Men's Cross Country Carleton College Sports Information Department

Carleton College mourns the loss of Bill Huyck

NORTHFIELD, Minn. – Carleton College is saddened to announce the passing of former coach Willard "Bill" Huyck '53, age 90, who passed away on Nov. 16, 2022.
 
Huyck graduated from Carleton in 1953, having participated in football, wrestling, and baseball. He enlisted in the Navy's Officer Candidate School and served as a naval aviator (navigator and bombardier) stationed on an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean. Following military service, he returned to Carleton in 1957 to gain his teaching credentials and to work as a part-time assistant football coach. In 1958, he joined the staff full-time and eventually served as head coach of the cross country, hockey, and indoor and outdoor track & field programs.
 
During his coaching tenure at Carleton, his teams captured 13 Midwest Conference titles in cross country, seven more for indoor track & field, and an additional three in outdoor track & field.
 
He was director of the men's P.E. department for a time and served a stint as interim director of athletics. He spent the 1964-65 academic year as an advisor and coach in Egypt under a grant from the U.S. Department of State.
 
He stepped away to serve as Carleton's Dean of Admissions from 1977 to 1979. A year after returning to coaching, his 1980 cross country squad won the 1980 NCAA Championships, to date the only Knights team to win a NCAA national crown. That was 1 of his 8 cross country teams to finish in the top-10 at the NCAA Championships.

In 1984, Huyck left Carleton to become Athletic Director at Sewanee University (now known as The University of the South) and led its men and women's athletic programs until retiring in 1995. His retirement was short lived, however, as he and his family returned to Northfield where he served one semester as St. Olaf College's interim Athletic Director before retiring again.
 
This second retirement-like the first one-did not last long, as Carleton cross country and track & field head coaches Donna and Dave Ricks invited Huyck to join their staffs in 1997 as an assistant coach. In this part-time role, he continued coaching until 2021.
 
Not only were Huyck's teams a powerhouse in the Midwest Conference (where Carleton maintained its athletic membership prior to moving to the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in 1983), he coached 16 Carleton student-athletes to 33 All-American citations. Notable among those were Dale Kramer '78, who won four individual national titles in track and cross country; Mike Steiner '69, who recorded the fastest mile time in what was then known as the NCAA College Division (basically all non-Division I schools); Rick Bolin '86, who was twice runner-up at the NCAA Championships in the decathlon; Kristi Colbenson '05, an All-American in both the javelin and heptathlon; and Kelly Lovett '11, a three-time All-American in the javelin and 2011 national champion.
 
Huyck loved athletics and devoted his life to helping others achieve their dreams not only on the field but in their education, career, and personal development.
 
And he had a sense of humor. When his men's cross country team won the 1980 NCAA Championships, he told his squad, "Quick, boys! Load up the vans, grab the trophy, and let's get the heck out of here before they re-add the score and find out we didn't actually win!"
 
Huyck published 14 articles in technical journals, two of which were cited in the Encyclopedia of Track and Field. He served two terms as chair of the NCAA Division III Track and Field Committee, was president of the NCAA Division III cross-country association, and was secretary of the Division III track coaches association. He served as head inspector (now known as head umpire) at 19 NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships in Detroit, and was referee for 26 different NCAA Division III NCAA Championships meets.
 
Thanks to his association with Fred Wilt, a well-known track coach, Huyck taught at five major coaching schools in the United States run by the U.S. Olympic Committee, and at four coaching schools run by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) in Puerto Rico, Mexico and Jordan. In addition to his year in Egypt, Huyck's other international experiences include coaching teams in Portugal for three months in 1973, in Canada in parts of two summers, and at the U.S. Sports Festival in 1983.
 
Bill was inducted into the Carleton College 'C' Club Athletic Hall of Fame in 1979, the Minnesota Track & Field Hall of Fame in 2010, and the University of the South Athletic Hall of Fame in 2019. The championship cross country course at Carleton was renamed in Huyck's honor in 2019.
 
The family plans to hold a memorial event in Northfield, in Spring 2023, for friends, family, and former students.
 
Click here for a more detailed obituary from his family.
Remembrances of Coach Huyck can be written on the College's Farewells page.
Re-watch the Bill Huyck Celebration / 1980 Men's Cross Country reunion on YouTube.
Bill Huyck chats with current Carleton head coach Dave Ricks during a meet
Bill Huyck (left) chats with current Carleton head coach Dave Ricks during a meet