Veterans Archives: Preserving the Stories of our Nations Heroes

From Navy Decks To School Fields (Bill Taft)

• Bill Krieger

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A quiet act of bravery can change the course of a life. For Bill Taft, it started with a decision to enlist rather than be drafted, a choice that led from Navy hangars and base gyms to school hallways, football sidelines, and a wrestling room he built from scratch. We sit down with Bill to chart a path defined by service, stamina, and a stubborn belief that preparation and care beat flash every time.

Bill shares his early years in a big Battle Creek family where older siblings sacrificed so the younger five could finish school. He takes us through Great Lakes boot camp, aircraft engine mechanics when props ruled the sky, district football titles on base, and the day a P2V2 flipped on approach and changed how he saw risk forever. Back home, he married, worked nights at Kellogg’s, and walked on at Western Michigan at 26, stealing the spotlight with breakaway runs and a work ethic that ignored excuses.

The heart of Bill’s legacy lives in classrooms and locker rooms. He started in Charlotte, then moved to Waverly as new buildings rose and programs found their footing. He grew football from hard seasons into respect, launched a wrestling program that reached fifth in the state in three years, and took over track to collect league championships with athletes he knew since junior high. Along the way, he set simple rules—fit the helmet, respect the work, be good to each other—and did the small things that matter, like washing uniforms on weekends so parents didn’t have to.

We also talk about family, loss, camping traditions, and the way a life can be arranged with intention—from trophies on shelves to a veterans’ resting place near the airport where departures mark fresh starts. Bill’s advice lands with weight: choose education, choose your path, and show up for people. If you’re searching for a real-world blueprint for leadership, coaching, and character, this conversation delivers the details—and the heart—to guide your next step.

If this story moved you, follow the show, share it with a friend who loves sports or service stories, and leave a review with your favorite lesson from Coach Taft.

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SPEAKER_01:

Today is Thursday, October 23rd. We're talking with Bill Taft, who served in the United States Navy. So good afternoon, Bill. Well, thank you, Bill.

SPEAKER_00:

What can I do for you?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I'm glad that you had me out today. So we're just gonna we're gonna talk about your life a little bit. I'm gonna ask you some questions. Go right ahead. So we'll uh we'll start with uh what's probably the easiest question, and that is when and where were you born?

SPEAKER_00:

Battle Creek, Michigan. One of 12, well, one of 10 kids that lived. Uh-huh. I'm the oldest, but now I'm the oldest boy because the other one lived to be 99. I'm trying to outlive him.

SPEAKER_01:

So what year were you born?

SPEAKER_00:

2929.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. So you're catching up then.

SPEAKER_00:

96.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Right now. 96.

SPEAKER_01:

So did you so you grew up in that area then?

SPEAKER_00:

Battle Creek, yeah. Went to Battle Creek Central, played there football, and I did I ran track for them, and I was still in in the band. Played there, played Southwestern Band too. And I mixed it all together. I was just run, run, run, you know. Well, what was it like growing up in a family with 10 kids?

SPEAKER_01:

That's a lot of kids.

SPEAKER_00:

I'll tell you how bad it was. My oldest five that was still with us, they decided we're we're gonna skip the high school diploma and stuff like that because we gotta help mom and dad raise the younger five, of which I was one. All the younger five got to get their degree and graduate from Battle Creek Central. Our class was 475 people. So a big class, you know. So that that's how that came about.

SPEAKER_01:

So you play you say you played sports in high school?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah. Played football and ran track. Okay. Plus, I played the band. You figure that one out. You were a busy guy. You were really busy. You can talk all you want. I was so busy I didn't know one end. But you know what? I never missed work, never missed a class. Never, I was just very lucky. I had a good heart, I have a good body. Yeah. I take care of it. I don't do any of the unnecessary things like most people do. Smoke and drink and all that stuff. I don't do none of that. Yeah. I'm a loner. So when I was in high school, these guys kind of try to edge me around, you know. We we don't, you know, you're different to the rest of us. I says, that's right. That's why I'm going to outlive all of you. Well, if most of them are gone already. That's right. You your class reunions are probably pretty small at this point. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Well, see, I've been to three of them already. My oldest daughter, she's 72. She was a cheerleader for me. My oldest boy is 70, just turned 71, I believe. And he was a football uh player also under me.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

So I had those kids around me all the time, see.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

And then uh the rest of them, they had their little thing to do in the school. So they did it. I never bothered them because they were in the same school I taught. So if they wanted me, they know who where I was at. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Well, let's talk a little bit about uh you you got through high school and you graduated. And what did you do after graduation?

SPEAKER_00:

I went right in the Navy. So you joined the school. I enlisted because my brother was drafted with five kids on the way, or five kids with one on the way. Oh goodness. So they sent him back for the Navy to go and have the wife have her sixth child. Well, if once you had it, he came back to where he originally stayed in Alabama. Here, Russell, sorry. The quota for the Navy is full. Here's your rifle. You're going to Germany, Seventh Army, Patton's Army, and you'll be over there until well, he went over there in two years he was shot. Oh. You know, searching buildings and all that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_01:

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00:

They open up the basement door, and sure enough, there was one guy at the bottom of the basement, store steps, and bang, shot him. So he spent two years in Germany in the hospital. He lost part of his intestines here on the left above the leg, and also a kidney. Put him in the hospital there for two years, then he sent him to over to uh Indianapolis to this hospital there. So he spent two years in the hospital. Now can you imagine a wife with six kids? And in order to fee to see her her husband, she'd have to drive 250 miles every every week one way and then back 250. So that's 500 miles she had had to do. Well, she didn't l outlive him. She finally passed away, but the kids all grew up. Uh-huh. I'm from a large family, so like I said, with youngest five all got their degree, and the only way I was going to get a degree the way I wanted it was to enlist. Yeah. I wasn't going to be pushed around like Russell was. Because I I know what would have happened. I'd have been on the carriers, I'd have been out in uh Korea and all that stuff. So I just I'll do it my way. So I enlisted. They treated me like it when I was in boot camp, it was like I was the oldest officer in that squad. Right. That's the way they treated me. I'm only 18 years old.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

They really treated me good, of course. I never give anybody any smile. I did everything right up to snuff. We had those roll them, close up, you know, and all that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_01:

All that stuff you have to do in boot boot camp, right? Where'd you go to boot camp?

SPEAKER_00:

Great Lakes.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

I was there for this. I went in there in uh June and uh enlisted in Battle Creek. Got over there in June and it didn't leave there till December.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

But I went area uh aircraft engine mechanic to learn all that stuff about props and we s they never had this jets and all that stuff at that time. Right. They had barely got them when I left, which would was 52. But I did make up for by playing football and softball. Okay. I got all kinds of writings.

SPEAKER_01:

So you played you played football in the Navy then?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. We won the Naval District Championship, which is north of Boston, on all the base teams. We won it twice in a row. I was a leading running back. Uh-huh. Then I get down here back home and I go back to Western Michigan. I said, I might just as well go out for the football team, see if I can make it. I know I'm going to be a walk-on. I'm not going to try to trample over everybody else that's already there. I'll just make myself ready and if they need me, they'll use me. So we're playing, we're playing uh Toledo, Ohio. They're number one in our league. Well, uh I hadn't played that league yet, so uh I just said, well, I'll take whatever you offer me. So some of the schools were state champions. So that's that's five schools. You might as well say we lost that, see? Yeah. If I hadn't had that, my record would be super, you know. Exactly. So then I uh that took care of that. So I uh after six uh after the third week, we was up our third month, I should say, third year. We got to be uh six and zero, six zero. Gave me that pack up there, Coach of the Year right there, that little one with football on it. But downtown in Lansing, they got it all inscribed in the big football. My name, William Howard Taft Sr.

SPEAKER_01:

So I want to go back though to your time in the Navy. How long were you in the Navy for? Four years. Four years. Right to the day. So you enlisted in 48.

SPEAKER_00:

Pardon? I started in 48 and got out in 52.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, and so what so I know you played football, I know you played softball. Right. What what else did you do while you were in the Navy?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, well, here's what they did. They was gonna keep me under no circumstances they're gonna keep me there, see? Because I could have there's two I got pictures where there's two uh uh uh carriers right there at the base. Yeah, and those two carriers went to Korea, believe it or not, and they've had to change the top for the landing of the planes. So I knew I was gonna be on there because they told me I was gonna be on there.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

So I'll tell you what they did. I was in uh FASRON 101, FASRON Fleet Aircraft Service Squadron 101, and that had those uh P2V2s. Big plane, wood glide, all that kind of stuff. You're gonna get this team ready, they're coming up from Florida. They're all chiefs from each individual part of the squadron and part of the base and so on. They're coming to go to Reykjavik, Iceland. Now you don't have six, you don't have more than you're you don't have over six months left. So you're not going to go Reykjavik. You're gonna help these guys get on that plane, get out of fly, you know. So they got out there a hundred miles at sea, at Atlantic Sea, Atlantic Ocean, turned around, came back, lousy weather, rainy, doubt, dark, uh couldn't see too well.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, at this time they didn't have a lot of the fancy stuff on there, right?

SPEAKER_00:

So yes, they'd turn around. So they uh he tried to bring it in on one engine. He used up half his runway, trying to land it. Well, he knew it'd never stop before he got to the end of the runway, right? Yeah. So I guess he got a little nervous. He pulled back out, he said, we're gonna try to go around again and use more of that runway. Pull the throttle back, that plane goes. Upside down right there. All those guys died in that airplane. Caught fire and they burned right up. I don't forget those things. No. Another thing we had, we had a biggest robbery in the United States at that time. They came to our base and robbed our banker that was bringing us money, and they came off to Narrangans at Bay, which is right across from Newport, uh, to quats it. They took a boat over and got off. And here's the guy with a vault with all the money. They got all that money, got back in their boat, and away they went, and 20 years later it took them to catch it. Took them 20 years to catch them, huh? Oh, I bet they spent that money though. Oh, I'm I'm sure they did.

SPEAKER_01:

So what base were you at then?

SPEAKER_00:

Quanza Point.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. All right.

SPEAKER_00:

Rhode Island.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Nice small base, was it? Well, it's a nice air base. Yeah. Right on this is Narragansett Bay here. So we're here, and there and uh Newport was right here, and this is the ocean here. Okay. So this is Providence back here. So I got there in December after taking about four days of getting there, you know. Right. I had to take a bus out there and get it. And they uh welcomed me in, and the more they talked to me, the more they seem to like me. So here's what we're gonna do for you, William. You're gonna take care because you play football for me, we're gonna assign the gymnasium to you. So all you gotta do is be in there during the day. You don't even have to come near the squadron. We'll check you out. You come in, you take care of that gym, and anybody comes in for whatever they want, swimming or maybe uh weightlifting or something like that. You just oversee all that stuff and make sure that there's papers and all that stuff is cleaned up. Well, that gave me a good chance to be a punter, see?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Because I was a kid when I carried that football around at home at Battle Creek, I was kicking that ball all over the cr the uh area. Uh-huh. So that's what made me stay with it. Well, uh, we play in Patuxent River, that's uh uh District 2, that's in uh down down the on the uh on the outside of the state of Michigan. Or state of United States. Yeah, down by New Jersey, is it? Yeah, no, it's farther south than that. Anyway. Uh we had to play Potux River. They were like the number one team from that area. That's District 2. Uh-huh. So they came out to play us. Well, they had a little better team. We did, so uh, I ended up on where the goal posts are gonna kick away from the goalpost because that's had I was a punter, see? Yeah. Sixty some yards later, spiral. See, I taught myself to kick that ball as a spiral. Well, it went over all their heads, they couldn't believe it. Yeah. First thing I heard from this commander said, How would you like to go to Alabama and play on a college team? I'll get you all the books, all the paperwork and everything. I said, I'd like to do that, but I'm already challenged by my first girlfriend that wants to get married. I was never wanting to chase around with all kinds of girls. I mean, I got pictures of them, but I that's as far as I went. So they kept me there in the gym. Uh-oh. Get it off. Sorry. Oh, no problem. So I made the team. I walked on at Western, and I was 26. So you got out of the Navy and then got married.

SPEAKER_01:

Got married. And got a job at Kellogg's. Okay. Now, did you meet your wife in Battle Creek then? Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. Yeah, she was she was from Kalamazoo, see, and I met her. I get home, my sister says, Why don't why don't we go to Fort Custers and dance out there? And you can wear your Navy uniform. Uh-huh. I did that. The girl came up to me. I danced with her a couple times. I heard her say, gosh, I I'd like to marry that guy. Well, I got got to know her a little better. So after I got to Quonsett, I decided I'm gonna go when I went to back to uh Western Michigan, sorry, I decided I'm gonna walk out and see if I can't make the football team. Well, I made it. I was the second fastest guy in all the kids out there, 18, 19, 20 years old. I was 26. So I just said, they're ahead of me. I'm not gonna try to push force myself. If they want me, I'll be ready. I'll be ready. So we're gonna play this team down in Ohio, Toledo, Ohio. They came to our place, and guess what? The first time we handed the ball, 63 yards later, I've gone. Who the heck is that 27-year-old man? Running like that. And we beat him.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

We beat Toledo, yeah. I scored twice my other half on the other side. Uh he scored two twice. Uh-huh. Uh how can you beat it? Can't beat it. So So you were you were working at Kellogg at the time, though, right? Oh, yeah, every night. You were working the nights. Uh, from 10 at night until six every morning. And then you would drive to Western. The back roads. Because there was no 94 at that time. Today I could take 94 and probably take me from Battle Creek probably 30 minutes. Yeah. Because you can drive out there pretty good. Yeah. But no, I uh I had to do all the things that were hard to do. Right. That's a that's a long day. Oh, and then you're playing football too. I went out for the football team, made it, so then after practice, I'd run in, take a shower, jump in my car, drive home, get it home. I said, I'm not very hungry. Don't make me a lot of lunch. I've got to go lay down, wake me up by nine o'clock, so I'd be out at the job at ten with with my stomach. You know. Never had a mess day or nothing. So how long did you four years of this? Huh? Four years. Four straight years. Wow. That's a lot of time. What'd you get your degree in? Uh easiest thing I can think of at that time.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I think we all do that.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I wanted to be in sports. Yeah. Number one. Number two, I got it in uh what do they call that? Uh I had my own classes and everything in the classroom. We had uh all the equipment in the gym. Uh-huh. You know, and as uh accidents happened, they got rid of that stuff.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So and I'm fighting a half a gym with another woman that because she has half the gym too. So finally they they're out there building that school now. They finally built me a wrestling room, and right above there, that picture is a picture they took of me and assigned that said that I was the one that originated the wrestling team there, and I had it for four years. We ended up fifth estate. So this was this was after college, though, when you went to teach at the school? Yeah, I got my degree, but I went to Charlotte first. So you went to teach in Charlotte? Same thing.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh, not not so much phys ed, though. It was uh more or less a classroom, uh geography.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh junior high. All right. And did you coach in Charlotte? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

I had junior high, but I had an undefeated JV team when I left here because he wouldn't give me the job. So this guy, he hired the eighth man that he interviewed, took the job. He was that most valuable player from central Michigan. Uh-huh. Uh his name was uh, well, it's not necessary. He uh didn't win a ballgame. Yeah. Then he quit. After I left there, I had my home and everything right there settling. I'm glad. I'm glad it happened because that moved me into this new school, see?

SPEAKER_01:

Right. So you went from Charlotte to Waverly. To Waverly, okay. And this was in the 60s though? Yeah. Yeah, so they were just building Waverly.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, see, they built a school in 6061. Yeah. I got there in 62, okay. But I went to the middle school or junior high on Michigan Avenue.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, I was there for two years. So I got to elevated up to the head varsity football coach, but that made me uh uh let's see, I was uh three years there. I was about 30. Uh-huh. So I elevated me there, and I like I said, we had those five schools that I had to fight against, and rough schedule. I think we won one, then we won three, and then we won six. The three years. Wow. After that, they gave me that thing up there, which is a a smaller replica of the big one. It's downtown in downtown coaches. Uh-huh. So they presented that big one, signed it, showed it to me, and gave me that little one up there. So that meant I had a full day there. Right. So all of a sudden he put me in there, and that's when I ran that 63 yards. They couldn't believe it. Even the coaches said, What he did with me, he said, hey Bill, he says. So this is back at Western, though, when you ranch. He says to me, he says, Bill, we got a thing we want to do with your age. We got to have you run 30 yards this way, as hard as you can go. Then you can lop back here. Then you turn around again. Yeah. Lop back here. Again. We went there eight or nine times. He was checking my condition and me and my body and my and I was sick out of shape at that time. Right, right.

SPEAKER_01:

So you end up at uh Waverly Schools, right? Yeah. Um you were telling me uh you coached football there. Yep. But then I had wrestling there. Right. And start the program. You started the program, they they built the wrestling room and all that.

SPEAKER_00:

And that's what that thing is up there for. They originally gave that to me.

SPEAKER_01:

And and then in the middle of all that, they something happened with the track coach.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, he we were down one point. I see the basketball team was, so they're playing it at East Lansing. So the ball goes to the East Lansing far court, he bounces it once to the near court, bounced it once, and wall the ball went through the ring. But see, there was no light on it backboard yet. Otherwise, it'd been too late because the light would have been on before the ball got there.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, he went in there fighting those officials. He says, You guys are all wet and all whatever he said, I don't know. He was a religious man, but I I'm so sorry for Jim. He was a heck of a nice guy. But I was his assistant, see. So as soon as they wrote that letter, they elevated me to the track coach. No matter where we went with the same kids that I had back in junior high, we won everything we could do. I'm talking uh tournaments and stuff like that. Different schools run Lancing and everything. We won this finally we won the uh late championship two years before I left her. Which was quite a then I went to work for Shaheen, drove cars for 24 years. So how long did you work in the school system then? 30 Well, I went 59 till 98. Oh, so you were there for a long time. 61 to 98. At uh Waverley. So 37 years of teaching.

SPEAKER_01:

That's about right. And those people there really loved me there. So, Bill, when you were teaching at Waverly Schools, I was at Wynans Elementary School. Well, that's a nice school.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I went there I went there and subbed a couple times after I got out of teaching.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so I I was there uh from first grade through uh fourth, no, through fifth grade, actually. All right, what year was that? So that would have been Roughly uh 70. Let's see. I was I was born in 65, so that would have been like 72. Oh, that's what my brother, my son is went to school at the time. Mr. Flowers was the principal there. Who? Mr. Flowers, oh yeah, yeah. He was the principal there. I knew them all, and I think I had Mrs. Price as a teacher and Mr. Reisner as a teacher. Nice bunch of teachers. Yeah, Mr. Reisner, I always remembered he would do two things. One, if you answered a question, he'd always go, Would you bet your life on that? Because he wanted you to be sure. And the other thing was if you messed up in his class, he would yell at you and tell you he'd nail your hide to the wall if you ever did that again.

SPEAKER_00:

See, that's something I never did with my kids. I've never had to yell at him. But he was a good teacher. Oh, yeah. He was a great teacher. He was, yeah. Yeah. So And I I I subbed at Colt School after I retired. I I went to the one over here off from uh what is that road there that's uh off Willow. Oh yeah. Now they're bit rebuilding the woo new one in Lancy School District off Willow. That's gonna be a peach of a school.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, Willow uh Willow Street Elementary there. That's right.

SPEAKER_00:

That's gonna be nice when it's done.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, it is. And they're rebuilding um Yeah, the why not they're rebuilding winins. You're right, exactly. They're doing a lot of work on there. I was I I substitute teach, so I was good for you. I went back and substituted in uh in one of the classrooms I went to. So that's great. Yeah, so so anyway, you uh thirty thirty-seven years in teaching, and um, you know, the people listening can't see it, but you have all kinds of awards, and you were in the coaching hall.

SPEAKER_00:

That's all full right there.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, all the things I ever done. And you're uh you're in the coaching hall of fame?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, uh huh.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep, here in the that's that yellow plaque, right?

SPEAKER_00:

We just went through that. I was the number one they picked. That's awesome. And the guy next to me, uh, I have a picture of it, but he he was the only state championship basketball coach for Waverley. Odlem, his name was, Odlem.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

And he had four kids that went to Waverly. Okay, but a lot of them are Kellogg. Uh I even went to play uh uh s high school uh summer summer sports for either uh Kellogg Company or uh GM or I I just and then I played I was a golf uh a uh bowler and everything else. Oh yeah. This guy came to me one day and he says, How would you like sub for me? I said, What's the matter? He said, Well, something came up I can't be there and I said so you want to go? And I said, Yeah, I'll take your place. What well it was over on the second one. Bowling alley right there.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, the one right on uh right off from uh Grand River?

SPEAKER_00:

No, not the other one before that. Oh gosh. Before you get to uh Grand River. Was it Joe Joseph's Pro Bowl? That's well, that was it. Okay. Yeah. Yep. So I I uh I went there and I walked in and uh found the team I was supposed to be subbing for, and I said, I'm your sub because he can't be here tonight. So I started bowling, and I just had one of the best nights I ever had. And he says, Guess what? You just won the pot.$400. The luck was with me.

SPEAKER_01:

It's like you can't lose, Bill. 63-yard touchdown.

SPEAKER_00:

I never lost nothing.

SPEAKER_01:

State championships and 400 bills.

SPEAKER_00:

No, I I'm just so that so you know, happy about everything. I I got more things in the basement, shows up, uh, hangs out. I got my uh uh license to be on in the Navy and all that stuff, you know, that you gotta go through. But I tell you, it's been the greatest life. And I have friends now like you and Bruce, and I I feel like more of an out person, you know, instead of being stuck. But I've been here for almost five years now. Uh-huh. Right here alone.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But I'm trying to keep things up, make it it looks like it's been lived in. That's all I care about. You gotta you have a comfortable home. Oh, thank you. That's what you have. It's very comfortable. And a nice backyard, it's all all uh bushed up that I went and raised.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I mow the yard yet, but I feel I'm gonna need volunteering because I camper.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00:

My second wife was a camper, so I married her, and these two girls I have are down camping with me at their place that they're gonna have when I pass. Uh-huh. Because they're the only thing in my family, my own family, that my own kids don't like to camp. They'd rather go to hotels and stuff like that.

unknown:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, you know, there's there's a so how many how many kids do you have total? I have six right now. Okay. And you so you got married right around the time you were in the Navy. 52. 52. So I got out out of the Navy first, yeah. 52. And then how when did you how long were you married to your first wife?

SPEAKER_00:

About 25. Okay. And you had children with her. Oh, yeah, we had four kids. Okay. The problem was she just ignored, she was sorry, being home all the time by herself while the kids were at school. Right. And she had a job. I got her Kellogg taught me, all she had to do was hand out clean uniforms to people who worked in the uh packing department. Uh-huh. Because they were the ones that handled all the food and everything, you know, the box and all that stuff. So are it still in? Are we still alright? Oh, yeah, you're good. I'm just I'm just watching everything. That's good though. So I gotta I would like to have you read this if you get a chance.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

I can't let you go. It's the only copy I got right now. But that's that shows you right there what it looks like up there. Uh huh. This tells you about if you don't mind.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, let me know. I'll read that. I'll read that when we get done before before I go.

SPEAKER_00:

That's a picture of me just like the one behind you.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

They took a picture of me and hung that plaque up after they built the uh wrestling room and everything after I was already gone from wrestling. Right.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But that's all right. Hey, I originated the program and we ended up fifth of the state in three years. That program is still there, right? They still have it, but they they're not gonna win. You know why? All the junior high schools are no get no play. They don't play enough unless they want you want watch your kids do this. Yeah. Well, I have a daughter, I have a granddaughter, my oldest one. She had four kids. And you know what she does? She lets them try anything they want to try, and she's with them like a homebody. Let's go here, let's go there. If you like it, fine. If you don't, don't go back. We won't take you back there. So she lets them make their own decisions. That's what you gotta do. Let the kids uh nobody told me I had to play football or anything. I just that's what I had upstairs, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you enjoyed it and so you. Oh, I loved it. I'd still love it right now. What do you think the of all the things you've done, what do you think the what do you think the highlight of your life is? Like what's what's something that you just something for the kids. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00:

I treated my kids like were my own. I never had trouble with my own kids. Right. And I treated them the same way. So uh like I said, the uniforms could be filthy. I wouldn't send them home with with a boy to take them home to mother. I would spend the weekend washing them.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Drying them, folding them up, putting on a number where I had outside. Hey, they appreciated it. Those parents were good to me. Everybody was still good to me today. I could walk out there and somebody said, Hey coach, how you doing? You know? Yeah. Yeah, you really forget those kind of things. You really left your mark on the oh that's what I did. I was always that way, and I was only born in f in the my family. Uh one was a state champion diver when he went in the Air Force. Air Force take him right with him when they had a swim in it. He'd do that double way up area. You know, he was fantastic. He for Battle Creek, but he could swim that lake out there.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Right there, he swam that lake when he was uh still in high school. The two trophies up there on the right, those are for wrestling. First and second year, they had it. Third year is 31 and 7 total, and we were fifth estate.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow, that's 31 and 7.

SPEAKER_00:

That's a pretty good record. Three years. Yeah. But see, I I give my credit to me because I had to think how am I going to get these kids involved so they know anything in their first league championship. Yeah. And they only lost two there. That's because they had to play Sexton and Eastern. Sexton and Eastern was just like this for two years. Uh-huh. One and the other one. So I said, well, now they're gone. The kids are gone. Now it's our turn. Right. And that's what they did. They went out there and tore everybody we played, everybody wrestled on our team. All made points of some sort. And that's what how we won. But we had to play the league team too, so in the league, I should say.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But I don't think the wrestling is going to go too far in high school anymore because unless you were outside the perimeter of the Lancing area, they still have some outside schools that have junior high phys eds. That's what I phys ed major. That's what I was. Okay. You get forget. All this stuff here is all my wife's, I built this room on just for her. Uh-huh. Myself. In the summertime. This was donated to me by one of the kids. And I put that other thing above it. And then I got all those trophies up there. Plus, I got the thing in the basement. Uh, that I still left a lot of no way to put on a brick. I didn't want to put them on the brick.

SPEAKER_01:

So I I'm sorry, how how long ago did you lose your wife?

SPEAKER_00:

Almost six years ago. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Second wife. Your second wife, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

First wife is already gone already. Right. Well, she went to Battle Creek and ran into her boyfriend from Kalamazoo that she knew in high school. Oh. And he was married, had two daughters, but he uh let's see, he was my age. He might have been a year older than me, but he's gone. And so she went down there and married him. She's gone. And we're both cremated. They are. Yeah. And my wife is cremated. All her stuff is in that big music spot. So I the rest of it's over there on what we had on that table in there. Right. So I separated that for my daughters so that when the when this house is gone, they'll have everything out of here because they're gonna sell it or sh they're gonna take it. Right. They'll know what's important. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

That's why she don't want to take stuff down while I'm still alive.

SPEAKER_01:

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00:

See, those those cabinets are full of nothing but Christmas stuff. Uh-huh. There's two in the front room the same way. Because my wife says, my second wife says, let's fill these things up with buy as we go along. That way we don't have to get it out. Right. It'll just it'll be out. No Christmas tree. Well, I could have had a little one, you know, out here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I you know, I think we got sidetracked a little bit. You um, because we were talking about you retired from the school district. Yes. And then you started driving cars for uh Sheen Chevrolets. Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

And that's like if someone bought a car and they needed it taken somewhere, or you exactly I could either take exchange it myself or buy one and I'd have to take somebody with me. I would be the lead driver because I was the oldest one there at the time. Uh-huh. Now, some of those guys were picky picky. I I don't like when they're picking on you, you know.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

I was the oldest man, so he says, why don't we get Shaheen? I heard this in a van. Why don't we get this these 90-year-old drivers retired? Because he was like 85 or something like that. They're all gone now.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I just lived my life, you know, kept my mouth shut and just live my life, just what I've taught, same thing.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

Basketball coach walked in on one of my football meetings. I said, What are you guys doing here? He says, Well, we come to tell the kids about basketball. Basketball is not here yet. This is my football program. If you want to talk to them, you wait till they get to you. Because I have my rules. All I ask my kids to take, shave it good enough so I can fit that helmet. Once it's fit, I don't care what you do, as long as it fits your head. Because that's that's the most important part of your body if you ever get hurt. And I played all those years, never got hurt. Right. So like I told you, we coach, we have a place down in Homer, Lighthouse Village, you call it. Beautiful campground. I've been there for 47 years. Every weekend, usually. Yeah. But they what they do is they shut the water off, and it's just been shut off about a week now. But it's not, it's not uh part of the association of of uh campers. So that means the state don't have anything to do with a lot of things unless it's something that they need or want. So we go down there, uh, she'll be going down, we'll be going down probably Saturday and winterise the trailer, just blow the lines all out and everything. And whatever else is done, we can get it done, Bill. So that but you know, guys like you is what I miss. Because I like to talk, I like to be around people that are enjoyable, that I know that they're not screwing around and getting in trouble and anything. I never had the only thing I ever had in football was these kids were juniors. So the bus rule was you ride on the bus, you come back on the bus. These three kids did play because we were playing Jackson, Lumen Christie, you know, that's that Catholic school now. They got a great team. They had it until we beat them. I told the kids at halftime, I said, we're down eight, we're down eight to nothing. Halftime. I said, you know, boys, I've been down here three years now. I had to go home as a loser. I think we have the kids right now, even though we're down eight points. I think we got the kids. Fullback, you're gonna have to run a little harder because we had snow on the ground. They wouldn't let our superintendent wouldn't let our kids sh shovel it off our field out here. So they got a hold of Jackson and he said, Well, we have a grader down here, and all we've got to do is grade that field right down to the dirt. That's what they did. Now you ought to see that field. It's all beautifully.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's a nice field.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, that's for sure. Gorgeous. And the one over there at uh college, little to college on the way down toward uh south, they got an all-weather track, a field all painted out of the field. They never had to do nothing.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

It's all done.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Really nice. Expensive, but it's nice.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

So anyway, I just said, well, I'll do the best I can in everything I did. Sometimes you do it alone. Wrestling, I had to do it alone until I get it started. Those kids took off in there like uh like I wanted them to. So they all followed me through. Track. And boy did we wind up there. I imagine we we had one over eighty-five different and we won the league championship before I got out there too, so that's incredible. I got I got other well, there's one up there with a shoe. There's another one up there that's thankful for being part of and all that. You should take a minute and look at those things when you for you know. When we get done, I wanna I wanna look at your well absolutely showing some of these albums. Yeah. Even if all you gotta do is look. But I was just a kid. I when I went through junior high, they didn't think I was gonna amount to much uh as far as a player. But you know, some people grow. But I grew up to be a little older, but boy did I cash in.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you learn how to play and you learn how to coach.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So so, with all that said, we've talked about a lot of stuff over the last hour. And so, kind of as we wrap up the recording, um, I always ask the same question towards the end, and that is for someone that's listening to your story or watching this, you know, years from now, what would you like to leave them with? What advice would you like to give to people?

SPEAKER_00:

Most important thing I did in my life is is go to college because I'm about the only one that went to college in my family, and I I went with the idea I was gonna enlist so I wouldn't be pushed around this way here. I could get into the area I wanted to be in. It's treated me very, very good. Everybody's been great with me, and we wanted everything we tried to do with the same kids. I would I if I could do that whole thing all over again with the same kids, I wouldn't hesitate a second.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

The greatest kids I could ever have, because today they're not that way in junior high. They get noisy, and you know, they they don't want to put their phone away. All that kind of stuff that you gotta go through now.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

In a way they did me a favor because my wife divorced me, see. That's the reason the reason I got out of football. I thought maybe football would bring her back home. Because I'd already already lost in in wrestling with her. I mean, uh they gave up my wrestling, I mean. Yeah. So that wasn't the reason she left. She just ran into this boyfriend of hers that was still alive, and he'd he was uh divorced, and so she wanted divorce so she could marry him and bingo. So now we're gonna be cremated too, my wife and I. I have uh what I did for my wife, and I'll tell you right now if it's all right, I went out to cemetery here, west of the airport.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

All right, if you take that road off Grand River and you go out like you're gonna go to DeWitt, that first curve off that road, you come down this road, and before you make this turn, you look back, you see my bench already made up. I got all her stuff in the in there that's gonna go in there. It's all cremation and all that with a little puppy dog and everything, and I'll be right next to it. It's all labeled. All painted inside and everything. It's a black slate, so don't rust. And the top, it's all done in white. So if you're coming or going, you'll see it if you look for it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

It's right on the uh the area where the vets are buried, you know. Vets uh part. And you see that just before you make this turn straight, or you make this turn back, you can look backward and see it. I had it headed toward the airport so that every time the airplane takes off, he takes off over my head. Well, there you go. You can watch people going on vacation. So we used to go out and watch it, but say they don't allow that. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Not anymore. Well, Bill, I appreciate you taking time this afternoon to take a look at. I'd take more time as long as you as long as you don't get bored. No, no. So we'll uh we'll wrap up the recording and then I want to take a look at some of your stuff.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, yeah, that'd be fine. I want you to read that article, then you see what kind of life I really had. Yeah. What I what we just went through here. All right. Well, thanks again. Well, anytime. All right. Anytime I can help you out, you just holler because I got a lot of things. I will do that.

SPEAKER_01:

All right.

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Bill Krieger

Host