Huskisson made impact as coach, player
Joe Goddard, Sports Columnist | Hinsdale Doings | Published September 28, 2006


The passing last weekend of popular Hinsdale Central coach and physical education teacher Bill Huskisson at a young age reverberated through the old school where Huskisson had made major contributions as an athlete with the Class of 1975 and been a faculty member for 25 years.
   
 “It’s horrible to lose someone that young with so much more to give,” Hinsdale Central athletic director Tom Schweer said. “He was such a likable guy, the kind who would give you the shirt off his back. It’s hard to comprehend how popular Bill was here. Everyone at school is going to miss him. He continued to come to class until it wasn’t possible.”

    Huskisson — a two-time, All-West Suburban Conference football lineman in the mid-1970s, a Western Illinois University All-American and Athletics’ Hall of Fame member, and the Defensive Most Valuable Player of the old Chicago Fire semipro football team in 1981 who had free-agent tryouts with the Chicago Bears and Chicago Blitz — died of complications from cancer at his Downers Grove home Saturday. He was 49.

    Huskisson had been an assistant football and track coach and head wrestling coach at Hinsdale Central. He received the Presidential Distinguished Teacher Award in 1997.

    “We, as coaches, were the direct recipients of Bill’s talents as a player and later as a coach,” said Gene Strode, the former Hinsdale Central athletic director and head football coach from 1968-88. “He was ferocious as a player at about 6-foot-2, 215 pounds, but socially he was as gentle a human being as you’d ever meet. Kids just gravitated to him. He touched everyone’s lives, including many through the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.”  

    Ken Schreiner, who succeeded Strode as athletic director and football coach from 1989-2002, remembered Huskisson for “proudly wearing” the red and white school colors.

    “He was a Red Devil through and through,” Schreiner said. “He was one of the hardest-hitting players we’ve had here. He’d throw himself into the fray. He put up such a great fight (against cancer), but eventually it got him. He’d give every effort to give you a strong handshake at the end, but it’s still hard to believe he’s gone.”
Assistant coach Gary Gamen played with Huskisson on the Fire.

    “As a nose tackle, he couldn’t be moved,” Gamen said. “He was as big as all outdoors as a player and person. I never saw him play less than 100 percent speed. It’s hard for us now to go into the locker room and see his nameplate.”

    Dr. Brian Moran, medical director of the Chicago Prostate Cancer Center and a former Hinsdale Central athlete, oversaw Huskisson’s battle with the disease.

    “We thought we had it licked, but it came back with a fury,” Moran said. “He fought it to the end.”

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be extended to the Huskisson Children’s Fund through www.adamswinterfieldsullivan.com or (630) 968-1000.
 
Copyright © 2006, The Doings