Right after Rudy Yates decided to attend Northern Iowa, he headed over to Bill Weick’s house to deliver the news.
“He was sitting in his living room, smoking a cigar and eating Mary Jane candy,” said Yates, who is heading into his redshirt freshman season for the Panthers.
They chatted for an hour or more, which isn’t at all surprising. Weick was not only a Hall of Fame wrestling coach, he also was a Hall of Fame talker.
Weick died on Tuesday at the age of 85, but his legacy will live on.
He was a great wrestler in his own right, winning a state title at Tilden in 1949 and two NCAA championships at what is now Northern Iowa. Weick moved into coaching, starting a legendary career that began at Maquoketa, Iowa in 1957 and continued through last season.
Along the way, he coached on five Olympic teams, led the U.S. to the 1975 Pan American Games title and guided Mount Carmel to three state championships in the 1990s. He then moved to Brother Rice, turning a downtrodden program into one that held its own in the ultracompetitive Catholic League.
But Weick was much so more than his resume, impressive as that was.
He was one of the sport’s greatest ambassadors, a mentor to thousands over the years.
“He’s clearly a wrestling icon — not just in Chicago, not just in Illinois, but at the national level,” said Sandburg coach Eric Siebert, who wrestled against Weick’s great Mount Carmel teams in the ’90s when he was a state champ at LaSalle-Peru. “He commanded respect.”
Something that tells you a lot about Weick was how he reacted when Yates left Rice after his sophomore year to transfer to Sandburg.
“He was awesome,” said Yates, who won two state titles at Sandburg to add to the one he earned at Rice. “He told me that he knew it was the right move for me and I’d be successful.”
“He wasn’t a spiteful guy,” Siebert said. “He had done bigger and better things than everyone else in the gym.”
I covered Weick for almost 30 years and the memories that linger are of the great Mount Carmel teams led by the Williams brothers, Joe, T.J. and Steve. But even more than that, I think of talks we had over that time. Weick had great insights about his sport, but also was quick with a joke and just someone you always looked forward to seeing.
His wrestlers remember him as someone who always said the right thing.
Yates recalled coming to Rice as a nervous freshman. Weick predicted big things right from the start, including a state championship that first year.
When Yates did go 42-0 and win state, he told Weick, “Coach, I can’t believe you were right.”
Weick’s response: “I’m always right, Rudy.”
And he was always coaching. Yates recalls his concern when his coach, then in his early 80s, got down on the mat to demonstrate a move. But Weick was undeterred, saying that the Crusaders wouldn’t fully grasp what he was teaching unless he actually showed them.
Weick’s legacy lives on in tangible ways, too.
He helped organize a campaign to expand and renovate Rice’s wrestling facility in 2015 and brought in a special guest to speak at the dedication: former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The two had been friends since their high school days in the ’40s, when Rumsfeld wrestled for New Trier.
That story illustrates the breadth of Weick’s connections, and also the loyalty he inspired in his legion of friends.
The sport of wrestling has lost a giant, but his legacy won’t be forgotten anytime soon.
Twitter @mikeclarkpreps
