In his time at the Lovett School in Atlanta, wrestling teams coached by Jim Glasser won 13 state championships.
There was one championship trophy, though, that was ripped from his grasp, a situation the competitive Glasser handled as a professional and with dignity.
"In the championship finals, one of his guys was competing and the opponent was penalized for stalling as the match ended," recalled former McCallie teammate Luther Killian. "I was there and saw it.
"When Jim went to the table to check, the tournament director - and coach of the team they were battling for the championship - erased something from the score sheet and said that Lovett had lost the match. A big argument followed."
Glasser saw the writing on the wall and told his team it had lost fair and square.
"That was Jim Glasser," Killian said.
A memorial service for Glasser, who died on March 9 at age 68, is scheduled for 4 p.m. Saturday at Lovett's Glover Gym. It will be followed by a reception at the wrestling room named in Glasser's honor.
Glasser created a legacy in Georgia wrestling circles: a .939 dual-meet winning percentage and a record of 751-48-2 with 56 state champions and 16 undefeated seasons. He is a member of the Georgia chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
Yet Glasser also left his mark on Chattanooga wrestling, first as a Mid-South winner and two-time national prep champion at McCallie and then as a leader on some of Jim Morgan's early teams at the University of Chattanooga and then UTC. He graduated from McCallie in 1967 and from UTC in 1972.
"As a teammate, he was definitely somebody I could look up to as far as having that competitive spirit," recalled Killian, who also served as a Glasser assistant for five years before returning to McCallie. "He was fun-loving away from competition, very congenial. He had a lot of natural ability. but he also worked hard at it and he was a great team leader."
Killian fondly recalled the time working with Glasser.
"There was an incredible wealth of wrestling knowledge, but he probably taught me more of how to be a coach than anybody else, and I've been associated with a lot of credible coaches," he said. "He made you feel important when talking with you, and he had the ability to do that with any person he talked with - to make them feel valued and appreciated. That was the way he dealt with people."
The arrival of Glasser and Randy Faires coincided almost directly with the beginning of the legendary Morgan's college coaching career.
"We went from famine to feast," Morgan recalled of a team that included Glasser and Faires, who both transferred after starting their college careers at Oklahoma State, along with the likes of Vic Hood, Kenny Mara, Buddy Martin and Boofer Wilkey.
The time was a series heyday for the wrestling Mocs, who at the time were competing against the likes of Tennessee, Georgia, Auburn, Alabama, Florida, Kentucky and LSU in the Southeast Intercollegiate Wrestling Association.
"Jim was upbeat, a team leader. He cared about his teammates and he was an amazing athlete, as was Faires," Morgan said. "He and Faires and the others sort of wrote my history at UTC."
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him on Twitter @wardgossett.