A three-sport star in high school …
Charlie Wedemeyer and I both graduated from Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii, albeit nearly 25 years apart, so he was someone I’ve known about for a while. He was one of the best athletes in the school’s history, lettering in football, baseball and basketball. He was so good that he was named the Hawaii Prep Athlete of the 1960s and was inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 1980. And even though, according to the Mercury News, he was only 5-foot-7 and 164 pounds, he went on to play wide receiver and blocking back for Michigan State University.
… who was diagnosed with ALS at age 32 …
Although he didn’t go on to the NFL, he earned degrees from both Michigan State and Central Michigan and continued in the game of football, starting to coach at Los Gatos High in Northern California in the late ’70s, and teaching math as well. But in 1978, a year after finding it difficult to write on the chalkboard, he learned he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a neurodegenerative illness also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was given one year to live. That diagnosis didn’t stop him, though, or the fact that he would lose his voice and was confined to a wheelchair.
… but continued coaching and inspiring.
He continued to coach the football team at Los Gatos, relying on his wife (and high school sweetheart), Lucy, who would read his lips and pass along instructions and plays to the team’s assistant coaches. And his teams responded. As Fanhouse reported, his teams finished with a 78-18-1 record, winning seven league championships and, in 1985, a sectional championship. CBS turned his inspirational story into a movie, Quiet Victory: The Charlie Wedemeyer Story. There was also an Emmy award-winning PBS documentary, One More Season, and a book, Charlie’s Victory. Sadly, last week, 32 years after his initial diagnosis, Wedemeyer passed away at the age of 64, surrounded by his family. His legacy will live on, though, as the 36th edition of the Charlie Wedemeyer High School All-Star football classic is scheduled for July 21 at San Jose’s Spartan Stadium.
Photo courtesy of Punahou School.