TicketsWillard Stargel Jr. was born in Cincinnati in 1922, the son of Willard Sr.. a police officer, and Lucy Stargel. "Willie" was an excellent student, graduating cum laude from Woodward High School, but he was also a gifted multi-sport athlete.
As a senior at Woodward, Stargel excelled on the football field as a receiver, tied the city record in the high hurdles as a track and field athlete, and helped his varsity basketball team to an undefeated regular season––followed by a 30-12 win over Elder in the 1940 Southwestern Ohio tournament championship.
Stargel chose to attend UC, where he was one of the first black athletes in school history. Bearcats football was coming out of a rut in the late '30s, bottoming out to a winless 0-10 in 1937 before clawing back to its first winning season in 1940 while Stargel played on the freshman team. With a bounty of returning players in 1941, the Bearcats' outlook was said to be "the brightest in the history of the university." But World War 2 loomed, and by the time the 1941 football season was set to begin, several key returners had been lost to military service. Stargel, who already had a reputation in the city because of his high school achievements, was seen as an answer to many of the team's problems. Before his first varsity action, the Enquirer predicted he "may shape into one of the best ends UC has ever had."
Stargel was primarily a reserve on the 1941 team, as the Bearcats overcame the unexpected roster turnover to outperform the previous season, finishing 6-3 with crucial victories over Louisville and Miami. Stargel also helped the Bearcats basketball team to a 10-10 record as a starting guard. On the track, he was an immediate star. The Bearcats won three of their four meets, and Stargel led the team in points in each.
By the time the 1942 football season arrived, the United States had joined World War II, and once again, Selective Service ravaged the Bearcats' roster. Eleven players expected to contribute on the field left for military service, leading returning stars like Stargel and Elbie Nickel to shoulder the load on a team of inexperienced underclassmen.
The Bearcats immediately removed any doubt about their capabilities, blasting Louisville 51-0 in the season opener. Stargel recovered two fumbles in the victory. Three weeks later, a Stargel touchdown against Ohio pushed Cincinnati to an improbable 4-0 start, their best since 1935.
A resurgent Bearcats team faced its biggest challenge of the young decade as second-ranked Georgia came to Nippert Stadium on October 24th. Stargel was told to stay home; Georgia didn't compete against black athletes.
The Bulldogs came into Nippert and tallied 21 points in the first quarter, rolling to a 35-13 victory. The Bearcats' decision to play without Stargel, in deference to southern teams' segregation policies, became a theme. When UC traveled to Tennessee the following month, it sidelined Stargel again, and the Bearcats lost again, this time 34-12.
Cincinnati closed the 1942 campaign with a trio of decisive rivalry victories over Dayton, Xavier, and Miami to finish 8-2. They were unbeaten with Willie, winless without him. It was their best season since 1897.
In January 1943, the war came for Stargel. Ahead of a basketball matchup with Akron, he was called into duty and ordered to report to Ft. Thomas. Willard would have company. By May, athletic director Chuck Mileham reported that 57 UC student-athletes had left the university for service. Then, on July 29th, everything came to a halt. The War Department forbade participation in sports by any student enrolled in the military, and many of the Bearcats' facilities, including Nippert Stadium, would be repurposed for Army training, so UC joined scores of other universities across the country by canceling the 1943 football season.
Cincinnati didn't play football in 1944, either. When football returned to Clifton in 1945, it did so without Stargel or much of a team at all. The Bearcats went 4-4.
Willie returned from service to the basketball team in February 1946, in time for what would prove to be one of the most pivotal eras in the history of Bearcats athletics. Mileham announced two weeks later that UC would join the MAC as a charter member in 1947, and the Bearcats prepared to return a full arsenal of talent for the '46 season––including Stargel, again the team's only black player, and team captain Nickel––as post-war appetite for college football boomed. It was the dawn of a golden era for the Red and Black.
The season's opening date was a road trip to face defending Big Ten champion Indiana in Bloomington. The Bearcats shocked America in a 15-6 victory. Stargel made key plays on both sides of the ball, lateraling to Nickel for an early touchdown and stopping the Hoosiers on a late 4th-down play.
The Bearcats returned home as heroes, set for a matchup with Kentucky the following week, but segregation again entered the picture as the Wildcats refused to compete against Stargel. Once again, the Bearcats submitted to the visitors' request and benched him in a 26-7 defeat.
Four years removed from the remarkable 1942 season, 1946 proved to look familiar for the Bearcats. Again, they finished the regular season 8-2, capping the season with a Thanksgiving win over Miami in front of a then-record crowd of more than 30,000 at Nippert Stadium. Again, they were a perfect 8-0 in games featuring Stargel and a winless 0-2 (Kentucky and Tulsa) without him.
When El Paso's Sun Bowl came calling in December, it offered UC another milestone moment, its first bowl game. The invitation came with a stipulation: leave Stargel at home. Fans wrote to the Enquirer in favor of rejecting the invitation if Willie, one of the team's best players, wouldn't be allowed to play. Players and coaches voted to accept the invitation, but UC president Dr. Raymond Walters stood in opposition. The vote went in front of the UC board of trustees, who initially sided with Walters but re-voted after "several hours of debate" and chose to overrule the president and send the football team to play the game. The Bearcats flew to Texas without Stargel, where they beat Virginia Tech 18-6.
Stargel finished 16-0 in his last two seasons as a Bearcat, but his team lost four times without him.
However, many would argue that Stargel's legacy wasn't built on a football field, in the gymnasium, or on a track. He earned his degree from the UC College of Engineering in 1947. He then began giving back to the city that made him––first at Dyer Elementary School, then at Porter Junior High (now Hays-Porter), then at Taft High School. He coached at Walnut Hills High School until 1979 before moving to Newport High School, where he served until his retirement in 1986. Throughout his nearly 40-year career, he taught math, physical education, and health, coaching football, basketball, and track. "He is probably described best as an educator first," said his son after Stargel died in 1990.
The Stargel athletic legacy didn't end, either. Willard's son, Willard III, played football at Harvard. Scott ran track at UC in the '60s and broke some of his dad's hurdle records. Jason played football for the Bearcats in the early '80s.
Today, Taft High School plays football at Willard Stargel Stadium in the West End. The current stadium––its third iteration––opened in 2019 after it was moved to make way for FC Cincinnati's TQL Stadium.
Willie Stargel was inducted into the James P. Kelly UC Athletics Hall of Fame in 1979, alongside Brig Owens.