Knox College Athletics

Today William Heerde calls New Mexico his home, but this class of 1946 graduate will always call Knox College and Illinois his home as well.

Bill enrolled at Knox at the age of 26 in 1939 and played both football and basketball through his junior year, before enlisting in the Marine Corps in 1941He served 34 months in the Marines and spent most of his duty in the South Pacific, culminating with the landing in Iwo Jima early in 1945.
   
After his departure from the Marines,  Bill married his wife Patricia Chapman in the summer of 1945, and shortly thereafter he started his senior year at Knox.  During the week of Knox’s season finale with Beloit, UPI circulated a story nationwide touting Heerde, then 32, as the oldest college football player in the nation.  In his story, the UPI sports writer wrote,  “Heerde is undoubtedly the oldest football player in the country, but his teammates insist he’s the best small college quarterback in the nation.”
   
Bill completed his athletic career at Knox as the point guard on Coach Dean Trevor’s 1945-46 basketball squad, where he was nicknamed “Hook”  because he was an exceptional defensive player.  He also has the distinction of having captained more varsity teams than any other male athlete in Knox College history.
               
After Knox, Bill devoted his life to education, first in Illinois and later on in the State of New Mexico.  In 1946 , he accepted the athletic director and basketball coaches position at Macomb High School where he led the Bombers to their first conference title in his first year of coaching and, soon after, continued his coaching career for ten years in New Mexico.
   
Ask any former student of Bill Heerde and they will tell you he has had a positive influence on their lives.  As one of his former students put it:  “Bill Heerde exemplifies the word respect.  He demanded respect, not so much by what he said, but by how he handled himself.  He epitomizes class in everything he does.”