Bill Keesling
UT Track: (January 1968 – August 1969); Assistant Track Coach
Military Service: (August 1963 – November 1967); USAF
Primary Duty Stations: Otis Air Force Base (Cape Cod, Massachusetts) & Lackland Air Force Base (San Antonio, Texas)
Chuck did his usual magic helping my wife with a teaching job in the Knox County schools and immediately put me to work. I think he trusted me to do the right thing since I had 4+ years as an officer in the service. With his help I was able to go right into a college head coaching position at Furman after working with the great athletes at Tennessee. What level of success I had while coaching I owe to Coach both from the technical as well as practical side of coaching.
Comments by Bill Keesling: I was a Captain in the Air Force, training new officer recruits at Lackland in 1966. I had decided to leave the military and seek an opportunity to go to grad school and coach track and XC in college. I wrote Coach Rohe along with Clyde Hart at Baylor, Jimmy Carnes at Florida, and Bob Timmons at Kansas. Hart, Carnes and Timmons all responded that they would find a place for me in their program. Coach Rohe was the last to respond but since I grew up in Memphis and since UT had dominated the SEC for 6 years I couldn’t go anywhere else. Chuck did his usual magic helping my wife with a teaching job in the Knox County schools and immediately put me to work. I think he trusted me to do the right thing since I had 4+ years as an officer in the service. With his help I was able to go right into a college head coaching position at Furman after working with the great athletes at Tennessee. What level of success I had while coaching I owe to Coach both from the technical as well as practical side of coaching.