by Sean Keeler, Des Moines Register (November 2003)
We would request a moment of silence for Walt Fiegel Friday at the football championship games at the UNI-Dome, only silence was never one of Walt’s stronger points. Fiegel was the life of the football party.
The longtime coach at Sioux City East, the Bob Hope of Iowa football coaches, Fiegel passed away last Wednesday of a heart attack. This week, in particular, was one in which he loved to entertain, when coaches statewide would convene in Cedar Falls to watch games and yak about the year.
The 69-year-old Fiegel was the Pied Piper of Punt, Pass and Kick, his high-pitched tenor a sonorous call to arms.
“Walt was at his best when he had a group of football coaches around,” said Mount Pleasant coach Bob Jensen, president-elect of the Iowa Football Coaches Association, of which Fiegel was executive secretary from 1977 to ’94. “He always held court. There was always a group of people standing around him, listening.”
The coaches’ association and Iowa High School Athletic Association are discussing a permanent memorial or award in Fiegel’s name, and hallelujah. Walt could light up the room like a 25-foot halogen lamp. He looked like Lou Costello and talked like Vince Lombardi.
A former Marine, the South Dakota native was meticulous to the millisecond. Fifteen minutes early to one of Fiegel’s meetings was 15 minutes late. His funeral last Saturday started at 10:59 a.m., one final nod to a lifetime of precision.
“When I was athletic director at Ames High School, Walt would always call and say, “This is when I’m going to arrive, this is how many busses I’m bringing, this is where we’re going to park, and this is where we should order pizza after the game,” Said Bud Legg, who is now with the IHSAA.
“I remember one time he was so happy with the way the (pizza) guy we called set up the pizza and pop in our second gym. (The line) led right to the parking lot, so that the kids could grab a pop, two slices each, keep walking and get right on the bus.”
Fiegel was a brilliant speaker and motivator, a congenial handshaker, an emcee emeritus, blessed with the rare ability to make you laugh and think at the same time. A regular on the banquet circuit, he came armed with a quip for every occasion and an infectious grin.
Walt coached East (as head coach) for 22 seasons over three stints. He was a legend in Sioux City, where he won 128 games at East and led the Black Raiders to a state title in 1984. At one time, he boasted the largest prep football program in the state. He accumulated friends statewide, from every corner of the sporting world—coaches, former players, officials, media. Hayden Fry. Tom Osborn. Johnny Majors. He was bigger than the Missouri River. Bigger than Iowa. One of his closest friends, his Bing Crosby, was Southern foil—Jim Cartwright of Columbia, Tenn., executive director of the Tennessee Athletic Coaches Association.
“Walt was well-known among the coaching community nationwide, high school and college, and was extremely highly thought of,” Cartwright said. “He was a great representative for high school football in Iowa…from any part of the country.”
More than 700 people attended his funeral. Hundreds more sent flowers, cards and condolences, including Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz, who rang the family’s home last Thursday night.
“He was totally committed to the people he coached,” Ferentz said. “He was one of those guys who made time for everybody, cared for everybody—not just his star players but everybody on the roster.”
Walt was about his kids. They are his greatest legacy. Sons by the thousand. He was a coach of life, a shaper of young men. He made them grow up; they kept him eternally young. They are the biggest reason why he returned to East in 1998, his third and final stint, at the age of 63. The Eminem generation needed a swift kick in the backside, to take off the headphones and hear his eternal verities:
• Tough times don’t last, tough people do.
• Go home, give your mother a hug and a kiss and tell her that you love her.
• Treat your girlfriend well. Someday she could be your daughter.
Walt was loyal to the last. Former Iowa Hawkeye and Green Bay Packers lineman Dave Croston played for Fiegel as a sophomore at East. If it wasn’t for Fiegel, he might never have been a Hawkeye. Ferentz and Kansas State coach Bill Snyder, then Iowa assistants, scouted Croston when East played Fort Dodge. It was hot, Croston looked sloppy and Iowa came away unimpressed.
“I came to find out later that Walt called up Ferentz and said ‘You have got to watch this film. You’ve got to keep recruiting this kid.’” said Croston, now a pharmaceutical salesman in Sioux City. “I really have Walt to thank for all that. He believed in my ability.”
If Walt Fiegel liked you, you had no greater champion on this Earth. He could make the person he was talking to feel like the most important person in the world, if only ‘til the punch line faded away. Lucky angels.
