Robert Joor was a standout basketball player during high school in Chicago and later at Lake Forest College before embarking on a two-decade career coaching boys basketball at Waukegan High School — a time when he led the team to a berth in 1975 state basketball championship tourney in Champaign.
“He was methodical, and he laid it down,” said Haywood Campbell Jr., who played basketball for Joor in the mid-1970s. “Under Mr. Bob Joor, we practiced, and we practiced.”
Joor, 95, died of natural causes on Dec. 3 while in hospice care at a hospital, said his daughter, Linda Kica. He had been a Lake Forest resident for more than 65 years.
Born in 1930 in Chicago, Joor grew up on the city’s South Side in homes at 7251 S. South Shore Drive and at 7224 S. Paxton Avenue. He played basketball at South Shore High School, where he was selected all-city both his junior and senior years. In 1947, he was a member of South Shore’s senior league team, which defeated Leo High School 37-28 at the old Chicago Stadium for the city championship. Joor was a starting forward in that game, playing alongside center Jake Fendley, who eventually played in the NBA.
After high school, Joor earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Lake Forest College, where he earned four varsity letters in basketball and led the team in scoring each year. He also was selected all-conference three times, and he set Lake Forest’s scoring mark, which was broken less than a decade later by Dave Jacobs.
After college, Joor served for two years in the Navy, including spending some time stationed locally, at Glenview Naval Air Station.
In 1955, Joor earned a master’s degree in physical education from Montana State University. Right after that, he began coaching men’s basketball at Aurora College — now Aurora University. In 1957, Joor took a job at Waukegan High School, teaching physical education and coaching freshman and sophomore boys’ basketball.
“Because he played well, he wanted to be successful at coaching, and he liked Waukegan High School because it was…more diverse than a lot of places,” Kica said.
Joor moved up to become Waukegan’s varsity basketball coach in 1971. His teams had great success — none more so than his 1975 squad, which won the state Class AA super sectional at Northwestern University’s McGaw Hall but then lost to Chicago’s Phillips Academy in the state Class AA tourney in Champaign. Joor’s players included Campbell, Chris Calhoun and Greg O’Bryant.
Joor also coached future NBA player Jerome Whitehead on his 1974 squad.
Joor stepped back from coaching basketball in 1977, but he continued teaching physical education at Waukegan until retiring in 1986.
In 1975, Joor was inducted into Lake Forest College’s athletic hall of fame. He also was inducted into the Chicago Public League Basketball Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame in 2012.
In the early 1960s, Joor served as president of the Rondout School Dist. 72’s school board in Lake County. Other interests outside of work included operating a summer painting business — which he continued doing for several years after he retired — and fishing, hunting and traveling. Joor also was an avid collector of old cash registers, and he had more than 30 cash registers in his possession at the time he died, his daughter said.
Joor also spent recent years with four faithful canine companions named Robin, Daisy, Blossom and Bill.
“Dogs were his life,” his daughter said.
Joor’s first wife, Jean, whom he married in 1956, was his high school sweetheart. She died in 1988. Two subsequent marriages ended in divorce. In addition to his daughter, Joor is survived by another daughter, Karen; a son, Rob; and two grandchildren.
Services were held.
Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
