Bill Schuchardt’s name is already chiseled in Salem High School lore, but it becomes official Saturday.
That’s when a dedication ceremony will be held to officially name the Salem High School football facility ‘Schuchardt Stadium’.
The ceremony is to begin at 2 p.m. and the entire community, especially former players and coaches, are invited.
Schuchardt held coaching roles in various sports as well as athletic director for a number of years at SHS. But it’s his 32-year run as Tiger football head coach that has put his name on the stadium.
Schu, as he’s known by friends and family, finished with a record of 255-91 at Salem – ranking in the Top-20 all-time among Missouri coaches. Using a Wishbone offensive formation that set numerous state and school records along with a crushing 50 defensive formation, he won 14 South-Central Association and 12 district championships. That included five state Final Four berths. He had just one losing season – his first – and coached 34 players that went on to earn all-state honors.
He was inducted into the Missouri Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame, and in 2021 was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.
In typical Schu-speak, the coach downplayed his accomplishments, and pointed instead to the players, parents and fellow coaches.
“It’s something you don’t go into expecting something like that will happen. In that era, we were pretty good,” he said of the stadium dedication. “I was at the right place, at the right time, with the right people.”
“It’ll be a fun day. I’ll be teasing with (his ex-players) about which team was best. Just talking with the old players and coaches will be fun.”
Schuchardt was no doubt a great football coach. What probably made him a hall-of-fame coach was a five-year run of excellence, during which the Tigers made it to either the state semifinals or the state championship game.
During a stretch from 1998-2002 Salem made it to the state championship game in The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis twice, and three times advanced to the semifinals. The Tigers had a combined record of 58-9 during that span. Salem was 11-2 in 1998, 12-1 in 1999, 13-1 in 2000, 11-2 in 2001 and 11-3 in 2002.
And making those teams even more special to Schu was the fact both of his sons, Jeff and Joe, were on those two squads.
In addition to playing for his dad, Joe has coached with Bill as an assistant for several years on the staffs of St. Clair and, currently, Rolla. Joe says the Salem dedication means much for the entire family.
“It’s very special,” Joe said. “It’s really neat, especially since it’s something my son (Jaylon, age eight) can always see, too. Of course, he sees my dad as granddad. He sees him coaching now. and he sees just another coach. He’s not the same coach he was as a head coach. This lets Jaylon see what kind of coach he was at Salem.”
The Tigers had two painful Class 4A semifinal losses to the Jefferson City Helias Crusaders, 28-7 in 1998 and 7-0 in 1999.
Salem flirted with a state championship in 2000, beating Festus 35-26 in the semifinals to advance to the championship contest. There, it lost to a football machine from Platte County 32-9.
In 2001 Salem returned to the state semis, where it lost to high-scoring New Madrid Central 43-23.
And in 2002 the Tigers made it five semifinals in a row and bolted back to The Dome before once again falling to nemesis Platte County 34-13 in the Class 4A title game – Platte County’s 42nd consecutive victory and a run of three straight state crowns.
Schuchardt agrees with the assessment that span played a big role in putting him in the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. However, he says he doesn’t want his great teams before and after that time to be forgotten.
“We had that five-year period where we were in the Final Four five years in a row,” he said. “That kind of set us apart.
“But we were pretty good before that, too. We had that team with David McKeown, David Wynn and Chad Keefe where we lost to Webb City by three or four points. Actually, the first time we lost to Lutheran North (in 1988) I think that is when we actually turned the corner. It was a playoff atmosphere. That year was totally different than I experienced before. Robert Howard was a senior quarterback that year. And Scott Hair and David Gipson were on that team. And when those five (semifinal) years were over, we still had some good teams. When Nathan Gott was quarterback, he was 18-2 in his last two years (2004 and 2005 seasons).”
So, from the coach’s mouth, who was the best Tiger team during the Schuchardt Era?
“I get asked that all the time,” he said. “I really believe our best team had to be Jeff’s senior year and Joe’s junior year; that 1999 season, when we lost in the semis to Helias.”
The coach surely has the support of his players in feeling the name Schuchardt should be affixed to Salem High School’s football field forever. And many of them have worked tirelessly to get the stadium project off the ground.
“Schu put Salem on the map,” said quarterback Matt Dillon, Class of 1999, who still lives in Salem. “He took a little town with farm and blue-collar kids and made it special. It started from the very beginning; we had games we shouldn’t have won and did because of him. During those four or five years; those two state berths; especially; a lot of those kids graduated and they had just single-digit losses from their sophomore-to-senior seasons. That’s impressive. A lot of kids wore Salem Blue; Schu bled Salem Blue. He was the Lou Holtz of Salem. And Schu caused a lot of kids to graduate from Salem because he cared for them. There aren’t enough good words that can be said about Schu, for what he did for the community and players.”
“The one thing I’ve always said about Schu, he had a way to get kids to play above their capabilities,” said Jake Decker, an offensive lineman on the first Tiger Dome team. “He was just a great coach with a good connection with his players.”
Jake’s brother, Jimmy Decker, was a 2001 graduate and one of the greatest fullbacks in school history. “He had that drive,” Jimmy Decker said of Schuchardt. “He expected the best out of you and got it. You just wanted to please him. The thing about Schu, he could see potential in a player. My sophomore year he put me at nose guard even though I was so little. But he saw I was fast and could do it when I didn’t think I could.”
Robby Owen, a 2000 SHS grad who was the SCA Back of the Year in 1999, has a son, Josh, who is a senior running back on this year’s Tiger squad. So he’s one of the many ex-Tigers who have seen Salem football from both a player and parent perspective. And he knows how special his time as a player was, thanks to Schuchardt.
“I thought it was a great honor,” he said of playing for Schu. “I don’t know of a single player who played with me that didn’t feel that way. I played at the collegiate level, and I never played with another coach like him. He just walks into a room and has a presence.”
“Coach Schu always spoke the truth,” said defensive back Will Woolman, a 2000 Tiger grad. “And it was more than just about Friday night. He always hunted the good out of everybody; saw the talent out of everybody.”
Joe Harris, a 2003 graduate, was a big, power fullback who played in both championship games and the semifinal loss to New Madrid Central. He was part of the Tiger team that set the Missouri single-season rushing record as a senior, a team with multiple 1,000-yard rushers. “Everybody wanted to play for him,” Harris said. “I got the opportunity to play in college (at Missouri S&T), and I found out that wasn’t always the case. Schu was the type of coach that everybody just wanted to play for.”
And the fact that there was very little passing in Schuchardt’s mighty Wishbone offense didn’t matter. “Not at all,” Harris said. “We welcomed it. It may have been boring to some people in the stands, but we knew we could find something that worked every week. It was exciting to be a part of that offense.”
