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Wayne Whipps LNC Interview

Athletics Department WIU Athletic Communications

Leatherneck Club Feature - Wayne Whipps

In the the latest Leatherneck Club feature installment, Bryce Weiler interviewed LNC member Wayne Whipps.

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This is Bryce Weiler and I have the pleasure to interview Wayne Whipps a member of the Western Illinois Leatherneck Club.

Bryce Weiler: What are some of your favorite memories of being in the Leatherneck Club here at Western Illinois?
Wayne Whipps: Number one, where I live is 10 miles from the University of Northern Iowa and we know that's a rivalry. Probably in all my years, and I'm an old Leatherneck, the best memory I've got is of Mike Scifres - who we are all so proud of and is the punter for the San Diego Chargers. At halftime of the last game of the (2000) year, if Western won we not only won the Gateway Conference, but we qualified for the playoffs. At halftime our kicker that day had missed two field goals and Coach Patterson pulled him and told Mike that he is our kicker for the second half. He had not kicked since high school. But anyway, it boiled down to we blew a 19-point lead in the fourth quarter. Start of the fourth quarter we are up 19 and I thought they were going to overtime. He (Coach P) gave me a sideline pass, I walked down and straddled the endzone at the goal line and they lined up for a 56-yard field goal. I saw it and Mike Scifres makes it, wins the conference, and sends us on to the playoffs.
Josh, a Macomb native, was doing the color commentary on the radio. He got in trouble because he was racing around the press box area in the UNI Dome and the locals at UNI did not think a whole lot of it. But, that was probably one of my best memories. I got my picture taken with Ed Hartwell on the field after the game, he went on to play in the NFL.
The second one is when Jack Margenthaler was coach, probably when it was during my senior year. We were playing Eastern Illinois, it was a huge rivalry. The kids were lined up back to University Avenue a half hour before the game. We beat Eastern in overtime and Jack grabbed the microphone and said this is what Western basketball is all about. Those are two, that's been a long time ago, but the Scifres one definitely. Some of my UNI friends still remember that and I enjoy talking about it.
 
BW: Now, you have talked about players on the field, but also you have probably had the chance to enjoy watching players off the field and getting to experience them as people as that is important as well because they are student athletes not just athletes.
WW: Right. Like I said, Scifres I got to know him a little bit. The Reuschel boys, that's way way back before my time. But Paul and Rick Reuschel. I grew up on a farm in a little town of Ursa. Paul and Rick grew up by Golden, Illinois, and I knew their younger brother. When I was here, we would go to Cardinals/Cubs games in St. Louis with my AGR Fraternity brothers and we would always go down when Rick was pitching. That was always nice. Paul is a Leatherneck Club member too, but Rick is one of the more famous Leatherneck alums that has done well and Paul did well too. They both got their degrees here, and I know Scifres, Aaron Stecker and Ed Hartwell… they played in the NFL, but I know they also got their degrees here. I think that is important and is a credit back to Coach Ball, Coach Patterson and Coach Cradock then too.
 
BW: What are some of your reasons for being a part of the Leatherneck Club, and what makes you want to keep on continuing to do that? Why should others be involved as well?
WW: First of all, it is a way to give back. When I was here, Larry Heimburger was in the Sports Information Director position then, and when I was growing up he was the sportscaster on Channel 7 in Quincy. That's how I knew him. Two weeks into my freshman year there was a little ad in the Courier looking for student assistants. I came in and said, "I watched you on Channel 7" and I got hired. Back then, we kept statistics with a No. 2 lead pencil, and we ran off stats at halftime with an AB Ditto machine. There were no computers and it was an interesting way of doing things. But I really enjoyed it and when I graduated I kind of recruited a young man from back home… the one that took my place for four years went on to have a 27-year career with the San Antonio Spurs front office.
But, I think one of the reasons it's a way to give back. I think it's important in supporting athletics and especially in this day and age where state budgets are really tight so anything we can do will help. We've got to be competitive in the Summit (League). We've got to be competitive in the Missouri Valley in football and there is only so much we can do with budgets. If anything we can do to support, if we want recruits you've got to have facilities. You've got to have academic support. That's some of the reasons that I try to get others to join. You know we've made some good moves here recently. Tommy Bell as the AD, with (Football) Coach (Bob) Nielson and (Men's Basketball) Coach (Billy) Wright I think Western Athletics is definitely on the upswing. I'm proud to be part of it and trying to get more people to be part of it as well.

BW: You mentioned some players in the past, but you also have to have a good time watching the current players be successful now on the field and court as well as in the classroom.
WW: Yeah I do and fortunately with being four hours from here I look forward to when they come to play in the dome at football. I've been friends with Coach Holly (Van Vlymen) in softball and I always look and see if they play at Iowa or Iowa State. If they are near UNI, I try to watch them. Basketball I'm somewhat limited. Probably Macomb is the closest place I can come back to watch them play basketball and in baseball, last year I went down to Iowa. I know the Iowa coach pretty well, he used to be a neighbor of mine when he coached at UNI. When Western beat them last year, we had a real good time with Coach Rick Heller over there after that one. But yes, I wish I was a little closer in lots of ways. I would be more active in the Leatherneck Club. I am a season ticket holder in football and I give those tickets to my brother who is in Ursa and I try to make it back to two or three games a year, but he uses them when I'm not here.

BW: Well Wayne, even though you are somewhat far from Macomb thank you for coming back and supporting. You just show no matter how much of a distance one is away from the place that they love they can still support their favorite school.
WW: I think Dwaine Roche tries to take credit for it when he says 'Once a Leatherneck, Always a Leatherneck'. I think that goes back a lot further than that, but that is still true, I believe in that 100 percent.

BW: Well Wayne, thank you for joining me here. This has been Bryce Weiler interviewing Wayne Whipps a member of the Western Illinois Leatherneck Club.
 
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