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![Mr. Esper Keiser [Teacher -Boys' Pe]](/000/4/5/3/7354/yearbook/Mr.-Esper-Keiser-Teacher-Boys-Pe-1959-Claremont-High-School-Claremont-CA-Claremont-CA.jpg)
Our beloved Coach Esper Keiser passed away this week at his home on Balboa Island. He had been fighting heart disease for years. I know Esper was a major positive influence in the lives of so many CHS teens during his long coaching & teaching career, & he practically grew up with our class as he was a young beginning coach when we were in school. He always had a happy smile & a word of encouragement, and was as much our friend as our teacher. Sharon Esterley, Class of '61
Former Claremont coach Keiser dies
Clay Fowler, Staff Writer, The San Bernardino Sun
Esper Keiser, a renowned football coach and teacher at Claremont High School for 40 years, died last week of heart failure at the age of 74.
Keiser began his career at Claremont in 1959 and retired in 1999 having spent 22 of those years as a football coach. He was an assistant coach for 12 years before a 10-year stint as the head football coach beginning in 1968.
Keiser died at his home on Balboa Island, according to the Claremont Unified School District.
"We played better than we were because of how much we loved him," said Brad Kessler, who played under Keiser from 1970-72. "You knew that he cared so much about you that you wanted to be better for him. He was really an influential person, even outside of football, at the high school."
Kessler, a highly recruited running back who was a first-round selection of the Cincinnati Reds out of Claremont, was one of the many great players under the tutelage of Keiser.
Several former players of Keiser's noted their awareness of the coach's presence even before arriving at Claremont High School. The coach was known to pay visits to El Roble Intermediate School to speak with future Claremont students and football players.
In addition to coaching football, Keiser was a physical education teacher at Claremont. By all accounts he had a wide-ranging effect on the student body that reached well beyond the football team.
"He was the guy that everybody looked up to," Rob Haerr, a defensive back under Keiser in Claremont's class of 1976, said. "He was a gentle, warm and caring person who really wanted to be your best friend. I remember the first time I saw him when I was a junior high kid riding my bike by the high school. He just had such a presence at Claremont."
A banner paying tribute to Keiser and his effect on those he touched in the Claremont community is expected to be hung today on the Claremont High School fence that borders the football field and faces Indian Hill Blvd.
Keiser inspired his players to the degree that early in the 1972 season one of the captains of the team constructed an impromptu fable that the coach was suffering from an ailment and Claremont's game against an Upland High School team ranked No. 1 in their CIF-SS Division could be his last on the sideline. Claremont won the game by the score of 32-0.
Kessler recalls throwing a halfback pass that went for the game-winning touchdown in a playoff game and Keiser ripping off his headset, sprinting onto the field and lifting Kessler off his feet in celebration.
Kessler was one of the players who regularly visited Keiser's home for weekly meetings the coach conducted in order to prepare the football team captains for their duties.
"When we would go to his house there was invariably a flood of former players coming to see their old coach," Kessler said. "It was amazing to see how many stopped by to say hi. He was an endearing figure for all of us."
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Steve Burt (1961)
Today I mourn the loss of my good friend and coach, Esper Keiser. Coach passed away two days ago at his home on Balboa Island. He brought me back to faith in a time of darkness in my life. His faith, selflessness and gentle manner made him a leader and popular icon at Mariners Church in Newport Beach. We shared so much in so little time but it seems like an eternity of love and friendship. You've found the peace you were promised. God bless you, Coach.
- Steve Burt