In the beginning, there was no football until 1962 at Stratford High School. A scrapbook in the school library says that they first played in 1931 but none of the yearbooks have a mention of the sport until the 1963 edition. Newspaper searches confirm that in late 1962 Robert Stuckwisch was approached to come to Stratford to start several athletic programs at the school. The early yearbooks have pictures and scores of boys’ basketball and for a few seasons’ girls’ as well. One picture from the 1930’s shows the track team consisting of two young men posing in sprinters stances. Baseball was added to the school in the 1950’s but there were no pictures of any other sports in the older yearbooks until 1964.
Robert “Bob” Stuckwisch had a diverse career prior to coming to Stratford. He was an assistant football coach, head track coach as well as basketball coach at Otsego High School in Michigan. Otsego is located about 17-miles north of Kalamazoo. In 1950 as the basketball coach, he was noticed in many newspapers around the country for the following:
From the Racine Journal Newspaper, January 12, 1950
I found this same story in The Milwaukee Journal, The Wisconsin State Journal, The Chicago Tribune, the Wausau Daily Hearld, the Stevens Point Journal, the Los Angeles Times and the Detroit Free Press to name a few. As a coach, Stuckwisch was evidentially “old school”.
Bob Stuckwisch…1963 Stratford Yearbook…the best picture I could find of the coach
Stuckwisch moved to Stevens Point as the Director of Recreation for that city but in 1954, at the end of the school year he resigned to go into a business venture in Washington D.C. Bob moved back to the area and was asked to start the football, wrestling and track programs at Stratford. He may have been the school's first official athletic director, but the year books didn’t show Stuckwisch as a member of the faculty nor a mention of anyone being the AD. The 1963 yearbook mentions only one game that the school played as noted below in the picture. Newspaper searches show no mention of the team until 1963.
So, Stratford appears to have lost their first game in 1962. But in 1963 they went 3-3-1, posted a 2-5-0 season in 1964 and then they tied for the Marawood Conference title in 1965 with a 5-3-0 overall record. Citing poor health Stuckwisch resigned but stayed in the area. He had set up an annual track relay competition and he handled that and lived in the Marshfield area.
Jerry Fitzgerald…WFCA HOF photo
Young, at only 25-years, Gerald “Jerry” Fitzgerald moved from Gibraltar High School in Door County and took over the program. His Gibraltar teams had gone 10-6 in his two years there but he was even better at Stratford. The 1966 season, his first, started slow as they posted a 0-2-1 record but then rattled off 20 consecutive wins, finishing 6-2-1 in 1966, 9-0-0 in 1967 and again 6-2-1 in 1968. His 1967 team earned the school the #2 ranking in the A.P. final poll. After earning his Masters Degree in Administration, he took the head football coach and assistant principal positions at Tomah. He would later move to Stevens Point in the same positions at SPASH and would have an overall career 230-117-2 Hall of Fame record at the four schools.
Bob Delaney
Bob Delaney would take over from 1969-75 not only as the head football coach but as athletic director. Bob had an extensive coaching background, mainly in the college sector before he and his wife Mardie, also a teacher moved to Stratford. They would stay for many years after his coaching ended as teachers at the school. In 1970 his team snapped Auburndale’s 31-consecutive win streak. Delaney’s teams were almost always in the hunt for the Marawood title as they had only one losing season in the seven that he coached, and his 1971 team went 8-1-0 and tied for the conference crown. His final season was 1975 and Stratford went 7-2. The success of previous coaches was building.
Tom Knauf…WFCA HOF picture
Following Delaney stepping down, his assistant, Tom Knauf took over in 1976 and the school would reach newer heights. His first team earned a 8-1 record and even though he had two losing seasons in his 12 years at the school (1980 4-5 and 1985 3-6) Coach Knauf produced a wonderful 91-33 record. His 1986 team went undefeated and earned the WIAA D-5 title going 12-0 with ten shutouts and allowing only 13 points.
1987 Stratford yearbook
Knauf grew up in Marshfield attending Marshfield Columbus High School. He first coached at Royall and after he left Stratford it was back to Columbus to run the football program twice, once for six years before becoming the defensive line coach at UW-Stevens Point and then back to Columbus to coach his sons and then he retired.
Cal Tackes with one of his teams at Cam Randall
Cal took charge in 1989, and he continued the winning ways without blinking. In 24-years at the helm, only once in1991 did a Cal Tackes team fail to make the playoffs. In 1991 the Tigers posted a 6-3 record. Between 2003 and 2008 his teams won six consecutive state titles, a feat never performed before or since then. A member of the WFCA HOF Cal ‘s record was a glossy 236-48, a winni9ng percentage of .831 which is currently ranked #5 on the WFCA 200+ coaching wins list. Cal stepped down as head coach after the 2012 season but continues to help the football team and current coach, Jason Tubbs.
Jason Tubbs...Stratford Hogh School photo
17-years ago Jason Tubbs joined the staff as an assistant and when Cal Tackes stepped down as head coach he stepped in and the success has continued. Now into his 13th season his teams have kept the streak of making the playoffs now at 33 consecutive years (Since they are currently undefeated with an 8-0 record, they are a cinch to make it this season). His 2018 and 2019 squads lost in the state finals but in 2022 and 2023 they were D-6 Champions.
A number of schools, large and small, started their football programs after World War II. Those schools have had very good success. Fond du Lac St. Mary’s Springs, Waunakee, Edgar, Waukesha Catholic Memorial, Muskego, River Ridge as well as Stratford all started in 1949, sometime in the 1950’s or in the 1960’s and have done well. Older, established schools as of late…Green Bay East, Green Bay West, Peshtigo, Delafield St. John’s and former Milwaukee powerhouses Washington and Bradley Tech have failed, for many different reasons to continue their past success.
One thing for sure is that whether or not you have had one longtime head coach like those at Memorial, Springs and Edgar or multiple coaches who have kept the school’s winning tradition, one thing is for sure…SUCCESS DOES BREED SUCCESS and it's been shown here with Stratford. It also helps to have had HOF quality coaches molding their players talents to near perfection. More about how their success has been achieved in a future story.
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