One Year Later

Charlie and Lucy met in high school.

Charlie Wedemeyer, the Los Gatos high school football coach whose 32-year battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (“Lou Gehrig’s disease”) ended one year ago today, inspired thousands of people with his optimism, generosity, and appreciation for life. His attitude was all the more remarkable since in his youth he was endowed with physical talent and grace afforded to few mortals. The disease that robbed him of his special talents, then his mobility, and finally his independence would have made lesser men reclusive and bitter. But not once did he show the anger that the rest of us would consider entirely justifiable. Many said “he's the most amazing guy you'll ever meet.”

While Charlie Wedemeyer’s battle against debilitating disease is perhaps the main reason he will be remembered, let’s take a moment to pay tribute to Charlie Wedemeyer the football player, who dazzled high school football fans during the early Sixties.

Before satellites beamed live professional sports to Hawaii, high school football was by far the most popular sport in the Islands. The old Honolulu Stadium (“termite palace”) was regularly filled to its 25,000-seat capacity for the big games. Passions over contests between St. Louis and McKinley or Punahou and Roosevelt easily matched the intensity of Stanford vs. Cal or Harvard vs. Yale.

Punahou’s 1961 undefeated team is considered to be among the best in Hawaiian high school football history, but after nearly all its starters graduated, expectations were low for Punahou in the following season. Halfway through the 1962 schedule, the young sophomore- and junior-laden squad was expected to be blown out by bigger, faster Kamehameha.

The first time Punahou went on offense the team shifted from a standard “T” to a single-wing formation. At all levels of football the single-wing had fallen out of favor after 1950 because it relied heavily on the rare back who can run, pass, read the defense, and even punt occasionally. Punahou found such a multi-skilled player in sophomore quarterback Charlie Wedemeyer. The undefeated Kam Warriors were physically superior, but Wedemeyer’s legs and arm kept them sufficiently off balance that the game ended in a 14-14 tie, the only blemish on Kam’s championship season.

Charlie Wedemeyer led Punahou to two championships. He was named Hawaii’s best player of the 1960’s and went on to great accomplishments on and off the field. But my indelible memory is of the young 5’7’’ quarterback, running and passing rings around a much bigger Warrior team in the old termite palace. R.I.P.

Note: the video below isn't exactly on topic because it's of the 1961 championship game between Punahou and Roosevelt. It has shots of Honolulu Stadium, the old scoreboard, and the baseball infield which had bare dirt even for a football game in November. From this geezer's perspective, the Punahou team looks pretty good even by today's standards.