Wisconsin's "Hoosier" team

Conversation around the dinner table was about March Madness, and the current NCAA tournament. We observed that Butler, an Indiana team, made the Final Four in Indianapolis and the conversation drifted to one of the best sports movies ever, Hoosiers. That brought back memories of Wisconsin's own Hoosier story, the Dodgeville team that beat Milwaukee North for the state basketball title in 1964, before the class system separated small schools from bigger schools.

I remember the coach of that team, John "Weenie" Wilson, because my high school English teacher admired him even though he coached for a competing team. We were in the same conference and Weenie Wilson was not a coach who just sat on the bench with his team.

It turns out that there's a lot more to the story of Weenie Wilson. Online research turned up a Wikipedia entry that tells of his own illustrious career as an athlete (starring for the Badger football team and also playing with the Green Bay Packers), and his WWII service. He is the only coach who is in the Wisconsin High School football, baseball and basketball halls of fame.

Weenie Wilson died of a heart attack, during gym class at Dodgeville High School, in 1968.