Special to the EagleHerald Bill Rademacher, right, shares a laugh with Menominee Maroon head football coach Joe Noha during a Feb. 2016 ceremony at Menominee High School in honor of Rademacher.
Special to the EagleHerald
Bill Rademacher, right, shares a laugh with Menominee Maroon head football coach Joe Noha during a Feb. 2016 ceremony at Menominee High School in honor of Rademacher.
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MENOMINEE — Legendary Menominee Maroon Bill Rademacher will be inducted into the inaugural class of the Menominee Athletic Hall of Fame May 5. 

The honor will be bestowed posthumously, as Rademacher died Monday after a battle with dementia.
He wasn’t the biggest player on the field, but he worked hard enough to get all the way to the NFL. He played quarterback and nose tackle for the Maroons, a rare combination. 

“Billy is the ultimate overachiever in my opinion,” said George Ihler, who was an opponent and longtime friend of Rademacher. “He won 12 letters in high school, and in my 30 years of coaching I never had a quarterback play nose tackle on defense.”
Rademacher earned four letters in baseball, three each in basketball and football and two in track & field for the Maroons. 

He jumped center for the basketball team, ran hurdles for the track team and patrolled center field for the baseball team, but it was football that made Rademacher a legend. He was a standout at quarterback for Menominee, and he set receiving records that stood for 13 years at Northern Michigan University. 

After his college career, Rademacher signed with the New York Jets and was part of the Super Bowl III team that upset the heavily favored Baltimore Colts. On the opening kickoff, Rademacher made the first tackle of the game. 

“Billy was a walk-on at Northern, and again overachieving, he was a walk-on with the Jets,” Ihler said.
Rademacher was a backup wide out and defensive back, but he made his mark on special teams.
“That’s how he made the team really,” Ihler said. “When you were a backup, if you were a backup wide receiver, you had to be a backup defensive back, too.” 

Mike McDonald, a friend and teammate of Rademacher’s with the Maroons, remembers him as a hard-nosed player. Francis Talent, also a member of the Menominee Athletic Hall of Fame’s inaugural class, was a coach to McDonald and Rademacher. 

“Bill played with the same style as long as I could remember, that’s with intensity and purpose,” McDonald said. “He never gave in, he was a tough guy. 

“In the end, I think his dementia came from, as we all know now, from hitting hard. At 180 pounds in pro football, he would sail down the field, never stop, and just use his head as a battering ram.”
He played five seasons for the Jets and two for the Boston Patriots. In 1969, he caught 17 passes for 217 yards and three touchdowns for the Patriots. 

After his professional playing career, Rademacher returned to NMU as a coach, where he had a 37-16-1 record in five seasons. 

Rademacher left Menominee after high school, but he always felt a connection to his hometown. 

“I believe Bill’s touchstone was Menominee,” McDonald said. “Bill was always happy to come back to Menominee. I think that energized him.” 

In 2016, Rademacher returned to Menominee to present the high school with a golden football from the NFL as part of the celebration of Super Bowl 50. He received a hero’s welcome at a Maroon boys’ basketball game against Gladstone when he presented the football. That day, Feb. 19, was proclaimed Bill Rademacher Day in Menominee by Mayor Jean Stegeman. 

“That was a special day in Billy’s life,” Ihler said. “He was really excited about that.” 

Ihler said the Maroons were always a topic of conversation when he talked to Rademacher. 

“He loved Menominee,” Ihler said. “Every time I spoke with him, and I lived downstate for 45 years, but Billy would always be questioning me. He always wanted to know what was going on in Menominee. He always wanted to know how the teams were doing, particularly the football team. 

“He’s a Menominee Man, through and through.”