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| SUMMIT PHOTO BY BOB FENSKE
Waldorf College cheerleaders escort Hall of Fame inductee Dave Bolstorff and his wife, Donna, onto the field at halftime of the homecoming football game Saturday. |
More than a football coach
A legendary coach and chaplain takes center stage during Waldorf Homecoming 2007
By Bob Fenske
Of The Summit
The humor filled the room, but so too did respect and reverence on a night when Waldorf College paid tribute to a man who for many years was the face of the institution.
The men and women who rose - one by one - at the Waldorf Athletic Hall of Fame induction banquet may have given Dave Bolstorff a little grief but they also handed out praise and honor to the legendary football coach and chaplain who spent 42 years at the college.
“There isn't a day that goes by when I don't use something I learned from Coach Bolstorff,” said Dan Hanson, the Waldorf vice president of academic affairs who played for and coached under Bolstorff. “He taught a lot of us the value of character and perseverance.”
The irony of the banquet may have been that Bolstorff was present. After retiring last fall, Waldorf officials wanted to have a retirement party in Bolstorff's honor.
“I called him, told him what we wanted to do,” Waldorf Athletic Director Denny Jerome said, “and he told me, ‘That sounds great, but I won't be there.'”
But Jerome told the crowd that Bolstorff did agree to the Hall of Fame weekend under one condition: He wouldn't have to ride in the parade.
“The thing about Coach is that he wasn't big on the limelight,” said Jerome, who like Hanson, played for and coached under Bolstorff. “OK, that might be the understatement of the night.”
Bolstorff came to Waldorf in 1965 to serve as the college chaplain and an assistant football coach.
The St. Olaf (Minn.) College and Luther Seminary graduate was named the Warriors' head coach in 1968, a position he held until retiring at the end of the 2006 season.
He finished with a 189-184-1 record that included two undefeated seasons and four trips to bowl games.
But he also touched the lives of thousands of students as the college's chaplain and religion professor.
As one of his former coaches - Roger Jaeger - succinetly put it, “He taught us that football and your Christian life don't have to be separate.”
Laughter was a common theme throughout the night but so was God and faith. For most North Iowans, Bolstorff was a football coach; for Waldorf students and staff, he was a man of God who happened to coach football.
Bolstorff, himself, talked about his journey to Waldorf - one that included separate stints as a football coach and pastor - and how God was with him every step of the way.
Over and over - as he told his story - he came back to one refrain.
“You can't see where you are going, but when you get there and you look back, you can see where God has placed your feet every single step of the way.”
He, like virtually every speaker, lauded his wife, Donna, for being by his side every step of the way. And he thanked the men and women of Waldorf for his own version of “a wonderful life.”
Not that the speakers - Bolstorff included - didn't have a little fun with their former teacher and coach. They joked about everything from passing the football to the coach's penchant for yellow legal pads to his colorblindness.
“He'd always tell me, ‘It's OK to pass but not now,” Jerome said.
Hanson said his intelligence has been questioned over the years; after all, he was a wide receiver who attended Waldorf.
“When Coach asked me if I wanted to coach here, I couldn't believe it,” Hanson said. “I didn't think he had ever heard of me.”
Jerome said Bolstorff's love of good, hard-nosed football may have been best represented by the Waldorf football uniforms.
“We were the only team in the United States who made Penn State's uniforms look flashy,” he said, drawing a big laugh from the crowd.
During a video tribute, Waldorf's rivalry with NIACC was on display when a Waldorf football helmet was shown. On a piece of tape was written “Kill NIACC.”
Former Waldorf basketball coach Dan Mason, the current NIACC athletic director, laughed about the photo as he introduced himself to the crowd.
“I'm Dan Mason and I coached basketball and baseball here for nine years. ... I'm the athletic director at a school 30 miles east of here that was prominently featured in the video we just saw.”
And Tony Bolstorff, the coach's youngest son, joked about the memories of being a coach's son. “I still remember studying at home as a kid and hearing Dad on the phone and I still know that phone credit card he used on his recruiting calls.”
With that, he rattled off the credit card number.
Still, there was little doubt that the Bolstorff children - Peter, Craig and Tony - have been proud to call Dave Bolstorff their father.
“I think the best thing I can say to Dad is this,” Greg Bolstorff said. “Abba father.”
There was little doubt that Bolstorff, whatever regrets he may have had, enjoyed “his weekend.”
Maybe his only regret came Saturday as he watched Waldorf's game with Peru State from the stands.
“I miss this,” he said as his arm swept across the football field.
“It's been a very nice weekend,” Bolstorff said Saturday afternoon before adding, with a twinkle in his eye, “and I'm glad I came.”
Story created Oct 09, 2007 - 14:23:28 CDT.
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