Coleman to be inducted into San Francisco Prep Hall of Fame

At age 73, Gardnerville resident Bill Coleman thought the glory days of his athletic career were far behind him.

A couple months ago, though, he received a call from a man he'd never met just wanting to shoot the breeze about Coleman's high school days.

"It was a man named Bob Randall," Coleman said. "I'd never heard of the guy. But he said he wanted to submit my name for consideration for the San Francisco Prep Hall of Fame. I just said, 'well, thank you very much.' I didn't really think anything would come of it.

"I never thought anyone from San Francisco would be talking about my high school days again, I thought that was a thing long in the past."

Several weeks later, after Randall spoke to the hall of fame committee on Coleman's behalf, Coleman received a letter with the hall of fame's masthead across the top.

"I couldn't believe it," Coleman said. "As soon as I saw those words, 'San Francisco Prep Hall of Fame,' I knew I was in. I was elated."

Coleman was a star baseball and football player for Sacred Heart Prep between 1950 and 1954. He was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers out of high school and played four seasons of minor league ball, including one year with the Reno Silver Sox in 1956.

During Coleman's high school career, the Fighting Irish were one of the top baseball teams in the country. In 1952, the lineup included Diamond Jim Gentile, who would later go on to become a three-time Major League All-Star with the Baltimore Orioles and finish third in the 1961 American League MVP voting behind Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle.

"We were one of the best teams around," Coleman said. "We won the section title three years in a row, but we got beat by our rivals, St. Ignatius, my senior year. They inducted our whole 1952 team into the school hall of fame a couple years back."

Coleman played third base for Sacred Heart until his senior year, when he made the switch to catcher. He was a key cog in the heart of the batting order for the Fighting Irish.

Still, one of his most lasting high school memories came on the gridiron, where he played both running back and quarterback during his career.

As a sophomore, he caught a touchdown pass against St. Ignatius to give the Fighting Irish a 6-6 tie. A picture of the catch was on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle sports section the next day.

"We weren't very good in football, so beating our rivals was about the biggest thing we could do," he said. "I was too young to really realize what had just happened. I just broke out into the open, the ball was there in my hands and that was it. That pass was definitely one of my best memories."

One of his greatest accomplishments was being drawn by Chronicle sketch artist Howard Brodie, renowned for his work during World War II, during Coleman's senior year.

"If you got a cartoon of yourself in the paper in my day, that was something else," Coleman said. "It was your biggest accomplishment, hands down."

His baseball coach, Dick Murray, doubled as a bird-dog scout for Brooklyn and a number of Sacred Heart players, including Coleman and Gentile, signed with the Dodgers out of high school over the years.

"It was a funny thing, Seattle from the Pacific Coast League called up the same day I signed and started talking to me and I told them not to waste their time, I'd signed with the Dodgers a couple hours earlier," Coleman said.

He reported to Bakersfield that first summer and was roommates with eventual Cy Young award winner Don Drysdale.

"I was so young, I don't think I really appreciated all that was going on," Coleman said. "Don Drysdale was extraordinary. I got to go to spring training in Vero Beach and one day Mickey Mantle was standing right there in the batter's box in front of me.

"I remember talking to Roy Campanella. It was an exciting time."

He retired after injuring his shoulder and moved to Peninsula near Los Gatos, Calif.

He later moved to Lake Tahoe where he was a butcher at Safeway for a number of years. He finally settled in Carson Valley in 1993 where much of the rest of his family lives.

His grandson, Dusty Cooper, was a standout running back for the Douglas Tigers in 2003 when he broke the school record for rushing yards a season at 1,633.

"I told him once I was only half the athlete he is," Coleman said. "It was really something watching his senior year. I am so proud of him."

Coleman will be inducted into the hall of fame on May 16 in San Francisco. Randall will be one of his allotted seven guests, along with several family members who will be coming from as far away as Alabama.

"They don't want you to take more than two minutes for your speech," Coleman said. "I'll just thank my family, my friends, my teammates, my mom and dad and my coach Dick Murray. I will want to thank all the people for coming because what good is an award like this if you have no one to share it with. Then I'll say 'God bless you all,' which I mean from the bottom of my heart.

"I'm just sad I couldn't have my wife with me. She passed away three years ago and she was my best friend for 50 years."

Coleman's son works for the Douglas County Sheriff's Office and his daughter works for Carson Valley Inn.