Coach Bill Spaulding – An American Football Pioneer

NOTE from Dale (Fortitude Blogger): Some of my most enjoyable moments of researching family history occur when I meet distant cousins and hear ancestral stories they’ve discovered. One of these distant cousins, Dr. Scott Spaulding of Wisconsin, is my guest blogger this month. Dr. Spaulding is a lifelong entrepreneur, innovator in the veterinary profession, and passionate about history. In this month’s Fortitude post, Scott shares the captivating story of William Henry Spaulding (1880-1966), a college football player and later a college football, basketball, and baseball coach. 

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A Football Tradition

The fall of 1992, our son Justin is three years old. We’re having dinner in Milton, my wife Nancy, Justin and I. Immediately adjacent to the restaurant, a team of young boys playing full contact football. This midget team, decked out in helmets, mouth guards and shoulder pads, appeared to barely stand under the weight of their equipment, it was then and there, Justin uttered…”me out there, me do that now…” Hence started this Spaulding generations infatuation with football. 

The midget football team observed was part of Milton Youth Football, Justin joined the fall of his first-grade year. He was a phenom. He played 12 years of youth football, culminating with his high school senior year. The tenacious tailback led his teams to numerous great seasons, going deep into the playoffs every year, winning all conference, all region, all state recognition. Recruited by bigtime college football programs, attended the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater, played in a D-III National Championship game, transferred to Iowa’s University of Dubuque, finishing his illustrious career with All American honors. Sounds a little bit like his great, great, great granduncle Bill. 

Football and athletics run deep in this branch of the Spaulding Family. William Henry Spaulding, while I never met him, I’ve heard him referred to as “Uncle Bill” my entire life, born of farmer heritage in Melrose, Wisconsin in 1880. Bill, the son of Phineas and Hattie Spaulding, was the oldest of six boys representing America’s 11th generation descendants of Edward Spalding (1601-1669) of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. My great grandfather Hallie was Bill’s younger brother.

The Playing Years

Growing up a strong midwestern farm boy, Bill was the first Spaulding to attend neighboring Black River Falls High School.⁸ He spent school years in Black River Falls during the week, living in a boarding house, making the 16-mile trek back to Melrose fulfilling family responsibilities on weekends. During his high school years, Bill competed in three major sports – basketball, football and track. His favorite sport was played on the gridiron, I wonder who could have imagined he would establish himself as one of the greatest football coaches of all time. Bill played four years of varsity football in high school; a starter and letter-winner all four years. He was team captain in 1899 and 1900. 

Bill’s athletic skill was remarkable, exemplified in the June 13, 1901, Badger State Banner.⁷ The article reports Black River Falls High School Track Team Captain William Spaulding captured six first place finishes at a track meet at Neillsville High School. Bill put the shot 39′ 10″, recorded a 40′ 9′ triple jump, threw the 12 lb. hammer 110′ 7″, a standing broad jump of 9′ 7″, a long jump of 18′ 8 3/4″ and a 10.5 second 100-yard dash. 

As a 1901 Black River Falls High School graduate, Bill took his football prowess to Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Immediately establishing himself as a hard charging, tough as nails left halfback on the varsity football team.⁵ Earning a starting spot as a freshman, he never relinquished it until graduation. The highlight of Bill’s college career is reported to be leading the “Little Giant” squads upset of Notre Dame’s highly touted Irishmen on their home field in South Bend. 

Stopping the Galloping Ghost

In 1907 Uncle Bill’s coaching career started at Western State Normal School in Kalamazoo, Michigan, today known as Western Michigan University. Coach Spaulding spent 15 years coaching football in Kalamazoo, compiling a 62-25-3 record, a winning percentage of 68.9%.  Continuing his coaching career at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis in 1922, his 1923 team nearly won the conference championship, losing the season’s final game in Ann Arbor, Michigan to the highly touted Michigan Wolverines. In his final season as the Golden Gophers head coach, his team pulled off a win known as the “upset of the century” by defeating Illinois’s mighty Illini and football’s legendary galloping ghost, Red Grange, 20-7. Bill’s defensive strategy was credited with stopping the legendary Grange’s get-away antics cold. 

Spaulding Field

In 1925 Notre Dame’s immortal coach Knute Rockne recommended Bill Spaulding become head football coach and athletic director of UCLA’s newly formed collegiate athletic programs. Uncle Bill started the process of molding an athletic power out of a program that had been the doormat of the Southern California Conference. In 1935 the Bruins knocked off highly ranked Stanford 7-6, earning a share of the Pacific Coast Conference championship and the national ranking of 10th.⁶

Bill Spaulding retired from coaching in 1938 with an overall record in 14 seasons of 72-51-8. He continued as UCLA’s Director of Athletics until 1947. UCLA recognized Bill Spaulding’s contribution to the university in numerous ways. The on-campus practice facility for the football team is named Spaulding Field, an integral part of UCLA student life.¹ In 1971, Bill’s portrait sculpture was placed in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Court of Honor with other famed coaches whose teams performed in the Coliseum, including Knute Rockne, Glenn “Pop” Warner and Amos Alonzo Stagg.⁶

Information on iMDB – the internet movie database – lists Bill as appearing in the film Knute Rockne All American³ which also starred Ronald Reagan as the Gipper and the film The Jackie Robinson Story,^2,4 both times playing himself. 

Bill Spaulding died in 1966, at age 86, in southern California. 

Bringing this post full circle, in 2011, my son Justin’s University of Dubuque Spartans qualified for the NCAA Division III football playoffs. As playoff seedings were being considered, it came down to the Spartans playing at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois or Wabash College would play at Dubuque. Due to travel concerns, Dubuque ending up playing at North Central. Wouldn’t it have been something if Justin had led his team onto their home turf to face the Little Giants of Uncle Bill’s alma mater, Wabash? 

Final Note from Dale: As a Spaulding, I’m often asked if I’m related to the Spalding Sporting Goods founder, Albert Goodwill Spalding. I answer that question in a March 2024 post HERE. But now that we have Coach Bill Spaulding’s story captured by Dr. Scott Spaulding, it’s nice to know that, in addition to Albert Goodwill Spalding, there are other Spaulding family athletes who have competing (and left a lasting sporting legacy) at the highest levels. 

Do you have old stories of family athletes from days past? If so, please share them in the comment section below.

NOTES

1. From <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UCLA_Bruins_football> 
2. From <https://blog.wabash.edu/dearoldwabash/2019/04/23/from-wabash-to-westwood/> 
3. “Knute Rockne All American” (1940) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032676/fullcredits
4. “The Jackie Robinson Story” (1950)  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042609/fullcredits/
5. From https://blog.wabash.edu/dearoldwabash/2019/04/23/from-wabash-to-westwood/
6. From “Biographical Sketch William Henry Spaulding”, Vin Kelley, ASUCLA News Bureau, University of California at Los Angeles, January 8, 1954
7. From The Badger State Banner, Black River Falls, Wisconsin June 13, 1901
8. From personal correspondence, Allan Spaulding, Neillsville, Wisconsin 
9. Featured Image: Coach Bill Spaulding in his UCLA Coaches Office