Men of Influence
Bob Keister answered his phone one day recently and heard a voice from the past.
It was a man who played football at Winona State more than four decades ago. Keister, a Warrior coach from 1961–75, still gets calls like that from his “kids,” and they are all special to him.
“He wanted to thank me,” said Keister, a 2015 WSU Athletics Hall of Fame inductee. “You stick with these kids, and every one of these guys, they’ve all been successful. There are so many wonderful things they’ve done, and that’s exactly why I’ve been so close to them.”
Warriors head football coach Tom Sawyer, who enters his 20th season in 2015, said a strong base of scholarship funding is crucial to his program’s success. “We cannot be competitive without it,” Sawyer says. “Sometimes (in recruiting players) it comes down to the exact dollar you can offer. We’ve got to get out front and stay out front when it comes to scholarships. It’s something we’ve been very good at and we need to grow more.”
Wally Madland is one of the many players who stayed in close touch with Keister after their playing days were over. “He wasn’t just a coach, he was part of my life and part of my kids’ lives,” Madland says. “Now with the scholarship, he’ll be a part of Winona State football forever.”
Madeo “Moon” Molinari was WSU’s head football coach from 1958–70. Keister and Martin were assistants on his staff during most of that period. Keister took over as head coach from 1971–75, while Martin was at WSU for 30 years, including 28 as an assistant football coach — he was head coach in 1986 — and nine as men’s swimming coach.
Bernie Kennedy played on the WSU football team in the mid-60s, when Keister, Molinari, and Martin were on staff, and remembers it was a time when coaches rarely gave out compliments or pats on the back. “Moon said to me once, ‘If you can’t get the job done, I’ll find someone who will,’” Kennedy recalls.
But Molinari also knew how to bring out the best in his players. Kennedy appreciated it, and formed a lifelong relationship with the man everyone called Moon. Molinari died in 2011, having helped the scholarship in his name grow out of his own initial $5,000 contribution.
Kennedy, who manages fundraising for the Molinari fund, said about 30 former players and their families
have contributed. “We wanted it to be a ‘common man’ scholarship, for a player who is dedicated in school, to his academics, who works hard in practice,” Kennedy says.
Merle “Pete” Peterson began fundraising for the Warrior Football Scholarship in 2007, and about 20 people have contributed to help it reach over $100,000. “I think it’s a good start for the scholarship and I know students need all the help they can get,” Peterson says. “We wanted to do something for the football team and look at the future and what they might be able to do with it.”
Peterson, who played football in the 1950s, said his experience as a WSU athlete and student had a lasting influence for him, and he always wanted to give something back. “I played football in high school, but I was very small, about 5-foot-2, 112 pounds,” Peterson says. “I wanted to play more, and after the Korean War I got the GI bill and went out for the team. There were six Korean War vets on the team, and a lot of the younger guys looked up to us. Football really kept me in school, it’s done a lot for me. I’m very appreciative of that.”
The Larry Holstad Fund was initiated by Merchants Bank President/Chief Banking Officer Greg Evans. The two have been friends since they met more than 25 years ago in Iowa; Holstad as a high school football coach and Evans as a sports reporter. “It’s all about relationships,” says Holstad, who served as director of athletics from 1997–2012 and joins Keister in the Hall of Fame 2015 class. “Not only on the field but off the field.
I was recruited by Coach Keister in 1964 and that’s a long time ago, but he’s always been one of my mentors and it’s because of how they treated you and the experiences you had.”
The Coach Martin Football Scholarship fund was started recently by three of his former athletes; Dan Schumacher, a football player, and Rick Krueger and Harry Sieben, members of Martin’s highly successful swimming program. Martin died in 2014. “Coach Martin was a mentor for me,” Schumacher says. “I played football from 1986 to 1990 and we had four head coaches in five years. He was the one constant I had, and he kept me on track and kept things in perspective. It went deeper than just being a coach, he was to some extent a father figure.”
Get in the Game
Interested in more information about general athletic scholarships? Contact University Advancement at
ws***********@wi****.edu
. Or call 507.457.5020.
