A Coach's Life: Les Hipple and the Marion Indians - Tapa blanda

"I never cared what a boy thought of me while I was coaching him. But I cared a lot what he would think of me later."-Les Hipple. He was one of the greatest high school coaches the state had ever known. Les Hipple imposed strict rules on his players and enforced them unsparingly. He turned out championship teams year after year in not just one sport, but four. Although his rules were extreme, the boys in the small Iowa town longed to become "Hipplemen." Townspeople praised the coach and admired his teams for their gritty, disciplined play and their modest behavior. He made the town famous during the 1940s and 1950s. Then, when everything around him began to change, the coach did not. This is the story of an extraordinary man who unflinchingly lived according to the principles he taught, even when it meant losing a game or a championship-or the job he loved. Author Dan Kellams, a former Hipple athlete, recalls a vanished time in small-town mid-America. He gives readers an admiring but tough-minded look at what happened to a man who imposed stern disciplines on hundreds of boys-and made them into champions.

Dan Kellams is a freelance writer and editorial consultant who has written about a variety of sports during his fifty-year career. He played four sports under Les Hipple before graduating from Marion High School in 1954. He and his wife, Elaine, live in New York City and Litchfield County, Connecticut.