The influence, which Jim Karabatsos continues to have on the lives of the students who were in his classroom and the athletes whom he coached, carries far beyond the classroom walls where he taught English at CHS and the baseball diamonds and football fields where he coached CHS athletes. Jim’s expectations for students, whether in the classroom or on the field of athletics, were always challenging but fair, demanding but achievable, and the students and athletes whom he taught and coached would all agree that, as one of his former athletes has said, “Coach K was the most compelling and abiding influence of their high school years, the teacher who left the most lasting impression on their lives.” Whether presenting a classroom literature lesson or coaching a game on the field of competition, Jim was the best because he could teach both content and character, and his students and athletes recognized, respected, and revered him for his efforts. When Jim left Central to become a professor of English at Creighton University, where he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and, later, a doctorate from UNL, the university gained an extraordinary faculty member. During his tenure at CU, the university recognized his excellence, as seen in Jim’s receiving the Distinguished Faculty and Administrative Award, the Distinguished Faculty Service Award, the first Distinguished Advisor Awarand being honored as a Professor Emeritus of English, an award which recognizes him as “the epitome of what a college teacher and a human being should be.”
Jim passed away in 2013 at the age of 86.