The Milwaukee Post

By DAN MUCKELBAUER Post Editor MILWAUKEE — St. Thomas More High School's newly dedicat- ed Jim Haluska Wall of Champions bears the name of the winningest coach in school history, including when he coached foot- ball at Don Bosco. In 1972, Don Bosco merged with Pio Nono at the site of Pio Nono to form St. Thomas More. His teams won three WISAA state Champ- ionships, five Metro Conference championships and seven Catholic Conference championships. Haluska, who died three years ago, had a 206-60-4 record. If you didn't know him, you might think the former University of Wisconsin Badgers quarterback who led the team to its first Rose Bowl in 1952 was old school. Was he? "He was a hard-nosed guy with high expectations for his players and himself," said Thomas Sager, who coached basketball at Don Bosco and Thomas More and served a year as Haluska's assis- tant football coach. "He knew how to motivate his players and he worked us hard," said Chet Gerlach, now 68, the quarterback of the 1964 No. 1- ranked Don Bosco team. Gerlach recalled "the Hill" at Baran Park. "A lot of guys swore doing it." Haluska's background didn't hurt his credibility. He was a great high school athlete at St. Catherine's in Racine, followed by his success at UW and then a year with the Chicago Bears in 1956, The Bears drafted him in 1954, but his NFL career was delayed after he broke a leg while playing base- ball, Sager said. "He loved to coach. He loved X's and O's," said Sager, a friend for 55 years who often played golf with him. "He'd strategize all the times after golf when he was retired. He was smart enough to coach today." "He was the smartest football mind I ran across," said Gerlach, who played for St. Norbert College in De Pere. "When I'm watching the game and it's short yardage, I'd say, 'This is when coach would call for a long pass.' "I think it was when people least expected he'd do something uncon- ventional." And if people thought Haluska only was hard-nosed, they only saw part of the reason for his success. "Was he a motivator? Did he practice psychology? Oh, God, yes," Gerlach said, recalling a game in which the Cavaliers led comfortably at halftime. "Before we went out for the sec- ond half, he asked, 'What's the score?' One guy said 21-0 and he asked again and another said 21-0. Then someone finally caught on and said nothing-nothing." Gerlach said. "He would put in the second string when the game was out of reach, but he was smart enough to know that one half of football is not the game." Haluska's success has been wide- ly recognized. The Wisconsin Football Coaches Association added Haluska to its Hall of Fame in 2001. As a colleague and a friend, Sager saw another side. While Haluska was a great com- petitor, including in their golf games and recreational baseball, Sager said Haluska was also a great family man. He could relate to people. "I learned from him you better be prepared and you'd better be able to relate to your kids, if you wanted to be a good coach," Sager said. In retirement, Haluska enjoyed talking about his players and shared lighter moments, his fellow coach said. And he was proud of their successes after high school, such as that of the late Phil Datka, a highly successful football coach who retired after the 2010 season following 41 seasons at Germantown High School. Haluska's lessons served him well in life, said Gerlach, who taught at Catholic elementary schools for five years, served 10 years on the state Assembly and became a contract lobbyist. "I always remembered it ain't over until it's over. You don't have a win until the governor signs the bill," he said, going back to that moment in the locker room at half- time. St. Thomas More honors famed football coach Haluska It's the weirdest thing in sports in the past 50 years. The Milwaukee Brewers did the expected thing by hiring a new general manager who is younger than some of the players and might never have played baseball in his life. The Brewers didn't go outside the box by hiring 30-year-old David Stearns. They got the box. Stearns is a smart guy, who is similar to other smart guys who are deciding who plays for Major League baseball teams. He has a college degree from Harvard. He majored in political science. It doesn't make any sense. He sounds like a guy who should be working for a Fortune 500 company in New York City. No one goes to Harvard to become the guy picking the players for a Major League team in about 10 years. Maybe he goes to Harvard to eventu- ally buy a company so that he's wealthy enough to buy the Brewers. It could hap- pen, but probably not until he's 50. This is not a complaint about the decision by the Brewers. They did the right thing. They did what other teams have done, and it has worked for other teams. Stearns got the job because he is qualified for the job. But the only reason he's qualified is because other smart kids from the Ivy League have done well in a similar situa- tion. It's just so bizarre. I'm not saying that he needs to be a for- mer Major League player. I'm not saying he needs to have experience as a player in the minor leagues. I'm not even saying he needs to be an all-star at the Little League level. I'm saying that he not only doesn't need to have played at that level, he doesn't even have to know the difference between a base- ball glove and the glove compartment in his car. He probably does, but it isn't a necessi- ty to do his job well. I don't even know what questions would be asked in the interview. What grade did you get in your first cal- culus class? Did you ever get a grade other than an A in your life? No reason to ask about baseball. It's not about baseball. It's about smarts because baseball isn't just a sport anymore. It has to be different. I'm not exactly sure what it is when someone with Stearns' background is selected to pick the players that will hope- fully win a World Series. He's clearly good at whatever baseball has become. In 2011, he was hired by the Cleveland Indians as director of baseball operations. Since 2012, he has been the only assistant general manager of the Houston Astros. He's a veteran at 30. It's just so weird. So how does he decide if he wants a play- er on the team? So how does he decide if the he wants to draft a player? I don't know which numbers he looks at. I don't know if he actually needs to see the player before he drafts him. I don't know baseball anymore. I know what baseball looks like on the diamond, but it must be way more compli- cated than what occurs between those lines. I know that it's going to be hard for David Stearns because the Cardinals are always going to be good and the Cubs are going to win a World Series in the next five years. And the Cubs are good because they hired Theo Epstein to lead them to their first championship in over 100 years. Epstein because the youngest general manager in baseball history in November of 2002 when hired by the Boston Red Sox at the age of 28. He was a major reason they won their first title in almost 90 years. If you are wonder- ing, he went to Yale and majored in American studies. Now I have it all figured out. The Brewers are trying to hire another Theo Epstein 13 years after the Red Sox shocked the base- ball world when they hired a smart Ivy League kid. The Brewers are just doing what most teams do. They are trying to copy what other winning teams have done. The strategy makes sense. How baseball became a sport in which success is found by hiring Ivy League kids I'm still trying to figure out. September 25, 2015 • Milwaukee County Post • 11 "HOMER" on SPORTS STEVE "The HOMER" TRUE (Steve "The Homer" True, host of "Homer and Gabe Show," heard from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays on 540 ESPN, can be reached at homer@espnmilwaukee.com.) Weird fact: Brewers do the right thing, tap Ivy Leaguer as general manager You didn't have to play the game to run it SPORTS

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