John E. Klement

The Life and Experiences of John Klement

As interviewed by his grandson, T.J. Klement

March 1, 2004

I was born on November 29, 1926 in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. I graduated in 1944 from Fort Atkinson High School where I participated in three sports, football, basketball and baseball. Track ended up being an important part of my career in the later years.

My childhood was different than yours to say the least. There was no hockey, soccer or little leagues. There were no organized youth activities. If you wanted to play ball you had to go get enough guys to play ball. We did put on a carnival every year in a vacant lot. We had a lot of fun with pony rides and a lot of stuff like that. It was fun just setting everything up and getting prepared and keeping everybody busy.

I remember when I was young, we would be sitting at the kitchen table having breakfast and my dad would say, "Why don't we go to Green Bay to the Packer game?" So we just got in the car and went to Green Bay. We wouldn't have to worry about buying tickets because there were plenty.

We went to the World’s Fair in New York and Chicago. We took a trip every summer and tried to visit every state capital in the United States but we ran out of summers. We also started a custom of family camping, mostly at State Parks. We could even bring a friend. As you know, we still enjoy vacationing with our kids and grandkids today.

When I was in high school I was one of the only guys that had my own car. I had a 1929 Model "A" rumble seat. When I ended up going to the University, we painted it red and put white "W's" on the sides. Our record for passengers in my car was eighteen people. The Police did stop us by Liz Waters Hall. We went to homecoming once and the roof leaked so bad I had to take towels from the training room at Camp Randall Stadium to keep us from getting soaked before we got to the restaurant. The Model "A" is still in Fort Atkinson and owned by the guy I sold it to for $25.

I was 21 years old when I was a freshman in college. It was a little different because most of us were just coming out of the service from World War II. I spent three and a half years in the Army and ended up as one of eight individuals in the United States to be commissioned an officer at the age of 18. I arrived in France on Christmas Eve, I remember that, and I ended up being assigned to the third army athletic office. The war had just ended in Europe and there were hundreds of thousands of troops with nothing to do so they said they wanted to establish the biggest sports program ever. We ended up playing baseball games with 95,000 spectators in Nuremberg, Germany with guys on the teams like George Munger, Ewel Blackwell, and Stan Lapette, all famous baseball players. Some men couldn't make the teams because of all the talent available in all of Europe. This is when I got involved in the Third Army athletics. I did all the ordering of the equipment, making programs, getting uniforms made up and we didn't have to pay for anything because we had many supplies that the postal department couldn't deliver from home because GI's had been rotated home or to the Pacific. We got thousands of cartons of cigarettes (of course I never smoked) and were able to use them as money. German women made us uniforms and just took payment in nylons, cigarettes, candy or whatever we had. But anyway, I got very involved in track and field at this point. We put on a European Theater track meet in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany. A Czechoslovakian athlete, Abel Zadapek, competing against us actually went on to win three Olympic championships after he got out of service. One of the highlights of my stay in Germany was attending the Nuremberg trials for three days and seeing all those Nazi defendants sitting there in the same courtroom. I remained in the reserves when I came back home because I had gotten a promotion to first lieutenant. I was lucky enough to get an opportunity to go to West Point on a direct commission but I didn't see the sense in going to four years of school and come out as a second lieutenant. When I got back from Europe, at 21, I enrolled at the UW-Madison and went out for football. I had started a couple years in high school but gained a lot of experience playing with our regimental football team that played all over Europe. We played the first football game ever played in Amsterdam, Holland. We had to send crews down there to build goalposts and line the fields. It was a huge success. We had maybe 70,000 people who turned out to watch an American football game (long before the NFL). I never missed a day of practice in four years at the UW, which I'm pretty proud of. I traveled with the team and never got in a varsity game but I was captain of the JV team which played a regular Big 10 schedule on Fridays. I soon found out that football was a huge conflict with a civil engineering degree because of weekend surveying so along with my experiences in Europe, I decided to switch my major to physical education and athletic administration.

After I graduated from college I was in officer's reserve core and I got recalled and sent to Korea. Just before I was recalled, I met your Grandmother at a softball game in Fort Atkinson. She had come down with a friend whose boyfriend was on my team. One of our first meetings was at a tavern called Poplar Point which, I believe, is still there. We got married in 1950 and then I was called to Fort Riley, Kansas for training. I was asked to coach football at Fort Riley, so I coached and played for six months. I got my orders to ship out for Korea, but I was given a 6-week delay so I could be home for the birth of my first child (your Aunt Debbie, born right at Fort Riley). We drove home to Wisconsin with a six-week-old baby and I left right away for Korea and didn't see them for another year. Your Grandma had to take care of your Aunt and be alone for that year. My unit was on the front line where three of us from Fort Riley joined the 5th regimental combat team at Chin Chung, North Korea. We were first stationed in North Korea because we were starting to advance then. I remember writing a letter home to your grandma and actually saying, "it's beautiful tonight, it's snowing, the moon is out, the artillery shells are going over us and exploding and it's really colorful." I don't think she appreciated it. They had a policy that if you were a line officer' you only had to serve on the lines for six months. I was then brought back for an administrative job and was appointed sports and PX Director for the regiment. We won the Korean Volleyball championship with a team that I was a member of. As a special officer, I had a job for awhile of driving USO people around to their shows. I wrote your grandma a letter and told her I was driving this really nice guy named Eddie Fisher around. It turns out he had a number one hit at that time. My military experience was not only interesting and educational but it paid for my college education. Korea was a beautiful country, all mountains and forest, but it was all shot up and bombed. I did have the honor of receiving the Bronze Star for my service in Korea.

When I came back, I finished my master's degree before I took my first job at Mauston High School in Wisconsin. I was athletic director, head of physical education, head football, basketball, track, wrestling coach and I got paid $3,600 a year. I was in Mauston for two years when I read in the Madison newspaper that they were going to build a new high school in Monona. I applied and came down for an interview and was fortunate enough to be the first person they hired assuming the roles of athletic director, physical education coordinator/instructor, head football, wrestling and track coach. I held this job for 33 years and I enjoyed it immensely. I was also fortunate to coach three state track championship teams in the 1980's. It was a pleasure teaching in the same high school with my children attending and I even had your dad in my class in 1978. He stayed out of trouble pretty well with the exception of a little incident at a Volleyball Banquet, but I won't bring that up.

I was fortunate to have so many opportunities with so many organizations and conferences over my career and I enjoyed every single experience. The highlights were the state championships and being around the young athletes that you get to know real well and carry on lifelong friendships.

In the decade since this interview, Dad continued to enjoy attending athletic events, especially his grandkids' until it became too difficult for him, with his bad knees. He attended WADA and NIAAA conferences into his 80's. He loved his annual family vacations to Eagle River with last summer's turning out to be his last vacation in the Northwoods that he loved so much. Dad, thanks for all the memories and for giving us a wonderful life. We miss you and love you more than words can say.