You Can Meet a Lot of People in 46 Years of Coaching

History is nothing more than names and dates, woven together by their relationships.

history is simply Ted Wachs. After coaching five different sports over 46 years, this former history teacher is a walking archive. An unreformed storyteller, Wachs drops names of soccer goalkeepers from 25 years ago with the same ease that he mentions the famous folks he has met while working at The Bog Golf Course.

“He seems to know a goodly number of people he’s met, he remembers their names, he can carry on good conversations with them,” said Jim Liska, who was the athletic director at Nicolet for 12 years.

A short history lesson

Wachs retired from coaching at the end of the spring boys golf season, closing a career that began unexpectedly in 1966. He’d spent a year after college working at the University of Miami Marine Lab, where he’d go next door to the sea aquarium and play catch with Flipper, “the biggest star I ever met in my life,” he said.

After a year, he returned to school to complete the requirements for teaching, and then landed a job instructing history and world geography at Nicolet.

“I wasn’t even thinking about coaching,” he said. “I was just real surprised when my contract said assistant football and assistant track coach.”

He had no background in football, so after a year “they caught on” and Wachs moved to coaching cross country. He’d been a distance runner at Milwaukee Washington High School and then competed in hurdles at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, so it was a natural fit.

More natural, at least, than soccer, which he helped found at Nicolet in the early 1980s. Alex Toth, a Hungarian refugee who coached soccer at the Bavarians, was in charge of the boys and Wachs wanted to see a staff member involved with the program. So he assisted Toth with the boys and also was head girls coach. The Knights immediately reached the first WIAA state finals in 1983, and then were runners-up in 1984.

“He truly, truly enjoyed the kids,” said Bobbi (Keuler) Forman, who starred on those teams. “The kids were always No. 1 for him. He always had their best interest in mind. He did his best to get everyone to play as much as he possibly could.”

Forman is one of two Nicolet athletes whom Wachs sponsored for induction into the this year. The other, whom he’ll also present at the Oct. 1 ceremony, is Skip Kendall. Known for his success on the PGA Tour, Kendall also was a striker for the soccer team and was a point guard in basketball his senior year.

Wachs, ironically, never directly coached Kendall. He was on the varsity soccer team when Wachs coached the junior varsity, and Kendall graduated before Wachs got involved with golf.

A living legend

He was a late comer to golf in general, not even taking the sport up until his 30s. As Wachs tells the story, he was playing in an adult baseball league and tried to stretch his “perfect” double into a triple. On the headfirst slide into third, he seriously damaged his left shoulder. Golf turned out to be more enjoyable therapy for the joint than lifting weights, and Wachs became an excellent golfer. He has shot a 74 at The Bog, two years ago at age 69, and dreams of shooting his age.

“It’s the only sport an old guy like me can beat the young guys,” he said.

Coaching-wise, he moved up the ranks over 25 years, starting at the freshman level and concluding as varsity coach. The Knights advanced to the state tournament in 2001 and 2002, despite regularly butting up against a powerhouse such as Homestead. Wachs said his background in psychology — which he added to his teaching slate early on — was helpful on the course.

“Golf is 90 percent psychology,” he said. “My guys they come in and the first thing they’re going to tell me is about their bad holes and bad shots. I don’t want to hear that. … I want to hear about the good shots. The bad shots are gone.”

Positive player in every way

That emphasis on positive attitude wasn’t just applied to golf.

“I don’t ever remember him ever being mad or yelling at us,” Forman said. “Some coaches can get frustrated or angry, and he was never that way. … He was very cheerful and encouraging and always upbeat.”

He remains happy in retirement, with plenty to keep him occupied. Wachs is heavily involved in model trains and is a huge sports fan. His family has owned Packers season tickets since the mid-1940s and he attended both the Ice Bowl — where he took his own 8mm footage — and Super Bowl I. He still works at and plays The Bog, where he’s met such famous folks as speedskater Dan Jansen, the members of REO Speedwagon and rocker Alice Cooper, who is “one of the nicest guys I’ve met.”

Though perhaps not as famous as Flipper.