Fritsch: The second act

The Green Bay Press-Gazette headline read “Ted Fritsch 3-Sport Coach at Central Catholic,” announcing his selection among 26 applicants for a role at the Norbertine school.

Fritsch would start the fall of the 1952-53 school year as athletic director; head coach of football, basketball and baseball; and director of the physical education program.

“In the reorganization of Central’s athletic program, Fritsch will succeed to positions now held by three men — the Rev. J.R. Blecha, athletic director for the past two years; Ward Cuff, who resigned last fall as football and baseball coach; and Phil Seghi, who announced his resignation as basketball coach recently. The Rev. Blecha will succeed to a new position as coordinator of athletics at the school,” the Press-Gazette stated.

So the family of five (at that time) — Ted, Pat, Mary, Ted Jr., and Tom — settled down on the west side of Green Bay.
“As an educator and a school teacher, your hours are from 6-8 p.m., because he’s got practice,” Fritsch’s son, Tom, said about his years at the high school.

“We used to bring towels home, and mom and dad would put them in our washing machine and clean towels after these kids used the towels.

“If my dad didn’t have many connections within the town, which he did, he had the owners of Bay Towel Service… they provided extra towels to the school because dad went out and knocked on doors for contributions and stuff like that.
“We used to wash towels, and then we took them to Holiday Cleaners, and because there were so many of them, we bagged them.

“I don’t know if dad and mom had to pay for those, but the Holiday Cleaner guy was an ex-student.

“They loved Dad — they loved him as a coach, they loved him as a teacher — he was so highly respected.

“But it was just one of those things that I found out later in my understanding of my dad, and my comprehension, because I was still a punk kid through the 1960s. You knew what your dad was doing; you knew, ‘Hey, Dad, let’s go have a catch.’ ‘Oh, son, I’m tired. No, not today, son.’ ‘Okay, well, maybe another time.’”

However, it was a role that drew upon everything he had been as an athlete, a scholar, and it gave him what his son Tom described as his real passion, “to mold men.”

To be continued