Nov. 4, 2005
by Jarfed Gelfond, Illinois Sports Information
In the fall of 1958, a young sophomore at Hammond High School in Northwest Indiana took his first steps onto the varsity football field under the direction of a young football coach who was just establishing himself on that level.
At the time, Wayne Paulson didn't know that much about his coach, Bernie Krueger. He had heard he was a great player in his days at Hammond High and at the University of Illinois, but he never fully grasped or understood all of his accomplishments.
As the years went on and as the relationship grew, Paulson started to understand. He began to realize how great Krueger's career was in high school and at the University of Illinois. As his career took him from Hammond to Kansas to Champaign, he grasped how much his high school coach had meant to him and the unique symmetry in their careers. From a relationship that started as just player-coach, it quickly grew to something much more.
They were two guys bonded by a similar position, a love for the game of football, by wearing the Orange and Blue at the University of Illinois, and by doing something that every player who sets foot at a school in the Big Ten dreams of, winning Rose Bowls.
Before venturing off to Champaign, Bernie Krueger played quarterback for Hammond High School in the early 1940s. During his senior year, he was very highly recruited, and at one point, it looked bleak that he would ever set foot on the Illinois campus.
"I was recruited very heavily by Purdue and I saw every one of their home games my senior year in high school," remembered Krueger, who still lives in Hammond today. "By the time I got out of the Navy, I was thinking of Purdue, but a friend of mine talked me into taking a visit to Illinois. While I was down there I was very impressed with Ray Eliot and I liked the school, so I decided it was the place for me."
Krueger lettered at Illinois from 1946-1949 and had the opportunity to play for legendary coach Ray Eliot, and line up alongside some of the great players in the history of the program. But there was one player from his freshman season who stood above them all.
"Buddy Young was unbelievable," said Krueger, remembering his teammate in the 1946 Rose Bowl season. "He could jerk you around and he was the first player I knew of that didn't wear thigh pads or hip pads. He wasn't very big, but he was extremely quick and fast, and not only was he quick in the first three or four steps, but once he got moving, he was even faster. In the open field, nobody could stop him."
Led in the backfield by Young, the 1946 Illinois football team was a force. After getting off to a slow start at 2-2, the team took off, and after they defeated Wisconsin, 27-21, on October 19th, they never looked back. While fans look back at that team and remember Perry Moss at quarterback and Buddy Young and Julius Rykovich in the backfield, it was the defense that was the key to their success.
"We had great linebackers on that team and our tackles were also tough," recalled Krueger, who played defensive halfback as a true freshman. "We had Lou Agase and Les Bingaman at the tackle positions, and Les was one of the first 300-pounders to play college football. With guys like Dike Eddleman playing safety, we were just very versatile and very tough."
After a 20-0 win over Northwestern in late November, it was off to the Rose Bowl to play UCLA. The Illini entered the game as heavy underdogs, but to no one's surprise, Eliot, the master motivator, had a trick up his sleeve.
"All of the sports writers out on the West Coast wanted Army to play UCLA in the Rose Bowl, so Coach Eliot got all of these articles and all of these pictures and plastered them over our entire locker room," recalled Krueger, who unfortunately was unable to play in the 1947 Rose Bowl because he suffered a broken leg in the last regular season game against Northwestern. "These articles were all saying we were an inferior and our guys were just sky high for that ball game. Everyone played their A game and we ended up coming away with a 45-14 victory."
After graduating, Krueger returned to his alma mater to coach football, and that's where he first ran into Wayne Paulson.
"I first met Wayne when he was a freshman, and he came from a grade school in Hammond who didn't have organized football, so he didn't really play organized ball until the ninth grade," recalled Krueger. "But Wayne was an exceptional player and he played both ways for me. He was the quarterback and he was the team leader."
For Paulson, Coach Krueger was the perfect mentor.
"I was lucky that I was a quarterback and he had been a quarterback, because that led to a special relationship that a lot of players don't have with their coaches," said Paulson, who led Hammond High to a state championship his senior season. "Even though he put a lot of responsibility on me, I accepted it because I had his guidance. He wasn't a lineman or a receivers coach. He was a quarterbacks coach and an offensive minded guy and that helped me out a lot."
Like his mentor, Coach Krueger, Paulson was also heavily recruited during his senior year. With a lot of Big Ten schools coming after him, Paulson decided he wanted to head out west to play for the University of Colorado.
"Most of the schools out west back then would send you to junior college first and it was like a feeder system," recalled Paulson. "My goal was to go to the University of Colorado. I spent two years at a junior college in Pratt, Kansas. By the time I was done there, I had changed my mind and decided I wanted to go back to the Midwest."
Paulson was first contacted by Illinois assistant Buck McPhail; that call was followed up with one from head coach, Pete Elliot. By the time that second call came in, there was no doubt where Paulson wanted to go.
"When I spoke to Pete Elliot, I said, `Coach, I am really interested in coming back to play in the Midwest,'" recalled Krueger who would become the first junior college transfer to play football at Illinois. "I will never forget Pete Elliot saying, `Wayne, that's all I had to hear. We would love to have you at Illinois."
All set to head down to Champaign, there was one more person Paulson had to call and relay the good news to.
"Coach Krueger was ecstatic when I told him I was going to Illinois, and with our relationship the way it was, he said, `That's where you should have been in the first place,'" laughed Paulson. "He was very excited and I was going to be joining Dave Mueller who was another high school teammate of mine who was playing end at Illinois."
Once on campus, Paulson immediately found his niche at corner and returning kickoffs and punts for the 1963 Rose Bowl team. It was a team known for the great backfield of Jim Grabowski and Sam Price, but like his mentor, Paulson lined up with one of the all-time Illinois legends.
"During one of my first practices I was in the backfield with Jim Grabowski and Fred Custardo and they called a draw play," remembered Paulson. "We ran the draw play, they handed the ball off to Grabowski, and I went to cut back to block Dick Butkus. I went to throw a block, he jumped up as I just rolled underneath him and he just crushed Grabowski. I go back in the huddle and said, `Jim, I am really sorry. Lets run that play again and I will definitely take care of him,' and Jim said, `Like heck we are going to run that play again. I don't want to get killed.'"
After beating the fourth-ranked Michigan State Spartans in a game that was played on Thanksgiving Day 1963 due to the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the Illini were heading to the Rose Bowl to play the Washington Huskies. It was an experience that Paulson will never forget.
"I remember I took the opening kickoff in the end zone but ran it out to about the 20-yard line," recalled Paulson, who was a big part of the 17-7 win over the Huskies. "I remember Dick said to me, `Why did you run it out of the end zone,' and I said, `How many times do you get to take the opening kickoff in a Rose Bowl and run it out?' There was no way I was going to stand there and down it."
It was a relationship that began as a simple one in the late 1950's but one that has blossomed into a life-long bond today. Now 58 years since they first met on the football field at Hammond, their relationship remains as strong as ever.
"I admire him for what he accomplished on the field and for what he has done since he graduated," said Krueger. "It was unbelievable to watch both Wayne and Dave down at Illinois, and I took great pride in what they did. Wayne has a lovely family and just a few weeks back, we got together for dinner with our families."
"After I got done playing at Illinois it was exciting, because Coach Krueger was able to share with me things that he went through when he played with his Rose Bowl team," said Paulson. "I took him down to Champaign this year for the Rutgers game and we had a chance to form that tunnel that they established for the I-Men. To be able to stand next to my high school coach in that line and see the gleam of pride in his eyes was something really exceptional.
He is just a special person, both as a coach and as a human being. You never lose a relationship like that, and it's what athletics is all about. I can tell you that as long as he is able and willing, I will take him back for the I-Men weekend because it's something that is very special."
