Willard “Bill” Huyck, class of 1953, died on November 16th at the age of 90. Bill began working at Carleton as an assistant in Physical Education in 1957 and held multiple successful coaching and teaching roles here until 1984, and again from 1997 to 2021. He was a man of deep integrity and was a very supportive and caring mentor to his colleagues and athletes.
The list of Bill’s many titles at Carleton is too long to print here, but in addition to being a professor of Physical Education and Director of Physical Education, Bill was a coach for football, hockey, cross country, and men’s and women’s track and field. He encouraged students of all athletic abilities to participate and helped others to bring women’s athletics to Carleton. He was also Carleton’s Dean of Admissions from 1977–1979.
Bill loved athletics and devoted his life to helping others achieve their dreams not only on the field but in their education, career, and personal development. And he had a sense of humor: when his Men’s Cross Country team won the 1980 National Championship (the only Carleton NCAA-sponsored team to win a national championship in the college’s history) he told them, “Quick, boys! Load up the vans, grab the trophy, and let’s get the heck out of here before they re-add the score and find out we didn’t actually win!”
See a more detailed obituary from Bill’s family. The family is holding an informal memorial event on Saturday, May 20, from 4–8pm at Northfield Golf Club. Friends and well-wishers are welcome.
Comments
Favorite Huyck quote: "We're going to measure this in meters, which was never the way God intended."
Bill was my coach, mentor and above all friend. Thanks for all the memories, advice and caring. You touched so many lives in a positive way. Thanks for all you did for all of us!
Our dad, Chet McGraw, coached Bill at Carleton. Bill then coached my brother Pat ('64) and myself ('69) when we attended Carleton. When I got into coaching high school cross country and track and field, Bill sent me all his coaching books. On my many visits to Northfield in the last 25 years I always made sure I ran into Bill. Mentor, friend, and a great man!
Really appreciated Coach Huyck’s team philosophy and approach to Cross Country. Will always remember the way he started practice: “Gents…….”
I had the privilege to serve as Bill Huyck’s assistant in Track and Field during my first two years at Carleton 1982-84. He was an extremely professional colleague who placed the well being of the student-athlete above all else. He treated his colleagues with respect and was committed to helping them to find ways to continue to grow personally and professionally. He served as head coach of mens cross country, track and field as well as chair of men’s physical education.
The respect he had among educational professionals was amazing. He was always thoughtful in his interactions with others and greatly respected. His return to Carleton, as an assistant track and field coach , after serving as athletic director at University of South Sewanee and also at St. Olaf, was incredibly beneficial to the program and the student athletes. His technical knowledge, personal demeanor and recruiting honesty created a very successful group of javelin throwers.
He was valuable mentor, role model and colleague, who represented the College, sport, education and himself with “class”. Bill Huyck will be greatly missed by those of us privileged enough to have known him. I will forever grateful for his influence.
Bill was my hockey coach 1957-60, and after I graduated and was commissioned in the US Navy we exchanged letters for a while, as Bill had also done a stint in the Navy. Wish I'd kept those letters.
Mr. Huyck was my Coach for 4 years 1968-1972, throughout my indoor and outdoor track. His gentle smiles always welcomed me onto the Laird Stadium where he made me feel welcomed and try harder and go faster. Thanks Coach. RIP.
Bill was my hockey coach freshman year and instilled in me the right way to play. It included a good chewing out after I drew a charging penalty late in a game.(Sorry, can't remember the opponent.)
Thnx for your recollection. Dad’s favorite Marriucci (MNHockey God) was “$&@?, we’re not good enough to beat these guys with 5 on the ice, how the hell do you think we’re gonna’ beat ‘em with only four?”
I ran Track and Cross Country for Bill from 1961 to 1964 (in ‘65 he was on Sabbatical, coaching in Egypt.). Bill was a real student of distance running, usually a good thing except for his adoption of “Jet Juice,” a concoction of phosphate salts (theoretically to boost ATP,) Karo Corn Syrup, and Real Lemon extract. Taking it before a Cross Country meet wasn’t so bad, except for the time in Winona when we got it just 30 minutes before the race, leading Bill to calculate that we needed a double dose to make up for the delay. All of us threw up at the finish line. Track and Field was worse, because only the distance guys had to take the stuff. Despite Jet Juice, I feel very fortunate to call Bill a coach and a friend!
Coach Huyck was a very welcoming figure before I even set foot on campus, assuring me in a phone call that his teams valued everyone, from “hotdogs to hamburgers”. I was lucky to benefit from his supportive coaching as a distance runner on the track and cross-country teams until he left in 1984, and owe my improvement to him and his successor Bill Terriquez, who took over seamlessly. My only regret is not running cross-country freshman year and missing out on the team T-shirt with “I Luyck Huyck” spelled out on the sleeve. Without exception, we all luycked Coach Huyck.
Bill recruited me to Carleton in 1977 as Dean of Admissions, a year when the admissions office occupied Great Hall. He gave me a tour of the shuttered Sayles-Hill gym full of cobb-webs just before the rework into a student union, making sure to show me the pool where my father ('42) had been captain of the swim team. And then after I matriculated, Bill was a regular presence. He encouraged me to letter twice in the same season (indoor track and basketball). He taught me to throw the javelin ... with a lot of patience. We always had great conversations whenever our paths crossed. And after I graduated, I got to remodel Gail's kitchen. But he sadly left for the University of the South when we got it done. Bill embodied everything Carleton to me.
I was the least important person on Coach Huyck's cross-country teams 1973-76, but he never made me feel that way. I recall him often, at team meetings, praising people who were trying hard, regardless of how successful they were. What an outstanding man.
Bill was an excellent coach and a really good person. I appreciated the fact that he would take time off from his cross-country coaching duties to come to football practice and coach the line. I learned more about how to play football from his part-time coaching than from any other coach. And you couldn't argue with his success as a cross-country coach. He won conference championship after championship and his teams consistently finished in the top five in the NCAA regionals. When I saw Bill after Carleton, he always made time to talk to me and I always found these discussions interesting and meaningful. He was always respectful, and as others have pointed out, had a sneaky wry sense of humor. I was glad to know him.
Twenty years after I graduated Bill let me buy a new "C" coat and blanket because I had worn out the originals. I still wear the jacket and think of him every time. An inside pocket would be nice.
When I arrived as a freshman in 1958, Bill was in his 2nd year of coaching at Carleton. I ran middle distance in high school track and signed up for cross country which was new to me. Bill immediately impressed me with his warmth and interest in me as a person, not just as one of his runners. Even though he had not been a distance runner, he impressed me with his knowledge and interest in the sport. At the same time he was quick to admit his lack of experience and welcomed my input resulting from my high school experience. Humility was definitely one of Bill’s defining characteristics. Bill became a wonderful mentor and friend throughout my college years. After college, I received correspondence from time to time and was always greeted with warmth and enthusiasm when returning to Carleton for visits or reunions. His long and stellar career as a coach, leader, and mentor will be long remembered.
When I arrived as a freshman in 1958, Bill was in his 2nd year of coaching at Carleton. I ran middle distance in high school track and signed up for cross country which was new to me. Bill immediately impressed me with his warmth and interest in me as a person, not just as one of his runners. Even though he had not been a distance runner, his knowledge and interest in the sport impressed me. At the same time he was quick to admit his lack of experience and welcomed my input resulting from my high school experience. Humility was definitely one of Bill’s defining characteristics. Bill became a wonderful mentor and friend throughout my college years. After college, I received correspondence from time to time and was always greeted with warmth and enthusiasm when returning to Carleton for visits or reunions. His stellar career as a coach, leader, and mentor will be long remembered.
Like Chuck Jennings and Charlie Brook, both of whom I ran with, I was fortunate to have Bill as a coach for x-c and track for four years (and shared the Jet Juice experience). I had limited natural ability but Bill's coaching enabled me to make the most of it and experience reasonable success. The team experience meant a lot to me. Bill's low key and gentle manner and his effective coaching was just what I needed. I valued his friendship in the years after I graduated: his memory was amazing, as years later he told me several times of a race during my freshman year that I completely forgot.
Always a gentleman. Perfectly represented and advanced Carleton Athletics. I was privileged to be on one of his track teams in the late '70s and we always saw him around the football practice field. I got to speak with him in 2019 on the sidelines of a football game. Great Man
Coach Huyck was a legendary coach, but somehow he managed to be an even better person and friend. Words will likely fall short of describing his deep impact, and I am unquestionably saddened by his loss. On the other hand, there is no doubt I am only one of many very grateful former athletes to have countless fantastic memories with him. Of course, for me many involve throwing the javelin, but possibly just as many have nothing at all to do with sports. In my opinion he was the true embodiment of what makes institutions like Carleton special.
If it wasn't already abundantly clear by the fact that he coached until he was nearly 90 years old, he was intensely invested in the success of the (many!) student-athletes he coached. Not surprisingly, this passion for others seemed unlimited and went far beyond athletics.
I will always fondly remember really getting to know him at practice. He was business-like, yet laid back and fun-loving, employing an efficiency I imagine one could only glean from his decades of high level experience. While the runners seemed to whip endlessly around the track during practice, Coach Huyck emphasized that an elite thrower should never overdo it with too many javelin throws during any given session to avoid injury and to keep the body fresh. While simple, this approach succeeded in turning many tall, raw, lanky types like me into bona-fide javelin throwers. For me, practice usually amounted to taking a single warm-up lap and stretching with the team, followed by about 30 minutes of intense, highly focused work on throwing and footwork. Instead of taking the short sessions as an opportunity to get a head start on off-season football conditioning and weightlifting for the day, I couldn't help but spend the last 90 minutes of practice shooting the breeze with Coach Huyck and soaking in his knowledge and experiences. In other words, an unintended benefit to his efficiency was the opportunity for me to spend a LOT of uninterrupted quality time with a truly fascinating, kind, genuine man. He always had great stories about Carleton hijinks from way back when he was a student in the 1950's or from his early years as a coach or college administrator. I was always amazed by his seemingly boundless life experiences ranging from his own athletic career, his time in the military, coaching college and national track and cross country teams, teaching, and beyond.
If there was anything he valued more than track and field or cross country, he clearly treasured his family. After I graduated, Coach Huyck and his wife Gail graciously insisted that I always join them for dinner and a beer at their home or a steak at the Ranchero steakhouse whenever I passed through Northfield for a football game or on my way home during a break from studies at U of MN. By the time I graduated from U of MN and moved to Ann Arbor, I could still count on a letter or email every few months to see how things were going, to send me well wishes, or to see if I was sure I couldn't come back to throw another year (I was always flattered... and always very tempted). He seemed to have a sixth sense of knowing exactly when I could use another hilarious unsolicited check-in email during a tough week to give me updates about life, happenings around Northfield, Knights football, and (most importantly) how the javelin prospects were shaping up for the upcoming spring ("9th in Division III's as a freshman last spring! Big things to come I hope!"... "kid has great technique, but will benefit from a few summers in the weight room"... "we have a few strong prospects this year!").
One of my most treasured all-time memories is how happy and touched he was when I pulled off a come-from-behind javelin win on my very last throw of the MIAC conference meet at home my senior year. I am thankful that the look of happiness and vindication on his face seems to be forever laser-etched into my memory. For reference, javelin isn't even a sanctioned event by the Minnesota State High School League (besides, I had only played baseball in the spring my whole life growing up), so when I got to college I had never even seen a javelin aside from on the Olympics. There are many similar stories of Carleton men's and women's javelin throwers before me and since, including several team and individual national champions, and this speaks huge volumes to Coach's many gifts. RIP to an absolute legend Coach Huyck