'Imp' Huskisson led life of leadership
Joe Goddard, Doings Columnist | Hinsdale Doings | Published October 4, 2006


We can’t say our final farewell to big Bill Huskisson, who died of
cancer Sept. 23 at 49, without mentioning the inner-child in this former
Hinsdale Central football star and coach, husband, father and friend.

He was an imp.

It wasn’t my word. It was his.

He confessed it a year ago while we were standing on the sidelines
during a Hinsdale Central home game. He was feeling pretty good from his
cancer temporarily being in remission and was hoping to be back coaching
this year.

“Having fun with my three kids has helped me get through this,” he said.
“I’m good at being an imp.”

An imp affectionately is defined in one dictionary as “1, a mischievous
child; 2, a small demon,” and in another as, “One inclined toward
unsuspecting fun.”

Huskisson laughed. “That would be me,” he said, not knowing he wouldn’t
coach again.

THE WATER TOWER: Huskisson was a big part of Hinsdale Central’s 7-3
co-championship West Suburban Silver team that qualified for the 1974 state
tournament with 10 all-conference players.

“Guys like Husk, Will Faville, Rich Pircon, David Augustine, Rich Watt,
Mike Owens, Mike Leffler, Gerry Smagasz, Tom Gorman, John Bush, Steve
Kozaritz and Mark McCoy were a little zany,” former coach Gene Strode said.
“I didn’t find out until Bill told me years later that they’d climb the
water tower on Friday nights to get psyched for our Saturday afternoon
games. If I’d known that, I would have climbed that tower myself and hauled
’em down from there.

“Bill had an old Army jeep. One day, he and his friends drove from 31st
Street to downtown Hinsdale without the wheels touching pavement. They
probably left a lot of tire marks in a lot of front yards.”

THE KISS: Hinsdale Central shared the conference title with Glenbard
West in ’74, Huskisson’s senior year, by beating the Hilltoppers on a Wally
Orton field goal.

“I was all psyched up for that game, but when I got down in my stance
for the first play, the guy across from me blew me a kiss,” Huskisson once
said.

“From then on, it was war. It was all right. We knew each. We laughed
about it afterward.”

THE DANCE: Linebackers coach Huskisson made a promise to the Red Devils
a few seasons ago that he’d do a dance if they qualified for the state
playoffs. They did, and he did.

“It was a mechanical, Mr. Roboto thing,” former coach Ken Schreiner
said. “I’ve never seen players laugh so hard. They were all over the floor.
It was pure Husk.”

THE TICKLER: Huskisson loved kids.

“Bill would come to the house well before he married Linda and they had
kids of their own,” Hinsdale Central athletic director Tom Schweer said.
“They’d poke at him until Bill would chase them around the house, tickling
them. Neighbors could hear them laughing all the way down the street.”

THE CAP: Current and former players were among the 1,500 mourners in Christ
Church Sept. 27 for Huskisson’s memorial.

Calvin Seith, a reserve lineman the last two years, drove up from the
University of Illinois in older brother Seb’s car, got a haircut, put on a
Navy blue suit, stuck a red handkerchief in the breast pocket and wore a Red
Devil cap that coach Gary Gamen had given him and that Gamen and Huskisson
had signed.

“Coach Huskisson liked working out in the weight room with all the
guys,” said Seith, who made it back to Illinois in time to get a good grade
on a makeup chemistry test. “He lifted everything in sets of seven. My
friend, Mike Cochran, said Coach had told him that was how many days it took
Christ to create Earth.”


Copyright © 2006, The Doings