Wayne McClain is an Illinois basketball coaching legend. His passion for not only basketball but also molding boys into men, was felt by many throughout central Illinois: from his hometown Peoria to his adopted home town of Champaign.

We are now mourning his loss. McClain - who won three straight state titles as the head coach at Peoria Manual High School from 1995-97, served as an assistant at Illinois for 11 seasons and led Champaign Central High School to a regional title in his first year as head coach Maroons last season - died Wednesday at the age of 59.

But we are also celebrating a full life.

OrangeandBlueNews.com columnist Jeremy Werner collected thoughts and statements from some of those who knew him well. Here are their stories.

Jim Mattson, WHOI-TV sports director in Peoria: "He meant so much to this town. The 1990s Peoria Manual basketball was our mini little Chicago Bulls. They were our version of Michael and Scottie. To us in Peoria, it was Frankie [Williams], Sergio [McClain] and Marcus [Griffin], and of course with Wayne McClain being the head coach. It's a very shocking, sad day in Peoria, as I'm sure it is in Champaign."

Jerry Hester, former Peoria Manual and Illini basketball player (1994-98): "I have known coach since I was maybe 12 or 13. And as an adult, I enjoyed talking about life with him as much as I did basketball."

Mattson: "He was the father figure for so many of those kids. For people who don't know, Peoria Manual's in the toughest, roughest, poorest part of town in Peoria. I'd say I'm very much underestimating when I say at least 50 percent of the kids who go to Manual do not have a father in their life. Wayne became the father to those kids. [Former Manual player, Illinois player and Illinois assistant] Jerrance [Howard] said, 'I didn't know how to put a suit on. I didn't know how to tie a tie, so we went to a basketball tournament and Wayne taught me.' Wayne taught a lot of things that a father taught most of us. He became a father figure to all those kids at Peoria Manual."

Jerrance Howard, former Illinois player (2001-2004) and assistant (2007-12): "I've known him since I was playing youth basketball with his son Sergio, who I also played with at Illinois. Coach McClain was more than just a basketball coach, he was a father figure to me. What he did for the city of Peoria and the players at Illinois was remarkable. He taught us more than how to play the game of basketball, he taught us to compete in life. He stressed being on time and I know I wouldn't have graduated or got a coaching job at the University of Illinois if it wasn't for Coach McClain. He was definitely like a father figure to me."

Sean Harrington, former Illini basketball player (1999-03) and UI basketball staff member (2008-12): "I grew up in Illinois, so I remember the Manual teams. I remember when he was an assistant at Manual. I went down to the state tournament every single year as a kid with my dad [longtime Elgin High School coach Jim Harrington]. My dad had a great relationship with Wayne as well being a high school coach. I loved watching those Manual teams. Here I am in eighth grade, a freshman in high school, sophomore in high school, and I wanted so badly just to watch those teams play. Of course he had great talent with Frank [Williams], Serge and Griff [Marcus Griffin] and Brandon Hughes and the list goes on and on. But that team was so disciplined. They were so fundamentally sound. Those teams they beat in the state tournament had a bunch of talent as well. Look at Thornton's roster and see how many NBA and NFL players were on those teams, and they beat them every year. He had a great handle on disciplining kids and getting the most out of them, and I admired that growing up and wanted to be a part of what Manual was doing at the time."

Hester: "Every player that played for Coach McClain would run through two brick walls for him. He had an uncanny ability to know when tough love was necessary, and it never changed your opinion of him. He was one of a kind."

Mattson: "Wayne was so well-known for the tough love, being a tough coach. Nobody out-fought Manual for a loose ball. Nobody out-scrapped Manual on defense. Nobody out-rebounded Manual. They were the toughest team in the state. That's why they won state titles. But tough love for the players that played for Wayne, it was more about love than it was about tough. He loved those kids when they played for him. After they played for him, he made sure they got into the right college, they got their college degree, they got jobs. Godfather is a great term for it because he truly was someone who networked and had connections that anybody who ever ran into Wayne McClain was taken care of, because he was going to fight for those kids on and off the court.

"He's a kid who grew up in Peoria himself. He made it to Bradley on a basketball scholarship. He really didn't play at Bradley but was able to get his degree there. He would tell the kids, 'I grew up in Peoria. I grew up in the projects. I grew up in the city. I'm not going to put up with your excuses. I want to hear your success stories, not your excuses. …I want to hear that you came from a tough background and you made it. I made it. Hundreds of kids at Manual made it. You're going to make it too.' His tough love was inspired by his own life."

Harrington: "With college basketball now, so many coaches leave. You're only there for three, four or five years, so it's very rare to have someone in your program for as long [11 years] as he was (at Illinois). Even before he was an assistant, Serg was playing there, so he was at the games and he was around. He was a great face for the program. People respected him in high school basketball. People respected him in college basketball."

Bill Self, Illini basketball coach 2000-2003: "Wayne McClain was not only a great basketball coach, but one of the best people I've ever met. Very few people combine honesty, toughness and certainly a passion for people like Wayne did. I had the opportunity to work with him and to be around many of the young men that he has coached and worked with. Not only was he their coach, but he was also a father figure to all of them. I had the chance to coach his son (Sergio McClain) and hire Wayne after Serge graduated. It could not have worked out any better for me to have the opportunity to work with the McClain family.

Mattson: "I think he played a big role [in bringing Sergio McClain, Marcus Griffin and Frank Williams to Illinois]. I remember the day Sergio and Marcus signed their signatures to come to Illinois, I remember Wayne saying, 'Dean Oliver's going to Iowa. Luke Recker's going to Indiana. Our kids from Illinois should go to Illinois.' He put that out there, that kids from Illinois should go to Illinois. Jerry Hester was a big part of that because he went to Manual and had a nice career at the University of Illinois. He said, 'If it's good enough for Jerry, it's good enough for my song. It's good enough for Marcus. It's going to be good enough for Frankie.' He certainly steered those kids toward Illinois. Then when Bill Self leaves, Bill Self wanted Wayne to come with him. Wayne said, 'I'm and Illinois guy, and I'm going to stay here at Illinois.'"

Harrington: "It's so big to have a guy you're comfortable with, and he recruited a lot of those kids and was involved in the recruiting process. Any time there's a changeover in staff - I went through it myself after my freshman year with Kruger leaving, and Rob Judson stayed behind - it was great to have that familiar voice and that familiar face, kind of the bridge to the new staff."

Bruce Weber, Illini basketball coach (2003-2012): "I don't know if I have ever been around a better man, whether it was with his family or with his players. He had such a huge heart and cared for so many people. He touched so many people's lives from here (at K-State) to Illinois to Peoria (Illinois). To me, he goes down as an icon for basketball in the state of Illinois whether it is in high school with the four state championships or helping Illinois win four Big Ten championships and advance to the Final Four."

Mattson: "I came into practice and I'm set up there to shoot practice at Peoria Manual. He'd say, 'Hey Jim, stick around because I'm going to throw a temper tantrum. This team needs me to throw a temper tantrum.' He'd tell you he's going to get mad at the guys, kick the basketballs out of the gym and run them. Everything he did was kind of for a purpose. I'll remember talking to him in January before a game, and I'd say, 'Boy, you got a nice suit picked out.' He'd be like, 'You should see the one I have picked out for the state title game.' He knew his team would be in the state title game, and he already had that suit picked out because he was going to look sharp for that center court of that state title game."

Harrington: "Ask any player that has played for him, if you missed class, which coach did you not want to find out about it? You would go to any coach on staff and you'd hope they'd find out about it before Wayne found out that you missed class. If you missed a ball screen or you missed an assignment on defense, you prayed to God he was looking the other way and didn't see it because he held you accountable and made you go to class and made you do all the details in practice. Any time you were doing conditioning drills you were hoping that another coach took it because you didn't want to run the drill he'd come up with. He called it a 'thriller,' and he even put on the Michael Jackson music sometimes when we had to run them. It was a minute and a half and it was the hardest drill you ever had to run. But at the end of the day, his office was just full of players coming in and out every single day and just hanging out and talking. They respected him. He was just a great role model for the guys. Some of the kids coming through the program maybe didn't have that father figure in their life and he was that for so many guys. It was just amazing how hard he could be on you but the respect that the players had for him and still loved him, so much so that his office was always full with guys up there cracking jokes, telling stories, hanging out for two to three hours after practice."

"You knew that he had your back. That's hard sometimes for players to really feel like, 'Does my coach have my back at any time at all costs?' You really felt that with Coach McClain. When you feel like that as a player, you don't want to disappoint that coach. …Players didn't want to disappoint him."

Mattson: "I've got two images that I always remember. When they won the '97 state title they're the national champs, it's a four peat, it's four straight state titles. Sergio comes off the court and gives him that great bear hug which was just a tremendous memory. But his daughter, Brindeshie, also the day she became valedictorian at Manual. He about tackled me and said, 'Hey, did you hear my daughter's the smartest kid at Manual?!' He was a great dad. He loves those kids and his wife, Robin. The personal part of it for me will remember the family things for Wayne, the passion he had for being a father, being a grandfather, being a basketball coach, being an educator."

Harrington: "He went through a phase, and it had to be anywhere between nine months and fifteen months. It had to be a long time. If he was in his car or in his office, Jay-Z's 'Empire State of Mind' was playing. He was blasting it. For a long time, that was his song. You couldn't hear it without him. You put it together with him. When we were on that trip to go to New York City to play Texas and Maryland [in 2010], we blasted that on the plane as the plane was landing. Coach McClain got a huge rise out of it because everyone knew that was his song. Any time I hear that on the radio, I send him a text, saying, 'These streets will make you feel brand new; big lights will inspire you.' I give him a line from the song. Any time I hear that song, it reminds me of him. He was fun. He was fun to be around. He always had that cool song on in the office, that cool song on in his car. Then he would put an old-school song on too just to remind you that Luther Vandross was still the man. He just had that flavor that everyone could relate to, you enjoyed being around. Those are the memories that you enjoy. I just heard that song two weeks ago, and I sent him a text. He responded right back with it with a laugh. Any time I hear that song, it's always going to remind me of Coach McClain."

Mattson: "The one year he went to Kansas State, I talked to Wayne and I could just tell he was painfully homesick. I knew he wasn't going to last there longer than one year because he loves this state. He loves Illinois. He loves that his kids were flourishing in Champaign, and his family and friends were back in Peoria. He was certainly an Illinois guy first and foremost, whether it was the University of Illinois or here in Peoria.

"Part of me is really happy he ended his life and career coaching high school because I always thought that age 14-18 - as much as the 18-22 year-old's need his guidance and you read the tweets from Dee and Deron and all the guys that played at U of I for him, he meant a lot to those guys too - but I really think he was great at molding those 14- to 18-year-olds. I think his passion was always coaching high school."

Harrington: "We can't even begin to explain how many lives he's touched in the Peoria community, in the Champaign community and just everywhere he's been."