(Photo by Bill Allen/NJ SportAction) TALK OF THE TOWN: Longtime Hun School baseball head coach Bill McQuade urges on his team in a game this spring. This Saturday, McQuade, a three-sport star at Princeton High in the 1960s, will be inducted into the fifth class of the PHS Athletic Hall of Fame.

Hun’s McQuade Going Back to Roots In Joining PHS Athletic Hall of Fame

Bill Alden

When you walk into the William McQuade Upper School Academic Office at the Hun School, you are greeted with a panel on the front desk laying out the bedrock values of the school.

The sign reads “Academic Excellence, Integrity, Kindness, Respect, Trust and Commitment.”

The person for whom the office is named, the longtime Head of the Upper School, Bill McQuade, learned those values on the playgrounds of Princeton in the 1950s and ‘60s as he developed into a star athlete and eager student.

Once McQuade arrived at Princeton High, he became a three-sport standout in soccer, basketball, and baseball.

This Saturday evening, McQuade’s athletic achievements will be recognized as he enters the Princeton High Athletic Hall of Fame in an induction dinner being held at the Nottingham Fire Company Ballroom.

McQuade ’66, will be joined in the fifth class of inductees by Dean Pierson ’30, Lawrence Parker ’71; Andy Foltiny ’73, Grace McEwen Kimbrough ’74, Morgan Mohrman ’77, Terrance Phox ’83, Dorothy “Booie” Lockwood ’86, and Kirk Webber ’95, coaches Joe Diefenbach and Carol Parsons together with contributor Bob James ’62. In addition, two teams will be inducted, the 1926 football team and the 1995 boys’ soccer team.

When McQuade learned this summer that he been chosen for the PHS Hall of Fame, his thoughts immediately turned to the people that taught him lessons along the way.

“I started thinking of all the people that influenced my life,” said McQuade, whose boyhood home was on Jefferson Street.

“Those were the ones that said something or did something that had an influence. These people were legends in Princeton that I was fortunate enough to come in contact with in some way; people like Erwin Weiss, Tom Murray, and Larry Ivan. The influence that they have had on me is one thing but there are 100s and 100s of others I am sure that were influenced in the same way. You can’t put it into words. At no time, did they ever talk about themselves. It was all about the kids.”

McQuade started coming into contact with such mentors as a grade-schooler, walking or riding his bike to get to the parks for the games that filled his days.

“Larry Ivan and Tom Murray and guys like that ran weekend programs, they opened up the gyms, and they ran summer programs,” said McQuade, 61, noting that there weren’t organized programs like the Little League or travel leagues when he was growing up.

“We used to have parks and playgrounds and there would be competition organized between the parks whether it be in basketball, softball or whatever. Normally what would happen is that each park had its group of athletes that lived close by and played there. It was all age levels so with me being younger, shorter and smaller, I had to compete and love to compete because the older guys weren’t going to take it easy on you.”

As a scrappy underdog by the time he hit middle school, McQuade learned some important lessons from coach Norm Van Arsdalen at the Valley Road School.

“Norm Van Arsdalen had as much of an influence on my life as anyone other than my parents, just the way he coached and handled things,” maintained McQuade, who has been the Hun baseball head coach for the last 39 seasons. “I wasn’t a big guy and he said a few things to me that stuck and resonated.”

In fact, McQuade needed Van Arsdalen to head him in the right direction on the basketball court, noting that his first career basket came when he put back a rebound off a free throw into the opponent’s goal.

“Everybody starts laughing and Coach Van calls timeout,” said the amiable McQuade, producing his trademark booming laugh at the memory of the embarrassing moment.

“I felt like the stupidest idiot in the world and he says ‘Bill, that is a good shot, when we take the ball in bounds, make it at our end.’ He cut out all the laughter and we moved on.”

McQuade learned a deeper lesson about competing hard from Van Arsdalen one afternoon when he was shying away from making tackles on the soccer field due to the shoes of the day which featured cleats that were cork with nails.

“At halftime, he walked by me and put his arm around me and said ‘I never thought I would see the day when you would back down,’ ” said McQuade, with his voice softening into a whisper.

“In the second half, I just ran into people and I just slid all over the field. No one yells or screams at you but you would run through walls for him.”

Moving on to Princeton High in 1962, McQuade became a starter on the varsity soccer and baseball teams by the time he was a sophomore. He earned a starting spot on the basketball team as a senior.

Although baseball is his first love, McQuade’s biggest PHS sports highlights came in soccer.

“Princeton was never known as a soccer mecca until recently,” said the stocky 5’9 McQuade, who was a center forward in soccer, a shortstop/pitcher in baseball, and a point guard in basketball.

“The thrilling part was that we had the first winning season ever in the history of Princeton High. We had to beat Hamilton and Steinert in the last two games to do it.

They said I had the school record for goals; that was the only individual thing I remember them saying. For me, it was more whether the team was winning.”

Like in middle school, McQuade found inspiration from his PHS coaches. “The ones that stand out are the ones that cared about you; they knew when you were having a good day or a bad day,” said McQuade.

“Don Blankenbush, the baseball coach and my history teacher, would go out of his way to mention something to me like ‘I hear you did this, I saw that play.’ It clicked that you worked a little harder for that person; you didn’t want to let them down because they had shown some interest.”

After PHS, McQuade went on to Juniata College in Pennsylvania where he played two seasons of varsity baseball and kicked for the football team in his senior year.

With the U.S. embroiled in the Vietnam War upon McQuade’s graduation in 1970, he entered the National Guard and was stationed in Pennsylvania. It was during his military stint that he figured out his future path.

“I got to be friends with [Pittsburgh Steelers owner]Art Rooney’s grandson and we would talk sports,” recalled McQuade.

“He had been around sports and athletes all his life and he decided that he wanted to get into education and coaching. I decided that’s what I wanted to do too.”

Upon getting discharged, McQuade returned to Princeton, looking to teach and coach at PHS. Lacking the necessary certification for the public schools, McQuade ended up getting hired to teach and coach at Hun.

McQuade never left, teaching math and taking over the baseball program in 1971. He became the Head of the Upper School in 1993 upon the condition that he could still coach and teach.

“It turned out to be a perfect fit for me,” said McQuade, who was inducted into the Hun Athletic Hall of Fame in 2001.

“There are a few of us who just believe so much in the Hun School and the values that it stands for. The one I really preach is respect. That’s what it’s all about, it comes through in everything we do. It is respecting the other person and their right to say what they want to.”

With his deep respect for the people he came across in his PHS athletic career, McQuade is thrilled to be joining his alma mater’s Hall of Fame.

“It is an unbelievable honor; everybody says it but it is true,” said McQuade. “You don’t play team sports, saying that I want to be in the Hall of Fame. No one in my generation could have had that goal because they didn’t have a Hall of Fame. What it’s about is the people. All of us have had someone behind us that we emulated. Whatever job you have in life, I guarantee that there is someone that influenced you to take that path.”

And McQuade has had a major influence on Princeton, applying the values he learned on the playgrounds of his hometown.

Return to Previous Sports Story | Return to Top | Go to Next Sports Story