(Photo: Contibuted)

Another link to the Golden Age of Bremerton athletics died March 1, when Joe Stottlebower succumbed to the effects of Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 91 in Eugene, Ore., where he and wife Shirley lived to be near their daughter, Heidi Hakes.

Stottlebower, a 1944 Bremerton graduate, had taught English and journalism, and been a counselor, at Homestead High School in Cupertino, Calif.

The 6-foot-2 Stottlebower, like hundreds of others, was a product of legendary coach Ken Willis at Bremerton. It’s almost impossible to find somebody who does not still have wonderful words about Wills, who died from a self-inflicted gunshot in 1962.

Sun sportswriter John Wallingford, writing about Wills in 1999, quoted Stottlebower about his reverence for his old coach.

“He cared for a lot of kids who didn't play basketball," Stottlebower said. "Ken wrote long letters to people in uniform (during World War II). He was extremely unselfish.

"I've coached up in Bellingham (as assistant to 1943 Bremerton graduate Boyd McCaslin), and you're interested in kids who are 7 feet tall and are going to help you. Ken was interested in 5 feet tall and aren't going to help you."

Stottlebower played his sophomore year in 1942 on the Wildcat team that finished second at state to Hoquiam (the 1941 Bremerton team won the state title). He played on the 1943 team that might have won another state championship except the tournament was canceled because of the war.

In 1944, Stottlebower was a senior and the team captain on a Wildcat squad that was beaten in the state semifinals and finished sixth. Stottlebower was named second-team all-state.

Along with Stottlebower, the starters for that team were George Bayer, who would go on to play pro football and become the longest hitter on the pro golf circuit; Jack Hansen; Russ Parthemer; and Jack Dunn, who would become one of the better masters’ tennis players in the country.

Terry Mosher (Photo: file)

“Joe was a very clever basketball player,” says Dunn, a junior on that team who now lives in Arizona. “He just had a natural fake around the basket. If you ever saw (former Bremerton star) Darwin Gilchrist play, he played just like him. Joe would give a fake, one guy would go by him, and he would give another fake, and another guy would go by him, and he would just put the ball in the basket.”

With the nation at war, Stottlebower joined the Army after high school. Many of those youngsters did not come back (nearly 300,000 were killed) and most of them that did survive had their lives altered.

Frank Wetzel, who started first grade with Stottlebower in Bremerton and was a basketball and tennis teammate of his, wrote a book – Victory Gardens & Barrage Balloons – about the war years in Bremerton.

“Joe was in the (Army’s) 42nd Infantry Division in Europe and damn near got killed more than once,” says Wetzel, who now lives in Seattle.

Back from the war, Stottlebower in 1946 accepted an offer to play basketball for Michigan, where former teammate McCaslin was playing. Stottlebower was an excellent player at Bremerton, and was considered one of the best pure shooters. Stottlebower earned a letter his Michigan freshman season and played in eight games his sophomore year (1947-48 season), scoring six points. 

That 1948 Michigan team won the Big Nine Conference championship and became the first Michigan team to play in the NCAA Tournament. The Wolverines played in the East Regional at Madison Square Garden, where they lost to future Hall of Fame player Bob Cousey and Holy Cross in their opener, and then beat Columbia for third place.

Back home after graduation in 1950 from Michigan, Stottlebower was soon recalled to military duty for the Korean War.

While in Korea, Stottlebower and another soldier rushed into an ammunition bunker that caught fire and doused the flames before the ammunition could explode, which could have killed hundreds. Stottlebower was awarded the Soldier’s Medal for his bravery.

With all his war efforts behind him, Stottlebower became McCaslin's assistant basketball coach in Bellingham. He also coached tennis and collected his master's degree in education at Western Washington. 

McCaslin left in 1960 to teach in California at Arroyo High School in San Lorenzo and died in 2015. Stottlebower left in 1964 for Cupertino and Homestead. Before leaving, Stottlebower won a Bellingham City singles championship in tennis, which added to several doubles titles he won in Kitsap County. 

“Joe was a good tennis player,” says Dunn. “He played on the high school team with Jorgen Nelson and Wetzel. Joe was a very, very good athlete, and a very intelligent man.

Stottlebower retired from teaching at Homestead and from the Army reserves as a colonel in 1986. His death closes another chapter on what was the golden era of sports in Bremerton.

“Oh boy,” Dunn said, “they didn’t come any better, and he was very sincere in his teaching. He was just a real smart cookie.”

Shirley has her daughter and her husband around, but it’s not the same without her husband.

“He had a good sense of humor and people really liked him,” Shirley said. “He was a very nice man. I miss him. I miss him every much.” 

Terry Mosher is a former sports writer at the Kitsap Sun who publishes The Sports Paper at sportspaper.org. Reach him at bigmosher@msn.com.