The new Selma High School Dining Hall was filled to capacity Saturday morning to pay tribute to the late Allen Cropsey.

Almost 500 people jammed the new building for the memorial service. A private burial for the former Selma High School teacher and coach was held the day before.

Cropsey died at the age of 80 of a massive stroke on Sept. 28. He has been treated for pancreatic cancer since earlier this year.

"The number of lives he touched with his teaching and coaching is too large to imagine," said Rev. Floyd Quenzer, who officiated at the service.

A problem with a wireless microphone slightly delayed the service. But the microphone started working after the crowd sang "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."

Speakers at the service included son-in-law Andrew Reetz; Selma High teacher, former coach and athlete Bob McGill; two of Cropsey's grandchildren; one of his three daughters, Beth Guerrero; and her husband, Mario Guerrero.

The latter has interviewed Cropsey and friends for the last three years, as he prepares a documentary of his 80 years.

McGill represented the students and athletes who had played for Cropsey. He remembered seeing him during his freshman year in 1961.

"I saw that he had only one arm and I felt sorry for him," said the Selma High teacher.

He remembered one of his first baseball practices when he was standing too close when Cropsey was hitting balls to him with a fungo.

"I backed up five steps but he hit a line drive over my head. I chased it all the way to the boy's locker room."

The coach's memory of games was incredible. McGill said that Cropsey remembered the details of a 1963 game against Exeter like it was yesterday.

"It was the bottom of the seventh inning, the count was one and two. How could he remember the count," said McGill of Cropsey.

His stepson, Russell Mitchell, told of how he was probably the only person Cropsey could not teach how to hit and throw.

In a letter to the sports section, former Fresno Bee sports reporter Terry Betterton may have said it best. "Watching Coach Cropsey hit infield was both a privilege and a lesson in life to the fullest. The Central Section has lost a coach of legendary proportions and a man of even larger accomplishments."