Ed Nietopsk Obituary, Death Cause – On Monday, Ed Nietopski, who had been a prominent presence in the Rochester sporting community for many decades, passed away at the age of 95. A sizable number of individuals held a high level of regard and esteem for him. After concluding his nine-year career as an infielder with the Rochester Red Wings in professional baseball, he began his legendary coaching career in 1955. Many people referred to him as “Nipper.” Because of the success of the high school basketball and baseball “ballclubs” that he coached, he is considered to be one of the most successful coaches in the annals of Section V’s competition.
“Coach was a teacher, and he was always a father figure,” remarked Glenn Hagan, who is currently 67 years old. In the same manner that he cared about the ballplayer, he cared about the individual.
Hagan, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest high school basketball players in the history of the Rochester region, affectionately refers to himself as Nietopski’s “firstborn child.” The basketball player that was inducted into the Section V Hall of Fame may be at the very top of a very long list of admirers.
Mike Rapone, a former coach for the boys basketball team at Batavia Notre Dame, told the Democrat and Chronicle in 2022 that his players “idolized” Ed Nietopski. Rapone is the boys basketball coach with the most wins in the history of Section V. “To hear his name spoken in the same sentence as mine was a pretty cool experience,” she said. In 1950, Nietopski was invited to participate in the St. Louis Cardinals’ spring training because of his rapid ascent through the minor leagues of the Cardinals’ organization over the course of just five years. He almost joined Stan Musial and the rest of the Cardinals in moving to the north, but he was the final player to be cut from the team. After another year, he was called up for military service after being drafted.
Yet what started off as one of the most discouraging periods in Nietopski’s life, when he was sent down to the Triple-A level with Rochester, came to blossom into something far more extraordinary. In 2013, Nietopski stated to Leo Roth, a columnist for the Democrat and Chronicle, that “surely it was a blow.” “But, in the end, it turned out to be the most beneficial experience of my entire life. Nietopski is said to have met his future wife, Betty, in Rochester. They have been married for a total of 72 years, during which time they have had seven children, ten grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
