Bill Wessel’s induction into the Marietta High School Hall of Fame has been a long time coming, according to former teammate and close friend Doug Robinson.
“Bill was a great athlete, definitely one of the best all-around athletes at Marietta High School,” Robinson said.
Wessel, who graduated from MHS in 1963, earned 11 varsity letters in four different sports. His father (Bill Wessel) coached the Marietta College men’s basketball team, a sport that eventually led to Wessel being on the Marshall University hoops roster for several seasons.
“Bill spent a lot of time at Marietta College and shot a lot of basketball because his father was a college basketball coach,” Robinson said. “He was a good shooter and was big enough to rebound. There wasn’t a 3-point rule when we played, but he could shoot from the outside. .”
Mr. Wessel passed away on September 1st last year at the age of 78. Bill Wessel and his wife Sharon have two sons, Doug and Andy, and four grandchildren.
At Marietta High School, Wessel earned three honors in both basketball and football, two in baseball, two in golf, and one in track and field as a high jumper.
As a junior, Wessel was the Tigers men’s basketball team’s leading scorer, finishing second among his Central Ohio League teammates behind teammate Bill Worden. He was named to the All-COL first team.
When Marietta lost Warden’s services to a knee injury during the regular season, Wessel stepped up his game. The Tigers opened the season with 22 straight wins, but lost in the district final to a Portsmouth team that featured two future major leaguers in Al Oliver and Larry Heil.
The following season, his senior year, Wessel was the leading scorer at both COL and Marietta High School, was named COL’s Player of the Year, and was named to the All-Ohio second team.
During his senior year, Wessel played quarterback for the Tigers’ football team, which finished 7-3. He also received honorable mentions throughout the state and COL.
Wessel and Robinson, who grew up on the same street in Devorah, were more than friends. they were like brothers.
“I didn’t have any siblings at the time, but I was at Wessel’s house more often than I was at home,” Robinson said. “Bill was just a good guy and a good athlete.”
Wessel and Robinson are fellow alumni and members of the same Marietta boys basketball team, which combined for a 44-3 record as juniors and seniors.
“Bill Watts was our basketball coach. He was a former Marine, and we would do laps in the gym before and after practice and run up and down the stairs at school,” Robinson said. said. “We pressed all the time. We fasted every time. That was our game — from the start of the game until the coach sent us off.”
Wessel played two seasons at the varsity level for Marshall University. He played in 39 games and scored 375 points. In the 1964-65 season, Wessel averaged 12.8 points per game.
“Bill went to Marshall and scored 55 points in one game as a freshman on the JV team,” he said.
“Later in his career, he hurt his knee and couldn’t play basketball anymore. He came to Marietta College and graduated from there.”
After college, Wessel lived in places such as Northern California, Michigan, Tennessee, and South Carolina. Despite the distance, Robinson and Wessel maintained a long-standing friendship throughout their professional lives.
Robinson remembers having Wessel as his partner when he won a members-versus-guest tournament at Marietta Country Club.
“We spent so much time with his family,” Robinson said. “We played a lot of golf. I was a pretty good golfer in his day. The only thing Bill struggled with was putting. Golf was a big thing for him in his later years.”
Contact Kelly Patrick at kpatrick@newsandsentinel.com