One of the most over-used and mundane sentences in the English language reads: They don't make 'em like that anymore."

Well, I'm sorry.

In Red Slater's case, they just don't.

George "Red" Slater died Friday at age 81. His viewing at Geibel Funeral Home fell on a holiday weekend.

It didn't matter. The line of people waiting to pay their respects was out the door and practically onto the street.

If every kid Red ever coached showed up, Art Bernardi Stadium couldn't have handled the crowd.

This man was an icon.

Inducted into the Butler Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1980, he continued coaching youths in football, baseball and basketball right up until his death.

He actually called it that way.

"I've coached thousands of kids," he said in a 2004 feature article in the Butler Eagle. "I'll probably keep coaching until I drop dead.

"I can't just sit around, drink beer and get old. That's not for me."

Not for a second.

Red lived to be 81 and never did get old.

He always insisted that working with kids kept him young.

This man coached kids for 62 years. He graduated from Butler in 1945 and began coaching the following year.

As recently as last fall, he served as president of the Butler Area Midget Football League and coached Center Township to its fourth consecutive BAMFL championship, a 7-6 win over Penn Street.

The game-tying touchdown was a 70-yard interception return by Will Bortmas.

"I didn't know Will could run that fast," Slater joked after the game.

Slater could joke with kids and kids could joke with him. They were generations apart in age. They stayed on the same wavelength because Slater loved to teach and got the kids he coached to love to learn.

"Some people think I'm just a big kid myself," he said after receiving one of numerous awards during his lifetime. "The players all call me Red. Some people think that's being disrespectful. But it's just being me."

Slater was inducted into the Butler Football Hometown Heroes in 2006. He became a charter member of the Butler Area Midget Football League Hall of Fame last August.

"I feel much better about this one," he said of the BAMFL induction compared to the Butler Area Sports Hall of Fame induction 28 years earlier.

"This one is for giving to kids and I love being around kids. I get along with all of them."

Slater once estimated he won more than 5,000 games in all the sports he coached combined. He never kept track. He was never about wins.

He was about helping kids.

When longtime BAMFL treasurer Greg Brown died in 2005, Slater said: "You just don't find people as dedicated as that guy anymore. He's gonna be missed."

Congratulations, Red.

You just wrote your own epitaph.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle.