Biography
Jim Franz, Sports Editor of the Beloit Daily News
Bill Knapton had already coached 22 seasons before Jim Franz of the Beloit Daily News began reporting on his team regularly during the 1979-80 season.
When I was a young reporter at the Daily News I was blessed to watch two Hall of Fame coaches in action on a steady basis: Bernie Barkin at Beloit Memorial High School and Bill Knapton at Beloit College. They couldn’t have been more different -- and yet in many ways they were the same. While Bernie no longer sported a crew-cut, his Marine-like demeanor was close to the surface. He told me early on, as he’d told many, the “B” in the middle of the gymnasium floor stood for “Barkin” not “Beloit.” He was Patton on the sidelines and to his players “the little general” deserved the ultimate respect.
By comparison, Bill Knapton was the epitome of cool. His pompadour never had a hair out of place. He sported turtle necks under sports coats. When he called me Jimmy -- no one else did that -- it was like I was a member of the Rat Pack along with Frank, Sammy or Dean-o. I liked it.
Not that either coach was easy on reporters. Bernie softened a bit, but his nostrils still flared when his coaching decisions came into question. Suddenly you felt like the kid who went to dunk and clanked one off the rim.
Bill was a bit more subtle with reporters and didn’t mind the tough questions. His criticism generally was over coverage. When Stanley left, it took a long time for the city to become infatuated with the Buccaneers again and he wanted to nurture that interest. He often provided suggestions for stories on his players. He called to remind the newspaper how important a game was, even a road game. College Sports Information Director Joe Kobylka was my frequent road trip partner on scenic road trips to places like Lake Forest and Ripon.
While Bernie’s and Bill’s styles were different, they shared much of what made them successful: an immense pride, a terrific sense for the X’s and O’s of basketball and an uncanny ability to bring out the best in each player.
I was surprised to learn Bill and I were both small-town Wisconsin boys, born about 30 years apart. He’d been a star athlete at Bloomer High School and a one-time farmhand of the Chicago Cubs.
In Class D ball in the Kansas-Missouri-Oklahoma League, one of his peers was Mickey Mantle. Of course the Mick went on to become a Hall of Famer with the New York Yankees, while Bill went back to La Crosse State, where he was captain of the basketball and baseball teams.
Bill’s first coaching job was at Stevens Point High School, where his 1952-53 team was 17-5 and his 1953-54 team won the WIAA state championship with a 25-2 mark. One of the wins at state was a 74-53 quarterfinal rout of Beloit Memorial.
Marquette Coach Jack Nagle plucked the young coach from the prep ranks and put him on his staff. He served three years as a rising assistant for a team ranked No. 5 in the country.
1957 was a big year for Bill. He married Joan, a Racine native who was a runner-up in the Miss Wisconsin pageant, and he was hired by Beloit College after Stanley resigned to become athletic director at Drake. Explaining his career move, Bill said, “I was a small-town boy from Bloomer and I liked the small-town feeling of Beloit.”
Beloit was not only a comfortable size, it had outstanding sports. Beloit Memorial was a powerhouse in nearly every sport in the Big Eight Conference at that time.
Beloit College’s golden days seemed to be in the past, however. The Bucs had been so dominant under Stanley that the Midwest Conference had expelled them. The College chose to de-emphasize the basketball program in order to build a case for reinstatement.
On Dec. 14, 1957, Bill snagged his first victory at Beloit, after three season-opening losses. The victim was his alma mater, La Crosse State, 86-83, at the Field House as Ken Monson and Jack Sanders each scored 15 points.
Bill had inherited a strong team from Stanley, but a fearsome schedule came with it. The Bucs finished 12-9 with a bid to the then-Collegiate Division post-season tournament. The College refused it.
“They wanted to prove to the Midwest Conference that they were more interested in getting back into the league than competing in postseason tournaments,” Bill said.
After going 21-21 in Bill’s first two seasons as an independent, Beloit was welcomed back into the league.
It took 10 years before Bill’s 18-4 team in 1966-67 won his first league crown. The Bucs shared it that season and won it outright the next. After that season, the College adopted a tri-semester plan that made recruiting next to impossible and virtually wiped out the competitiveness of the athletic program.
“It put a damper on all sports at Beloit College for a period of about four or five years,” Bill said. “Winning became secondary. You were just trying to put teams on the floor. Many of the kids who played at that time weren’t even starters in high school.”
Bill stuck it out and in the mid-1970s, with the tri-semester plan abandoned, Bill was able to resuscitate the basketball program. It took him 19 years to win his first 220 games. In the next 16, they won 271.
Bill went on to win 10 MWC titles in all during his 40-year run, becoming so well-respected he served on the NCAA basketball rules committee that voted the 3-point shot into college basketball for the 1986-87 season. Bill’s was the deciding vote. He changed his vote from no to yes and the tally moved from a 6-6 tie to 7-5 in favor. He later served as president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches.
“Being a part of the NABC board was a tremendous lift in my life,” Bill said. “It was something I never expected and created a stature about me that I certainly didn’t deserve, but nonetheless happened. It couldn’t help but to add to my confidence as a person and coach, even the way I felt about myself.”
Bill put up 557 victories with the Bucs and had 31 winning seasons. His 344 MWC victories and 10 league titles were more than any coach in the league. His final season snapped a string of 20 straight winning seasons.
His 1980-81 team accomplished something no team had done before or afterward. For five weeks, they were ranked No. 1 in the country.
“With that record (24-2), being number one in the nation and the chemistry we had on that team, it made it a coach’s delight,” Bill said. “Everyone fit in perfectly; they were almost interchangeable parts. They were a team you just enjoyed in so many ways.”
That team’s trademark, he said, was its toughness.
“They were talented and they were physically and mentally tough kids,” he said. “They were physically strong players. They were athletic, but the trademark of that team and something that was handed down was the physical nature of that team. Mark Smith, John Erikson, Mike Waterlander, Tom Snapp, Mike Hargrove … they were tough kids. You just didn’t cut to the basket without knowing you were going to run into someone.
“That’s the way you like to play basketball. When you get skinny kids who aren’t physical you can’t play that way.”
That team’s Waterloo occurred in a packed field house against Augustana.
In 1992, Bill reached the magic 500-victory plateau, bombing Lawrence, 79-66, at Flood Arena. Visiting Coach Mike Gallus was gracious: “I’m sorry we lost, but we’re kind of like the pitcher who gave up Robin Yount’s 3,000th hit. This is history.”
While that may have been his best squad, Bill’s favorite may well be a 1994-95 team that rose from a 2-6 record to win a MWC title when Josh Rosen hit a 35-foot bomb at the buzzer to beat rival Ripon, 61-58.
Despite all the winning he did in Beloit, it was the preparation that he loved.
“The planning for basketball is fascinating,” Bill said. “What you can do with those X’s and O’s.”
I’ve never had great love for the competition itself. It’s too much pressure. It’s almost a negative. That’s not what I enjoyed about the game. I enjoyed the practices, the kids. As far as the game itself, I can’t really say I ever enjoyed that part of it. That’s life or death. When you put this much into it, the game is too important. It means too much.
“The losing just kills you. How can you enjoy that?”
Fortunately, he won a whole lot more than he lost. And he continued to do it on his own terms in a small town.
I think I get that now. I’ve worked in the same job for over 40 years myself.
There’s a lot to be said for having the tenure and the reputation to be able to do your job the way you want to do it. Bill didn’t have pressure coming from alumni or college administration. The only pressure he felt came from within, a matter of pride that he demanded his players also possess.
