Glen (Buzz) Wilson was one of a large number of great athletes of the Bays first 15 years, an era where many State championships were won. Buzz, class of 1950, is the oldest of the many worthy inductees in the Whitefish Bay Athletics Hall of Fame.
Here is the fine speech Buzz gave when he was inducted in 2013.
The story about three guys (Buzz Wilson, Paul Hickey, Jim Masker) not only living on the same street, but almost next to each other, being All-Suburban football players the same year raised my interest and, to be honest, suspicion. No way that could be true, that’s nuts. Three guys All-Suburban and living within a 30 yard pass of each other? Give me a break. Poppycock!
It’s true.
As Buzz mentioned in his speech, the Bay won Suburban football titles in 1947, 1948 and 1949. They went 6-2, 8-0 and 7-1. That was the tail end of a six year run where the Bay went 35-9-2, with four titles.
For the 1949 season the Bay coaches (Eddie Jankowski, Marsh Rieboldt, Nick Kuehl), realizing what they had at QB, switched their offense from the Wisconsin Box to a modern passing offense. That meant going from passing 0-5 times a game to 10-12 times a game.
The 1949 season came down to the season-ending game at Wauwatosa. Bay wins, they win the undisputed title. Wauwatosa wins, they had a shot at the title depending upon results of other games. The smart money had the Red Raiders winning by seven.
The smart money was wrong, the Bay won 14-0 despite having lost Paul Hickey to a broken leg earlier in the season.
Wilson and Hickey were 2nd-Team All-State and Masker 3rd-Team. Buzz shared 2nd-team with a back who would become his teammate on the Badgers.
The Glory Cup banquet held downtown at the elegant Pfister Hotel was a big deal in those days. Bay head coach Eddie Jankowski (member of the Badgers Hall of Fame and Packers Hall of Fame) was not the father of Tom Jankowski or even related at all.
Buzz was a two-year starter in basketball and was outstanding in track, winning two individual State titles, five individual Suburban titles and three relays titles. The total of eight has him T4 among Bay athletes in the Suburban era, ignoring the Suburban Indoor, which started in 1954. He was an unwitting participant as a freshman in Wauwatosa’s outrageous attempt to steal the 1947 Suburban Outdoor undisputed title from the Bay and was one of just six guys to accomplish the Suburban Triple.
Wilson graduated from Wisconsin, Hickey from Marquette and Masker from Northwestern. Buzz lettered twice with the Badgers on some fine teams as a jack-of-all-trades guy as a QB, DB and kicker. I don’t know if Hickey played at Marquette or Masker played at Northwestern.
The three Wilson children were all fine athletes at the Bay, John in football, basketball and baseball, while Colleen and Lisa were outstanding state championship-caliber tennis players.
Jim Masker passed away in 1994 (New Jersey), Glen Wilson in 2021 and Paul Hickey in 2022.
Whitefish Bay Track and Field History 