Bill Huyck Obituary, Death – Tennessee’s SEWANEE – Bill Huyck, a former athletic director and member of the Sewanee Athletics Hall of Fame, passed away on Wednesday afternoon at his Wealshire home in Medina, Minnesota. This news saddened the University of the South Department of Athletics. Huyck, who was born in Owatonna, Minnesota, on December 21, 1931, worked as the University of the South’s director of athletics from 1984 until 1995. He participated in 17 conference titles won by the College Athletic Conference (CAC), Women’s Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC), and Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference during his time at Sewanee (SCAC).
Huyck was involved in a conference transition in addition to the team’s achievements on the field because the Tigers were founder members of the SCAC in 1991. For the University of the South, the league would combine men’s and women’s sports into one conference. The 1994 opening of the Robert F. Dobbs Fowler Athletic Center was made possible in large part by Huyck. In addition to leading the men’s cross country team and helping the men’s track and field team during his tenure on the Domain, he was inducted into the Sewanee Athletics Hall of Fame in 2019. “Bill was a genuine coach and educator for division III. Bill always considered the student-athlete experience to be the most significant aspect of his work.
I’ll never forget his well-timed notes of encouragement to teachers and coaches that were always typed out with two fingers on a manual typewriter in his office and always ended with “attaboy” or “we’ll get ’em next time.” He is a deserving member of our hall of fame. He was a Hall of Famer in both his personal and professional life “said John Shackelford, the current director of athletics, who Huyck hired in 1986 as the head men’s tennis coach at Sewanee. He joined the Navy after earning his degree from Carleton College in Minnesota and served as a naval aviator in the Mediterranean. His success came as the track and cross country coach at Carleton University.
After moving back to the United States, he began coaching at his alma mater as an assistant football coach. Numerous NCAA All-Americans included him, and his team won the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championship in 1980. Both the Carleton Athletic Hall of Fame and the Minnesota Track & Field Hall of Fame inducted him in 1979 and 2005, respectively. Additionally, in 2019 Carleton College dedicated their cross country championship course in his honor. A casual memorial service for friends, family, and former students is being planned by the family for the spring in Northfield, Minnesota.
