Rowan County Athletic Director Passes Away

As a former player and someone who knew Theo Helig, he was a staple at Newman Park. I never new Theo to miss a game, I even saw him at the state tournament last year. He has been instrumental in the success the Rowan program has experienced in the last half century. Below is the story from today's Salisbury Post.

Rowan Legion legend dies, leaves void at Newman Park


Wednesday, May 07, 2008 6:52 AM

From staff reports
Rowan County American Legion program athletic director Theo Heilig, an instrumental force in Rowan's long history as a hotbed of American Legion baseball, passed away on Monday.
Heilig was 90.
In 1996, coach Jim DeHart called the Rowan Legion program "the best run in the state" and cited Heilig as the biggest reason. DeHart said Heilig did "the work of 10 men."
New uniforms, new lights, whatever was needed, Heilig, whose gruff exterior always concealed a heart of gold, produced them or found someone who would.
Heilig's list of duties over the years included everything from rubbing up baseballs, to loading equipment, to washing uniforms, to mixing Gatorade. His behind-the-scenes workload was heavy, but he pursued it with a passion and a love for the game and the teenagers who played ball for Rowan County.
More than once, Rowan coaches saw tears in Heilig's eyes after one of the substitutes came through with a big hit.
Heilig was a tough guy who entered the Navy Air Corps five months after Pearl Harbor. He was a flight engineer, patrolling for lurking submarines, and he saw four years of active duty in the Pacific and the Atlantic.
He worked at Hanford's Florist before the war and returned to the flower business after he came home. He worked at one business his whole life — two, counting Newman Park.
Heilig is credited as the driving force in unifying the different Legion baseball programs in the county — Salisbury, Spencer, Rockwell — under the banner of Rowan County in 1961.
Salisbury went to the World Series in 1955 under coach Joe Ferebee, and Heilig helped convince Ferebee to return in 1967.
Rowan County then enjoyed a remarkable stretch from 1968-71, with two state titles and two runner-up finishes. Heilig turned to DeHart after Ferebee retired in 1989, and DeHart guided a state-championship team in 1993 and a regional champion in 1996. Heilig was inducted into the North Carolina Legion Hall of Fame in a banquet at Kings Mountain in January, 1973.

 

Very sad, but Theo is in a better place now and I'm sure he will be looking down over Newman Park this summer. Theo was a great guy, and thats a very good article about him.

R.I.P. Theo

 

As an avid Rowan legion supporter myself, I knew that Theo did so much for the program and is responsible for their success today. His enthusiasm and work ethic will be greatly missed at Newman Park. This upcoming season will certainly be dedicated to Theo.

 

Only spoke with him a handful of times, but he was true Rowan County baseball, thru and thru, a true competitor, and he would do anything for that baseball program, truly a Rowan Legion legend. During my conversations with him, he was also always a very nice man as well.