NATCHITOCHES – Services have been set for N-Club Hall of Fame coach John Ropp, who died Wednesday at the age of 95.
 
The longtime coach, who mentored athletes at every level of organized scholastic competition from elementary school through college, served Northwestern State in several capacities.
 
Starting with his playing career as a fullback from 1949-51, Ropp also spent nine years as an assistant football coach where he coached the offensive line and worked closely with the kicking game. Ropp began his nine-season Northwestern career in 1966, helping build the Demons' 9-0 campaign.
 
Ropp's visitation is set for 10 a.m. Dec. 18 at First Baptist Church in Natchitoches, located at 508 Second Street. The funeral service will follow at 11 a.m. before a private family burial service.
 
A 1992 inductee into the N-Club Hall of Fame, Ropp developed deep relationships with his players, regardless of the level where they connected.
 
"I've known coach Ropp since the mid-60s when he first came to Northwestern," said former Demon offensive lineman Kim Gaspard, who later became a coach and high school principal. "My brother was playing for him in 1966, his first year at Northwestern. I met him then and he told me, 'I'm going to recruit you when you get to high school.' I just remember the warmth he always had. You never saw him get really, really mad at anyone. He was always jovial, very intent on teaching his position. When I got into high school coaching, it was his blocking schemes I fell back on when teaching how to block someone."
 
During his nine-year run at Northwestern, Ropp coached 21 all-conference offensive linemen under three head coaches (Jack Clayton, Glenn Gossett and George Doherty) while helping the Demons establish numerous school records in total offense, rushing and in the kicking game.
 
Prior to arriving at Northwestern, Ropp had been the first head football coach at Airline High School and had turned Bossier City's Rusheon Junior High (now Rusheon Middle School) into one of the state's top programs at that level. Following his Northwestern career, Ropp stayed close to the game by selling hydraulic fitness equipment to schools throughout north Louisiana.

During one of his school visits, he ran into Gaspard, then the principal at Airline. With spring pictures being taken, Gaspard convinced Ropp to take a photo while visiting the school.
 
Gaspard also recalled Ropp's love of poetry – one that remained with him throughout the former coach's life, and one he would use to regale members of the Walter Ledet Coffee Club during its early-morning meetings in Natchitoches.
 
"He was always upbeat, positive and had good things to say," said Dr. Bill Dickens, a retired Northwestern professor and Coffee Club member who met Ropp in 1988. "He always concocted a limerick for the Coffee Club, usually nailing somebody at the end of it. He came about once a week in the end, but he was still always upbeat and positive. He was just a fun guy to be around."
 
Though they came to know Ropp decades apart, both Gaspard and Dickens echoed sentiments similar sentiments regarding Ropp.
 
Gaspard highlighted a certain blocking style that you could "ask any offensive lineman who played for him" and get the same response.
 
"He cared about teaching, coaching and working with kids – making them better, preparing them to compete," Dickens said.