A giant legacy - Wilthong left his mark on Scott City football

Although small in stature, William "Wil" Wilthong cast a giant shadow over the Scott City High School football program for parts of four decades.

From 1968 to 1995, the 5-foot-5 Wilthong nurtured Scott City football to prominence as one of the top programs in the state. Besides his role as football coach, Wilthong coached baseball and served as athletic director at the Scott County school for the final 15 years of his tenure.

His career record of 193 wins and 71 losses -- a .731 winning percentage -- ranks 15th all-time among Missouri high school coaches. In 27 seasons Wilthong led the Rams to 13 conference titles and four district championships.

The Arkansas State University graduate from Paragould, Ark., came to Scott City in 1965 to start a junior high school football program. That first season he had a turnout of only 16 boys from the seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade classes combined.

"I had no idea what I was getting into," Wilthong said of his first coaching job. "Then in 1968, I got the varsity job by default, because nobody else wanted it."

Wilthong said that during his first few years the player turnout would start with fair numbers, but dwindled drastically as the season progressed.

"But after about five or six years, I wouldn't have more than two or three kids quit."

After an 8-15 record the first three years, Scott City went 6-3 in the '71 season to begin the turnaround.

"Once the kids got a taste of winning, got used to me and knew what I expected, we took off," Wilthong said. "We started a weight program; the players got stronger, started believing in themselves and bought into my philosophy."

That philosophy was rock-em, sock-em power football.

"I sold the kids on the fact that we were going to pound 'em, pound 'em, pound 'em. I never did like the pass too well. If I threw it three times a game, I was accused of airing it out."

Scott City reached the pinnacle in '72 and '73 with 9-0 seasons. The 1973 team came within a single play of keeping its opponents scoreless.

"I can still see that play," Wilthong said, smiling and shaking his head incredulously.

Powerhouse Scott City, crushing opponents by an average of 36 points a game, went into the seventh game of the season against Hayti without allowing an opponent to cross its goal line.

From punt formation, Scott City booted the ball downfield where it bounced about four yards from the sideline and appeared to be heading out of bounds.

"I thought it was going out of bounds, too," Wilthong said.

Just about everyone but the Hayti returner thought so. He scooped the ball and trotted into the end zone untouched for the only points allowed by Scott City that season. The Rams won 31-6.

The extra-point attempt failed, although the stunned Rams probably had little to do with it.

"We looked at the film later and saw that we had only nine people on the field for that extra point," Wilthong said. "We worked on that every day in practice, but we were so shocked that they scored on us, we were all just standing around in a daze."

But that was the first and last time the special-teams unit had to go on the field to defend an extra-point try. The Rams went on to shut out their final two opponents in the near-perfect season.

The boss

During Wilthong's time at Scott City, there was never a doubt about who was running the show.

"I was the boss and the players knew that I would give them an honest chance" to make the team. "I didn't care what their name was or what grade they were in."

He credits his assistants and players for much of the success of Scott City football.

"I'm just blessed to have had some good assistant coaches to work with and a great community that backed us. But you can't win without players and we went through a period where we had great, hard-working athletes."

Wilthong said he had the most fun in practices on Thursdays, the day before the game. The game plan was in place, the team was prepared and he could see in their eyes that they were ready.

Former players still remind Wilthong, a tough taskmaster who rarely cursed, of his favorite expression: "Dammit, run it again. Run it again. We're gonna run it til we get it right."

As lively as Thursday practices could be, game nights were always special.

"I always had butterflies before games," he said, "and if we were on the short end of the score or in a dogfight, it was nerve-wracking. But I enjoyed it."

As a small 120-pound high school athlete, Wilthong had to be gutsy and gritty just to compete. That attitude became the cornerstone of his approach to coaching.

Always a warrior, he even won a life-threatening battle with heart trouble in 1987, which required open-heart surgery. He returned to lead the Rams until his retirement in 1995.

Retirement for Wilthong didn't come with a rocking chair.

He enjoys his passion for duck hunting and crappie fishing, is filling his third term on the Scott City Board of Education and is the president of the Scott City Park Department.

"I get all of these jobs that are free," he said, laughing.

What is the best advice Wilthong can give to a young coach?

"Do something that you know," he said. "Don't come in trying to run what the St. Louis Rams or Southeast runs. You're going to get in trouble. Run something that you're comfortable with and something you know a little bit about. Then, as time goes on you can start adding some of the other stuff."

Beating the odds

Wilthong's longevity, in an era when coaches burn out or switch jobs with regularity, was indeed rare.

He concedes the bottom line in sports is winning, and if you don't win, you won't be around long as a coach.

"The natives will get restless," he said.

"Most people get into coaching for a few years and they move on to administration and such to make more money," Wilthong said, citing himself and a conference rival, Portageville coach Jim McKay, as the last of an almost dying breed. "I don't see people staying in it that long anymore.

"But I wasn't doing it for the money. I liked it. I enjoyed working with the kids and, sure, I still miss it."

In a twist of irony, Scott City recently hired another football coach from Arkansas, Jason Burkman, to lead the program.

Residents jokingly needle Wilthong when they say, "The last time we hired someone from Arkansas, we couldn't get rid of him."

They should be so lucky again.