inspiration in WKU’s tough schedule

By NICK BAUMGARDNER, The Daily News, nbaumgardner@bgdailynews.com

Perhaps no one understands the meaning of Western Kentucky University’s motto - “Where the spirit makes the master” - quite like Bill “Whitey” Sanders.

Sanders, who led the nation in pass completions in 1953 at WKU, maintains that WKU spirit more than 50 years after he took his last snap on the Hill.

After football, Sanders embarked on an acclaimed career as an editorial cartoonist, including nearly a quarter century at the Milwaukee Journal. Now retired and living in Florida, Sanders recently gave WKU head coach David Elson a gift Sanders feels embodies the Hilltoppers’ athletic spirit.

Sanders’ cartoon depicts a small football player dressed in a Hilltopper uniform holding a slingshot. The weapon holds a football bearing the phrase “the spirit,” and looming over the spirit-toting player are three gigantic players dressed in Indiana, Kentucky and Alabama uniforms.

This David vs. Goliath take on WKU’s difficult 2008 schedule depicts the challenge that awaits Elson and his current squad. But it also shows Sanders’ belief that with WKU’s tradition behind it, anything’s possible.

“Western has always had - and this is what motivated me to send coach Elson the cartoon - a kind of unique spirit and relationship with its students, and I think that’s truly unique,” Sanders said. “He and I have had conversations about the general area, and as the campus grows and the athletics become more upscale, we all hope that they don’t lose that ambiance. I kind of get the sense that coach Elson tagged onto that pretty quick and I think he’s helping perpetuate that.

“And that makes a big difference on how the team functions, outside of its brawn and talent and everything else.”

After hanging up his cleats in 1953, military service took Sanders overseas to Korea. When his active duty ended, Sanders caught on as a general assignment reporter for an English newspaper in Tokyo. While in Korea, Sanders came across a book of political cartoons by the famed Herb “Herblock” Block of The Washington Post. In reading the book, Sanders said he found a passion that’s been with him ever since.

From there, Sanders sent out several brochures back to the United States in hopes of catching on with a newspaper as a political cartoonist. His timing was good.

“I had at one time been through a town in the Carolinas that had the word ‘green’ in it,” Sanders said. “I couldn’t remember the name, and then I ran across this place called Greensboro, North Carolina, and sent a brochure to the Daily News there and another one to the Courier-Journal in Louisville.

When I woke up in the morning I had two letters, one from Greensboro, one from the C-J. I opened the C-J’s first and they said they had just hired a cartoonist and wouldn’t have an opening in the foreseeable future, so I went back and opened the Greensboro letter and it said their old cartoonist had just been hired by the C-J. So I immediately came back to the U.S. and went to work in Greensboro.”

Sanders has also drawn for the Kansas City Star, the Milwaukee Journal and Newsweek. Sanders has been listed in the Who’s Who in American Graphic Arts, as well as earning a place in the Wisconsin Media Hall of Fame.

Still, Sanders said some of his fondest memories came from his days as a Hilltopper.

“The ’52 and ’53 bunch have been like brothers for 50 years,” Sanders said. “We get together once or twice a year, most of us married people we knew from school, and over the years we just bonded in a way that was really unusual.

“We’ve all just had a really marvelous relationship, and that bonding process with us in school has been one of the most important things to me.”

Sanders, who currently resides in Fort Myers, Fla., said he and a group of his former teammates return to WKU every year for Homecoming. They plan to gather again on Nov. 1, when the Hilltoppers host North Texas.

Like many, Sanders believes the 2008 schedule is as big a challenge as the program’s ever faced. He made no bones about the possibility that 2008 could be a bumpy ride.

“There’s no question that these are going to be three or four games that they’re likely not going to be favored to win by all standards, but the rest of that schedule has games that they’ll get through in pretty good condition,” he said.

Long-term, however, Sanders thinks the program is headed in the right direction. He said he has faith in Elson’s commitment to keeping WKU’s spirit alive and well.

“If it comes down to just brawn and talent, (college football) becomes more businesslike than it should be,” Sanders said. “Where you have successful athletic programs, you’ve got someone that helps agenda that kind of spirit, and I don’t think it’s true everywhere.”