Written by Tom Fick 

Willie Myers, a coach, administrator and teacher at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater since 1968, will retire at the end of the 2003-2004 school year.   

“I have prayed about this, and discussed this with my  family,” Myers said.  “In my experience and contacts in my daily life I wasn’t sure that this would be the year, but starting with my dad’s passing, the state and national honors that came my way --- then to hold the team to our tradition that hard work yields results, and have the kind of season we did --- maybe God was saying this was a culmination.” 

“It’s a bittersweet moment for all of us,” UW-W interim athletic director Bob Lanza noted.  “It’s sad to have someone of such high caliber, such integrity, so respected in his profession, leave the university.  On the other hand, we’re all glad that he is going out on a high note and that he will have time to spend with his wife and family.  Even though it is hard to see him go, we wish him a long, happy and healthy retirement.”

Lanza continued, “Willie has been a good friend and confidant.  With my position as interim athletic director he has always been there to lend a helping hand.  I can always count on his ability to see what is best for the department.  He is a terrific representative of wrestling, of intercollegiate athletics, and of this university.”

Myers, head coach of the UW-Whitewater wrestling team for thirty-six years, directed UW-Whitewater teams to more conference championships than any coach, of any sport, male or female, in school history.  The Warhawks won twelve Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference titles under Myers, including seven in a row (1974-80).  He also directed UW-W to seventeen top twenty finishes in national championships, including fourth place in the 1975 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletic tournament, and seventh in the 1985 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III meet.  Before the 2003-2004 season, UW-Whitewater was listed as the sixteenth on the list of most successful, in terms of points earned at national championships, teams in Division III of the NCAA.  Whitewater was the only Wisconsin school on the list, more remarkable since many schools ahead of UW-W were affiliated with the NCAA since the Division III tournament began in 1974, while Whitewater was not affiliated with the NCAA until the 1981 championship.                                                                              

Myers’ wrestling resume includes 64 conference champions, 53 All-American honors, and 30 NCAA III Wrestling Coaches Association Scholar All-Americans.   

When asked to name the highlights of his long career Myers paused for a long time while sorting through years of memories. 

“One of my favorite moments was when Rob Llorca won his national championship at the NCAA meet in Ithaca, New York (1990), and he was so excited when he came off the mat he jumped to hug me and knocked me down.” Myers remembered.  “I think back to Randy Meyers (1989), who was totally blind, earning All-American honors, and maximizing his potential and providing such inspiration; and this year when Ross Babcock showed what people are capable of when they put their heart and soul into a task.  Our first national champion, Fred Townsend (126 pounds, 1978) is hard to duplicate, and Wade Fletcher earned All-American honors the same year even though he competed with a very painful injury.  And I think of Carmelo Flores, who came from the inner city of Chicago, earned All-American honors here (1978, 1979), and went on to represent Puerto Rico in the Olympics.” 

“I’m going to miss the interaction with the athletes,” Myers noted.  “Sitting in my office having a Twizzler (cherry licorice) with them, knowing that there is something that they need me for, to talk about.  My door will be open at home, but it won’t be the same when they can just walk down the hall.” 

Myers listed his position as coach of the NAIA exchange team to Japan and Korea in 1980 as a career, and personal, highlight. 

“In the early 60’s, while I was still competing in wrestling, my dream was to wrestle in the Olympics,” Myers said.  “The training and competition leading up to the 1964 Games, which were held in Tokyo, put such a strain on my family life that I made a decision to turn my attention to beginning a career and placing family first.  Then, more than a decade later, I was honored to coach the first NAIA exchange team.  That team competed in the same arena that the Olympics had used for wrestling, and it seemed like God was affirming that I could reach my goals, but in a different way.”

Myers also coached the 1977 U.S. World University Games freestyle wrestling team that competed in Sofia, Bulgaria, and served as the team administrator for the 1979 World University Games team.                                                                                             

Respect for Myers among his peers has also led to the presidency of the NAIA (1978-1979, 1979-1980) and NCAA III (1985-87, 1989-91) wrestling coaches associations, as well as numerous positions on national tournament, ranking, wrestling rules and executive committees. 

Myers’ retirement will end a four-year stint on the NCAA III wrestling committee.

Myers was also a key figure in re-defining weight loss and stressing education of “weight management” when a crisis within the sport occurred after several nationally prominent incidents.  

“I was on the national committee that studied the problem, and we found that there was a negative connotation on the weight loss aspect of wrestling,” Myers observed.  “We have been very effective as a sport in addressing that aspect of training, teaching wrestlers the more broad aspect of weight control.  I have noticed at national tournaments, it even struck me this year, how good, how strong, the wrestlers look.  They can step on a scale and smile.”

Within the last year Myers has been feted twice for his wrestling accomplishments.  In July of 2003 he received the Lifetime Service Award from the National Wrestling Hall of Fame “in recognition of years of dedication to the development of leadership and citizenship in young people through the sport of wrestling”.  In November 2003 he was recognized at the Wisconsin Wrestling Coaches Association’s annual banquet for forty years of service to the sport.  He was previously inducted into the George Martin (Wisconsin wrestling) Hall of Fame (1982), the NAIA District 14 Hall of Fame (1986), the NAIA Wrestling Hall of Fame (1986), and the Eastern Illinois University Hall of Fame (1996).  In January 2000 the wrestling gym in Williams Center, on the UW-Whitewater campus, revamped as part of the athletics facilities upgrade, was dedicated in Myers’ honor.

Myers has numerous people to credit for helping him develop professionally. 

“Byron James, the former coach at UW-River Falls, was a hard-nosed, hard working coach.  Other wrestling colleagues I’ve been in contact with, like Dan Gable, I’ve been able to talk to him even though I’m older than him.  More unconsciously, I’m sure my high school coach Oscar Adams at Urbana (IL) High School and my college coach Harold Pinther, taught me that wrestling is hard work, discipline and skill all working together to perform at your best.”

Myers has also devoted years to developing young athletes and students.                                                                                               

“There has been a real change in wrestling, in all sports,” Myers said.  “There is so much specialization, that the two or three sport athlete is less common, even in high school.  Technique has increased, and offseason training is more prevalent, concentration of physical development.  Athletes are looking for someone to prepare them, rather than preparing themselves.  I have seen a trend to identifying more with a team, which is what we try to do at Whitewater.  We try to emphasize that a team can be a type of family, and that was part of the feeling we had this year.  But wrestling still comes down to one-on-one competition, which is great preparation for life.”

At the time the teacher and coach in the Arlington Heights (IL) school district, Myers path led to Whitewater in the late 1960’s.  Knowing that he needed a change in his life, after changing his goals from competitive wrestling, he looked for a way to use his master’s degree in counseling.  He wrote to several colleges looking for a hall director’s position, and UW-Whitewater replied.  He got the job, as hall director for Bigelow Hall, and moved to campus.  During that era is wasn’t unusual for hall directors to have other assignments, so when he got to campus his wrestling background became known and it happened that Ed Schwager was giving up the head wrestling position to concentrate on other duties.  It wasn’t too much longer before Myers met Forrest Perkins, UW-W’s head football coach from 1956-84, at a Lions club pancake breakfast, and Perkins asked Myers to help coach the freshman football team.  Myers’ career path moved from hall director into student life, then serving as the administration as campus facilities planner.  He left campus administration to take over for Perkins as chairman of the Department of Coaching, an academic of the unit, and has been based in Williams Center full-time ever since. 

Myers time in athletics included fifteen years (1983-98) as the men’s director athletics, which included some turbulent years in intercollegiate athletics on the national scene.

Myers’ tenure at AD included the school’s first men’s national championships (basketball 1984 and 1989), planning for the remodeling of Williams Center and addition of the Kachel Fieldhouse, and planning and administering the program to meet gender equity mandates.

“Title IX was very prominent when I was AD”, Myers said, “and was certainly one of the most difficult times in terms of doing what was right for all students.  It was tough, but I think what carried us through was always looking at the result, what was the right thing to do.” 

“I’ve seen changes in athletics, but the biggest may be in terms of the funding and facilities available for all sports,” said Myers.  “Some schools believe in tiers of sports, making a name for the school with a couple of teams, but we don’t at UW-Whitewater.  We treat each team in a fair and equitable way.”

Myer’s 2003-2004 wrestling team capped the long string of achievements.  The squad helped him earn his 300^th dual meet victory (January 30 vs. Lawrence University).  UW-Whitewater hosted the 2004 WIAC championship tournament, where four Warhawks earned league titles, and five wrestlers qualified for the NCAA III championship.  Ross Babcock earned the Ben Peterson Award as the WIAC tourney’s outstanding wrestler, and Myers was named Mertz Mortorelli Coach of the Year for the fifth time.  The Warhawks went on to finish thirteenth in the NCAA III championship, with Scott Karls and Babcock earning All-American honors.  Karls, Tony Wright and Jeff Zastrow also earned Scholar All-American recognition.

“One of my favorite Bible verses is John 10:10,” Myers said.  “Jesus says to his disciples; ‘The thief came to steal and destroy, I’ve come so that you might have life and know it more abundantly.’  Applied to my life, I look at competitive wrestling in the 60’s as a thief, stealing my family and what was really important to me.  But after 1968, when I accepted Christ, I have been blessed with the abundances.  My wife, my children, none of this would have been possible without the sacrifices they’ve made to my life as a coach.”

Myers will retire from his current positions as head wrestling coach and a tenured professor in the Department of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Coaching.

Myers received his bachelor’s degree in industrial arts from Eastern Illinois University in 1964, and his master’s in guidance and counseling from the same school in 1966.  He earned his doctorate in education administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1977.