Former Port Neches-Groves basketball coach and school administrator Cecil Green passed away Monday. He was 88.

Phil Vergara, a 1964 PN-G graduate who played under Green, said he saw Green during the 40th anniversary celebration of PN-G’s 1975 state football championship in October. Green also was an assistant football coach for the Indians.

“He was a coach for a long time, a good man, good coach and a good Christian,” said Vergara, who coached middle and high school basketball in the district from 1968-2003, including three years (1974-77) as the high school Indians’ head coach.

“He just took a very strong interest in all of his players,” Vergara added. “He was very helpful not just in teaching us the game of basketball, but he taught us how to live in the way he chose to live. I was fortunate to coach his two sons.”

Wayne Winn, a 30-year coaching veteran at PN-G, was an assistant along with Green on some of the Indians’ greatest football teams, including the “Astrodomination” era of 1974-77.

“Coach Green, there was never a better gentlemen to work with young boys,” he said. “He was always a good guy. Never got real excited. You couldn’t ask for anyone better to be associated with and to work with.

“He was a good family man and a good administrator.”

A 1944 graduate of the former South Park High School in Beaumont, Frank Cecil Green served in the U.S. Navy in Camp Kearney, California, according to his online obituary. Following graduation from Lamar University, Green was an educator and coach in the Rio Grande Valley, Beaumont and Port Neches-Groves for 36 years. He retired in Austin.

His wife Rita preceded him in death. He is survived by five children, five children-in-law, a brother, brother-in-law, and a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Visitation is 3-5 p.m. Sunday at Broussard’s, 2000 McFaddin Ave., Beaumont. Funeral service is 10 a.m. Monday at Broussard’s with interment to follow at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, 4955 Pine St., Beaumont.