John Raffensperger’s home on Brookwood Drive in Iowa City was flooded with visitors over the past week and a half.

Friends and former athletes streamed into the Raffenspergers’ living room to say goodbye to Coach Raff. Those who came weren’t there because of the 10 state track and field championships he won as a coach at City High School.

We came because of Coach Raff the man.

Coach Raff was withering in a makeshift bed, but still quick-witted in his final days under hospice care. On Sunday night, his six-year battle with cancer came to a peaceful end.

As his wife of 55 years, Sharon, put it Monday: “He ran his last lap last night. Cancer finally won the battle.”

Notice earlier I used “we” — I ran for Coach Raff for four years at City High, from 1989 to 1992. I was an average distance runner, but he always showed me as much care as he did my much-faster teammates like Joey Woody and Tim Dwight.

Coach Raff, then an American Studies teacher, would lend me his ear to discuss possible event lineups. Sometimes, we'd just chat about my Chicago Cubs vs. his beloved St. Louis Cardinals.

The day after meets, he would find each of his athletes around school and present them a hand-written recap of everyone's performance. Varsity. Junior-varsity. Freshman. It didn't matter; each of us got listed by Coach Raff. Every lap split of my 3,200-meter run would be included. If you ran a personal-record (PR) time, you could look forward to Coach Raff writing a little comment on the side like, “PR! Great job!”

Those pieces of paper meant the world. I never scored a single point at a state meet during Coach Raff’s dynasty, but that didn't really matter to him. Though I didn't fully appreciate it then, I realize now he just wanted to be a constant, positive influence in my life.

Coach Raff always made things fun.

Like when he would hand me an upside-down photo copy of the baseball standings from the newspaper — saying that’s the only way I’d get to see the Cubs in first place.

If he saw you sitting alone, he’d quip, “Hey, I see you’re sitting with all your friends.”

He knew what he was doing, too. His daily workouts for us were meticulously designed with a purpose. They were hard. But you didn't want to disappoint him. He made you want to run harder in practice for him, for your teammates. Everyone pushed each other, because we loved being part of the Coach Raff family.

Coach Raff's dynasty officially began my senior year, 1992. It helped to have one of the greatest athletes in Iowa high school history in Dwight and a future World Championships silver medalist in Woody. That year, we won the first of Coach Raff’s 10 Class 4-A championships in 11 years. That still remains a record for any track coach, any classification. The titles came in 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002.

He retired from high school coaching after the 2003 season — but anyone who ever ran for Coach Raff knew he couldn’t totally let go of the stopwatch.

For the past 13 years, he has been a volunteer assistant coach at Iowa, coaching side-by-side with Woody.

Never made a nickel in 13 years, but wanted to be there to help. And he did.

Woody was one of Coach Raff’s final visitors, on Sunday.

“He’s got a good heart and was always looking out for the best for the athletes,” said Woody, Iowa’s director of track and field. “And his one-liners. He always had the one-liner.”

The track at City High is called the “John Raffensperger Track” and the biggest annual meet is the Forwald Relays, which happened to take place Thursday.

Dwight, a legendary sprinter in our state, had visited Coach Raff earlier in the day. That night, Dwight went to the Forwald Relays and used FaceTime so Coach Raff, from his living-room bed, could be a part of the event one last time.

The final event at Forwald is the John Raffensperger 4x400-meter relay. One of Coach Raff's two sons, David, was there to present the winning team an award.

“A lot of people I didn’t know came up and hugged me,” David said, “and told me how much he meant to them.”

Coach Raff's visitation, fittingly, will take place Sunday in the City High gymnasium (time TBD). The funeral will be Monday (11 a.m., April 29) at the First Presbyterian Church on Rochester Avenue. The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to either the Iowa track and field program or to the Raffensperger scholarship through the Iowa City Community School District Foundation — given annually a senior track athlete at City High.

“He did love (track),” Sharon said. “That’s why we’re waiting until after (this week's) Drake Relays to have his funeral.”

It was just two months ago that Coach Raff was up and around, still coaching at Iowa. He and Sharon would walk for 40 minutes at a time, three times a week. But then he became hospitalized with pneumonia and the flu. He had fought back before, but this time the complications with cancer became too overwhelming.

Coach Raff would send me e-mails from time to time. The last one I got was delivered Feb. 26 and titled “Raff health.”

That’s a subject line that gets your attention.

He said he wasn’t doing well. He said he was missing my columns; that he wasn't getting the Press-Citizen in the hospital.

“When you write your next book mention the Big 3: Dwight, Woody and Leistikow from the 1992 powerhouse. And my small role,” he wrote. “Keep up the good work.”

Always a comedian. Always personable. Always a positive influence.

Coach Raff, you were a great man in every way.

We miss you already.

Columnist Chad Leistikow has covered sports for 24 years with The Des Moines Register, USA TODAY and Iowa City Press-Citizen. Follow @ChadLeistikow on Twitter.