SOUTH WAYNE — Dick Schliem has been a fixture in the Black Hawk School District since before there was a Black Hawk School District. The 85-year-old was a South Wayne High School graduate that has spent his adult life giving back to his school and his community.
For this year’s Black Hawk Homecoming pep rally — the final one before a co-op begins with Warren, Illinois — the Black Hawk Booster Club recognized him with the Spirit Award.
“I was very much surprised,” Schliem said. “Everybody seemed to know but me. It was quite an honor. Maybe I should have given a speech, but I was at a loss for words.”
I was very much surprised. Everybody seemed to know but me. It was quite an honor. Maybe I should have given a speech, but I was at a loss for words.Dick Schliem
Mike Flanagan, Schliem’s son-in-law that teaches English at Black Hawk and is the girls’ varsity basketball coach, wrote a letter to the booster club in April nominating Schliem for the award. Flanagan emphasized not only the decades of bus driving, statistics keeping and scoreboard operation that Schliem has volunteered to the school, but his desire to be there for all the children and his overall love of Black Hawk.
“What stands out is that he’s had no real (family) connection for many years and has done it for bigger reasons — to promote the kids,” Flanagan said. “He’s just wanted to give back to his roots.”
Others previously honored by the booster club includes the “Chain Gang” that roamed the football sidelines for many years, and former coaches Denny Larson and Roger Jackson.
“When you walk into a game, you’ll know who you see every time — the stalwart supporters, which includes those guys. For a lot of kids, when they look back at their sports careers, they will remember a lot of people, and Dick will be one of those people,” Flanagan said.
Schliem said he enjoys keeping stats and being a part of the action. That’s not to say he hasn’t had his share of bumps and bruises on the sidelines over the years. He’s taken everything from a foul ball off of his head to getting run over by football players just this year. And yet nothing has stopped him. He says he will go on until he’s physically unable.
“It keeps me young,” Schliem said. “I love driving school bus. I love being there with the kids. I know the kids well and I enjoy being around sports.”
Schliem has been around baseball in southwestern Wisconsin for 69 years, either managing a team or keeping the scorebook every year but in the summers of 1998 and 1999 when his sons were on different teams.
“Then I went to the biggest game,” Schliem said.
Not only did Schliem receive a plaque, but his name will be put on the wall in the gymnasium, forever recording his legacy to the annals of Black Hawk school history.
I cannot envision an individual more deserving — or to whom it would mean so much.Black Hawk teacher, coach Mike Flanagan on Dick Schliem
“I’ve cherished it,” said Schliem of the honor. “I guess I owe it to Mike.”
Flanagan said he himself is owed nothing.
“It should have happened years ago,” Flanagan said.
In Flanagan’s letter to the booster club, after emphasizing that Schliem almost never misses a graduation or school play — even when his children and grandchildren were not involved — he wrote, “If Black Hawk has an event, one can expect to see Dick right there, honoring and applauding the efforts of our area youth. To say that he loves our school and its students is a huge understatement. …
“I cannot envision an individual more deserving — or to whom it would mean so much.”
