Something just doesn’t smell quite right over on the southwest side, up there on the hill.

Cedar Rapids Jefferson Principal Chuck McDonnell has fired the winningest high school softball coach in the United States ... with a phone call to him. Larry Niemeyer was removed of his duties in a call from McDonnell last week.

You saw the same thing happen at Penn State months ago when football coach Joe Paterno was fired ... in a phone call.

Is that the way we do business these days?

Niemeyer, 74, coached softball at Jefferson for 35 seasons and none of them resulted in a losing season (the worst: 25-22). He took the J-Hawks to 18 state tournament appearances and three state championships. With his years at Adel, he has won 2,089 games.

With that kind of resume, you would think the school would want to name the softball complex after Niemeyer, not fire him with a phone call.

Niemeyer resigned his head girls’ basketball coaching position at the end of last season after 34 years. Some are not quite so sure the decision was entirely his choice.

He also retired as a Jefferson teacher in 2011. Now, a Jefferson legend – in fact, an Iowa high school coaching legend - is gone from the sidelines, at least from Jefferson.

Niemeyer has had some health problems recently, missing about half the J-Hawks’ ballgames this season. But he had indicated to people he intended to return to the softball diamond next year.

Has Niemeyer been forced out of his coaching positions without cause? Well, we don’t have access to McDonnell’s personnel file on Niemeyer. But the resume seems pretty solid, no?

Niemeyer has not been a universally popular figure. Years ago, there were some who believed he recruited players from other schools, although that was never proven. He also was sometimes perceived as a gruff and tough figure, hard on his players, but most of his alumni will tell a different story.

There is the argument that Niemeyer stayed around too long, didn’t know when to call it quits. Some people have a difficult time walking away from something they’ve known and loved for much of their life. They get stuck in their ways and sometimes get stale.

Perhaps that was McDonnell’s feeling when he told Niemeyer the softball program needed to go in a “different direction.’’ That’s often a convenient way of saying, “We appreciate what you’ve done, but it’s time to go.’’

As Niemeyer was quoted as saying, “What do they want to change to? Losing?’’ It just doesn’t smell quite right.

There are some people who have contributed so much to a program that they deserve to go out on their own accord. Niemeyer is one of them.

(Mark Dukes is former sports editor of the Cedar Rapid Gazette. He is co-host of The Gym Class radio show weekdays from 3-4 p.m. on KGYM-AM 1600 and FM-106.3.)