and Tammy got married on Saturday, yesterday I had a big pool party at the house and today is the golf outing," Betty said. "It was a big Gsell weekend!"
Whether he was donned in a headset, patrolling the sidelines at a Raider football game, blowing a whistle at wrestling practice or pacing the fairways with his golf team, Gsell was most at home when surrounded by his athletes.
"You can’t really describe the relationship with Otto unless you lived it." was how Raider Touchdown Club President and 1979 Hillsborough High graduate Bruce Wayne put it. "If you were a dedicated athlete, you were one of his boys. If you weren’t dedicated, you were in trouble. He pushed you to your limit."
Current Raider head coach Vince Coviello, from the class of 1984, smiled the same smile that seemed to crease everyone’s face when Otto’s name was mentioned. It was a mostly sun-splashed, Monday afternoon an afternoon filled with laughs, good memories, a luncheon, a round of golf, all capped by an awards and social dinner afterwards.
"As a coach, he had a big influence on you and then I got to know him even more once I started teaching since we shared an office together in the Phys Ed department," Coviello said.
"He was one of those guys who would do anything for you. A big-hearted guy, who would always stick up for kids. He wouldn’t let kids bully other kids. He would make sure he looked after everyone and he kept order in the locker room."
The tough on the outside, soft on the inside father of three was a mentor to countless high school athletes in his many years at Hillsborough.
"He had a gruff exterior, but once you really got to know him, he was a teddy bear, just a big-hearted guy inside," Coviello said.
Otto was just the second head coach in Raider football history, taking over for Joe Paulino, who established the Hillsborough program in 1970 and was at the helm until giving way to Gsell in 1988. Gsell served as Raider head football coach from 1988-1992. He spent many years as an assistant football coach and also served long tenures as the head coach of the Raider wrestling and golf teams.
It’s a sad truth that there are no current Raider players who have had any direct connection with Otto anymore. That last personal connections to him graduated from Hillsborough a few years back. For those who knew him well, it’s hard to believe he has been gone since May 11, 2000. In his honor, each year the Hillsborough High defensive player of the year is named after Otto Gsell.
While he beamed with satisfaction as Ricky Proehl evolved into one of the NFL’s most productive and durable wide receivers, Otto died just two months before current New York Giant starting center Shaun O’Hara inked his initial NFL contract. While Proehl was unable to attend this year’s golf outing due to a conflict with his son’s Little League schedule, O’Hara was easily able to make it down from North Jersey for the event.
"Coming from Hillsborough, it’s always been important for me to come back where a lot of things began for me and give back in any way I can," O’Hara said. "The Otto Gsell Golf Outing gives back to Hillsborough but is also a remembrance of a great man in Otto. And anyone who got to know Otto would know he would appreciate and enjoy this day just as much as anybody else out here. He was a great man and I enjoyed my time with him at Hillsborough and everything I learned from him."
Wayne perhaps summed up the day’s emotions best.
"I was one of the more fortunate ones," he said, "because not only did I get to play for him, but my two sons got to play for him, too. Bruce, Jr. graduated in 2000 and Andrew graduated in 2002. He was the freshman coach and in the beginning, everyone practiced together."
With a voice tinged with more than a little pride, he added, "Otto knew they were my boys."

