- Josef Spudich
Josef Spudich (
November 9 ,1908 –March 10 ,2001 ) was aUnited States professionalAmerican football player and teacher.He was born
November 9 ,1908 , one of nine children of parents who came to the United States in 1903 fromCroatia . In order to help with family expenses, Spudich worked nights and summers in acoal mine while attendinghigh school inBenld, Illinois , and was graduated in 1929. He was a graduate ofMcKendree College ,Lebanon, Illinois , in 1933, where he was named to the United Press International All-Star Football Team in 1932, and was All State fullback in 1931 and 1932. Moreover, he played professional football for the St. Louis Gunners, the Tulsa Oilers, and theChicago Cardinals .Spudich earned his
Masters Degree from the University of Missouri and did post-graduate work at Oxford in England and atColumbia University .He taught and coached in
Sikeston, Missouri , Cairo and El Dorado Springs; then starting in 1942, at Freeport High School,Freeport, Illinois , where he was head football coach from 1951–1954.Spudich taught English and served as assistant principal. He wasa soft-spoken man and had the respect and admiration of his students. Mr. Spudich always had time to help students, even if it was at the expense of his own plans. He was a very patient and kind man. He was also not only considered the High School's strongest man, his arms filling out his suit jackets, but was also considered the best dressed male teacher. Joe, as he was known to his students, would also plan field trips, such as taking them to Chicago to see such plays as "Camelot", starring
Richard Burton . He also assigned then contemporary books such asPatterns , byRod Serling , as well as classics, such asShakespeare 's, "Julius Caesar." After retiring at Freeport High School in 1964, he taught English and was chairman of the Humanities Division at Highland College, also in Freeport, Illinois.Mr. Spudich served on the Freeport Library Board, was a Freeport City
Alderman , coached the Frogs Girls Softball Team, played slow pitchsoftball in his 1970s, helped move a log cabin to the Stephenson County Historical Society grounds in Freeport, and did all the stonework on his own house plus a lot ofstonework for others. If Joe knew that his stonework for some people was unaffordable, he did it free of cost.Near the end of his life, Mr. Spudich was disheartened over seeing American high schools' over reaction for security, e.g., the use of police and police dogs monitoring the students and premises. He said that, "Many American high schools were losing their status as institutions of education and were taking on more a prison type atmosphere." Moreover, he also feared this same over reaction for security could eventually be adopted by the government at the cost of individual liberty. It appears that Mr. Spudich was a true visionary.
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