CANTON, Ohio — Jerry Schliem was one of three coaches enshrined to the Class of 2019 American Football Association’s Semi-Pro Football Hall of Fame June 21 at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

Schliem, originally from South Wayne, has coached for over 50 years and plans to retire after this upcoming fall high school season.

“I’m pretty honored by it,” Schliem said of his enshrinement. “I got a nice plaque and a jacket on the way.”

Already a member of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville Hall of Fame and the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame, Schliem brought along his family to Canton for his most recent honor. His two sons introduced him to the crowd before he gave his ceremonial speech.

“It went quite well,” Schliem said. “I had been to the NFL Hall of Fame years ago in the 1980s, but never to the minor league hall of fame.”

After graduating from South Wayne High School, Schliem played football and baseball at UW-Platteville, graduating in 1965. His first coaching job was in the fall of 1965 at Bowler. He took over at Oconto from 1966-1970. 

“My brother Dick and I went to the Ice Bowl and sat in the end zone where Bart Starr scored the touchdown,” Schliem said. “The heater went out in my van and we had to drive back to Oconto with the windows down because it kept fogging up. I tell Dick that’s why I have more hair than him — he was a little underdressed.”

Schliem was an assistant coach at Milton College from 1971-73, then in 1974 took over head coaching duties at Milton High School, a role he held until 2004. His teams won two state championships in Division 3 (1986, 1989). He’s rejoined the Red Hawks as an assistant the past three years after working as an assistant at Janesville Craig for eight years. He was elected to the WFCA Hall of Fame in 2003.

A side job while in Milton was coaching area semi-pro and minor-league football teams. He was the offensive coordinator for the Delavan Red Devils from 1973-76, and head coach from 1977-80. His teams won Northern States Football League championships all four years he was in charge. He coached in the Minor Professional Football Association National Championship games in ’80 and ’81. 

“I had a lot of major players that played for me,” Schliem said. “It was a big draw — seven to 10,000 people per game. And we had a great team, and great players wanted to play for us because we were winning.”

In the 1980s, Minor Professional Football Association changed its name to American Football Association, which allowed it to encompass a wide variety of semi-pro leagues from around the country. However, many of the leagues shuttered their doors due to financial problems and a lack of backing from the NFL.

Other semi-pro stops for Schliem included the Janesville Cavaliers in 1984-85, and a short two-month stint in Germany as the offensive coordinator of the Fran Ken Knights of the German Football League in Rothenburg in 2004.

“They paid for my plane ticket, gave me an apartment, two meals a day and a salary,” said Schliem, who was the first American coach in the league’s history. “It was a pretty good deal.” 

He only coached the Fran Ken Knights for about two months before returning home to coach Milton. However, the Knights went from winless the season before to an 8-win team during his stretch as offensive coordinator. He took his wife Carol with him, and they made stops in Prague and Switzerland.

While NFL Europe was the main attraction across the pond until closing its doors in 2007, the GFL is still around today. The league stipulated only two Americans could be on the field per team at a time, so many picked up quarterbacks, wide receivers and defensive backs. Schliem coached players from Germany, Czech Republic and Turkey.

“It was high-level. Those players are talented. They go all-out in practice,” Schliem said. “We played a 3-5 defense here in the states, where they played a 4-3. Coaching professionals compared to high school players; they pick up so much more. They learn very fast.”

Playbook schemes are ever-changing in football; however, the biggest change came in the late 1970s and early 1980s when the West Coast offense was introduced. Schliem said he had talks with various coaches, scouts and recruiters, including one working for Joe Gibbs of the Washington Redskins.

“I was into the West Coast stuff pretty early,” Schliem said. “It’s the simplest system I’ve ever seen. We were one of the first to implement it and we scored a lot of points.”

Schliem said that despite the terms “minor” or “semi-pro,” his players were the real deal. Six players he coached are in various hall of fames. The most notable player Schliem coached was Mike Saunders, a Milton native who played running back at Iowa, was drafted by the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers in the 10th round of the 1992 draft and is the second all-time rushing leader for the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the Canadian Football League. He retired in 2000.

Schliem, now 77, was nominated for the national hall of fame by a trio of former players. Schliem and the two other coaches enshrined, Edward Zbikowski and Angel Lopez out of Chicago and Milwaukee, were joined by 19 players.

“My wife and I have been married 54 years. A credit to her for all of her support, she’s been a great coach’s wife,” Schliem said. “I’ve been fortunate to be around so many great people. This is a congratulations to all of the coaches and players I’ve worked with.”