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Nation's top debate coach; Left NU to aid urban high school efforts

As L. Scott Deatherage lay ailing at Northwestern Memorial Hospital after a heart attack, the electronic drumbeat began.

Across the globe, former students of the legendary debate coach at Northwestern University began texting, e-mailing and telephoning. They called his hospital room from Hong Kong, Harvard University, California, Colorado. Some drove in or flew in from Michigan, Minnesota, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

As the students he once coached and members of his family gathered at his bedside, they read him every text message. They held the phone to his ear so his debaters could thank him one last time.

"You were a father to me," some said. And: "You changed my life."

Mr. Deatherage, widely considered the nation's top debate coach, died on Christmas Day after suffering a heart attack two days earlier. He was 47.

"There are 150 urban public schools that have debate programs as a result of his work with the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues," said Eric Tucker, deputy director of the organization, which Mr. Deatherage joined last year as executive director after leaving Northwestern.

He began coaching debate at Northwestern University in 1986 and became director of its Debate Society in 1990. Seven times, his team won the National Debate Tournament, the Super Bowl of debate for college and university students. He also coached four debaters to individual "top speaker" awards and was voted "Coach of the Decade" for the 1990s by his peers.

"His record as a debate coach will be the standard by which future debate coaches will be measured," said Leonard Gail, who chairs the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues, which is based in Chicago.

Mr. Deatherage's imposing frame was matched by his generosity of spirit, friends said. He didn't yell. He encouraged, getting students to believe in themselves.

LaTonya Starks was one. The former Morgan Park High School student, raised by her grandmother, caught his eye during a Chicago Debate League competition.

"There was an aura around him," Starks said. "There was talk before you got to an event that 'Scott Deatherage is going to be there.' People talked about how many national debate tournaments he had won and how, if he believed in you, it could change your life."

He found money to help her attend Northwestern, where she became an assistant debate director. "He was the first person in debate to tell me that I could be great," Starks said.

He'd give students what came to be known as "The Speech" -- a call to excellence that grew to have a near-mythic reputation.

"They remember it all of their lives," said Dan Shalmon, past associate director of Northwestern's debate team. "It was about how being great at debate could make you great at life. . . . The four pillars were teamwork, hard work, character and commitment."

Mr. Deatherage, a Texas native, lost his mother at 14 and his father at 16. Debate became his anchor. "He had this to hang onto," said his sister, Diana Baldwin.

He received bachelor's and master's degrees from Baylor University and a doctorate from Northwestern.

Mr. Deatherage -- known affectionately as "Duck" because he walked like one -- counseled other debate coaches on budgets and fund-raising and whatever else they needed to know.

"The coach at Michigan State told me there would not be a debate team at Michigan State if not for Scott," Shalmon said. "No one did more to support debate at Berkeley from outside than Scott."

Mr. Deatherage is also survived by four brothers: Donald, Michael and Patrick Deatherage and William Lechner.

A service is planned for Texas, as well as a larger tribute in the Chicago area at a future date.