Hall of Honor
Bob Kemp was one of the most versatile athletes to attend Beloit College. A fine basketball and football player, he especially excelled in track, being regarded as an “iron man” while winning four letters and becoming the first Buccaneer to compete in the grueling decathlon. Appearing twice in decathlons and the prestigious Kansas Relays, he finished in third place as a junior and second as a senior to earn recognition as one of the nation’s top track-and-field competitors. After starring for Army basketball and track teams during 1956-58, Kemp made Illinois prep coaching-teaching stops in Batavia, Wenona, and Kankakee before guiding the Rockford Guilford cagers to a 185-120 record, three regional crowns, and three Big Nine Conference titles in 12 seasons. He resigned in 1980 to devote more time to a growing cattle operation on his 430-acre farm fear Poplar Grove, but recently began participating in master’s track-and-field competition, winning four events and placing in two others in the Illinois Grand Prize series, capturing the pentathlon at the Lincoln (Neb.) regionals, and taking fourth in the pole vault and shot in the nation master’s indoor championships. In 1985, he was inducted into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
