Truman State University Athletics

Bill Richerson was an all-around athlete at Grant High School in Fox Lake, Ill. competing in football, basketball and baseball. He attended Quincy College for three years and was captain of the football team. He transferred to the university as a senior and helped the Bulldogs capture a conference co-championship in 1952. He earned All-MIAA honors that fall. After receiving a B.S.E. degree in 1953, Mr. Richerson worked toward an M.A. degree the following year, serving as a graduate assistant for football. He entered the Army in 1954 and was assigned to special services at Camp Wolters, Texas until his separation in 1956. He coached football for one year at Austin High School in Chicago and then went to Grant High School for four years. While there, he was involved with coaching basketball, football and golf, as well as teaching English. As a high school coach, he built a solid reputation as a sound teacher particularly of football. He returned to the university in the fall of 1961 just in time to help with the coaching duties of a conference championship team and winner of the Mineral Water Bowl game. He continued the role of assistant football coach, golf coach and instructor of health and physical education until 1968 when he went to the University of Utah for one year as an assistant football coach and worked on a Ph.D. He returned to Truman in 1969 and was an assistant football coach that fall and golf coach in the spring of 1970. He received a Ph.D. in 1970 from Utah and went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison as an assistant football coach and a member of the physical education department. In 1975 he returned to Truman to become head of the Division of Health and Physical Education. He also coached golf and his teams won eight straight MIAA titles and made six consecutive trips to the NCAA Division II championships. In 1986, the Bulldogs hosted the national tournament at Tan-Tara and for the first time they have a first-team All-American, J. P. Velasco.