COLD SPRING — Billy Steil didn't want any competition as the ROCORI High حلحلآ» wrestling manager.
So when Jeff Illies couldn't wrestle during his senior year during the winter of 1989-90 because of a broken foot, his coach, Jon DeLozier, suggested that he still help out the team in some way.
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When Steil, who was always known as Cold Spring and ROCORI's biggest athletics fan, heard this, he initially wasn't too happy with Illies.
"I wanted to be on the team, but I knew Billy was there. I will always remember him pulling me out of the wrestling room and making it clear that he was 'Manager No. 1' and he was the boss," Illies said with a laugh. "I said 'Bill, I'm fine with that.' After that, he was good. That's how I got to start knowing him."
Steil at Assumption Home in Cold Spring.
His funeral was scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 28, at St. Boniface Catholic Church in Cold Spring.
Steil, who had Down syndrome, would routinely be seen riding his bike around town. He worked for WACOSA, the Cold Spring Bakery and as a janitor at ROCORI schools. His passion for wrestling and baseball, in particular, was well known throughout Central Minnesota.
Starting in the early 1980s, Steil managed the ROCORI wrestling teams and became bat boy for the Spartans as well as the town's Legion and amateur teams. When he was the manager , Steil saw the Spartans win eight section championships while the team placed third once, fourth twice and fifth once. DeLozier also coached 26 individual state-place finishers during his 32-year coaching career while Steil was at his side.
Steil was recognized in the ROCORI Hall of Fame as being the school's "super fan."
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Illies, who graduated from ROCORI in 1990 and has been the school's baseball coach since 2006, called Steil "a generational person in this community." In recent years Steil had been slowed down because of health issues, and Illies noticed his presence was missed around Cold Spring.
"He loved Cold Spring and ROCORI. He always biked around town and it was hard not to see him do that anymore. They broke the mold when Bill was born," Illies said.
'One of the guys'
Illies, who is a longtime high school math teacher at ROCORI, remembers working a second job at the Side Bar & Grill and Steil always stopping to chat. Usually, Steil would bring Illies a donut or cookie from the Cold Spring Bakery.
"I really got to know him when I was an assistant coach under with our Legion baseball program," Illies said. "When I played with the Springers, he always traveled with us. That's when I really got to know him. When I worked at the Side, we would share a root beer or a basket of fries. He kept me company. He was so thoughtful and cared for the people he got to know."
Dolan, who has coached the St. Cloud State baseball program since 2007, remembers messing with a young Brainerd Dispatch sports reporter after a rough loss when he was coaching the Legion program. Dolan got kicked out of the game and used Steil's name while he was being quoted after expressing his frustration over the umpiring.
"I was like 23 or 24 and didn't know any better," Dolan said. "Billy was our manager/bat boy/assistant coach. We got smoked by Brainerd like 15-1. The umps were brutal. The reporter was interviewing me and I said something like 'It was like three blind mice out there and we got screwed over.' I shouldn't have said that obviously. When he asked which coach I was I said 'Billy Steil.'
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"The next day in the Brainerd paper the headline said 'Cold Spring Coach Billy Steil blames umpires for loss.' Billy's name was in there like five or six times. I think even Billy got a kick out of it more than anybody else."
Dolan said Steil always participated in Special Olympics events throughout the state. His favorite sport was wrestling. Dolan thought he would try going out for wrestling — until Steil beat him in a one-on-one match.
"He put me in a hold and I couldn't get out," Dolan said. "He had me in a cradle and wouldn't let me out. Everyone loved that, even I did. He was such a great athlete. He played softball for a long time, too. He always gave the best pregame and postgame speeches when he was around our teams.
"Billy's one-liners were the best. He could dish it out like anybody else could. He was one of the guys."
The stories
Longtime Cold Spring Rockies manager/player David Jonas called Steil "a word legend" for some of the things he would talk about in the dugout during amateur baseball and Legion games. With Steil spending so much time around Cold Spring Baseball Park, he picked up things fast and wasn't afraid to let people know how they were playing.
"The guy belonged in a Hall of Fame for his sayings in the dugout," Jonas said. "He took the ribbing and gave it right back to us. He was a lot of fun to banter with. He was as quick-witted as anybody. Everybody knew him around the area, not just in Cold Spring. His reach was much farther than just Cold Spring."
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Jonas and his high school teammate, Zach Reif, both remembered a story that happened during their senior years of baseball with the Spartans in the spring of 2003.
Reif was pitching and the other team's batter fouled a pitch off into the ROCORI dugout. Steil had his back turned to the play and the ball clipped him on the arm. Both Reif and Jonas said that it could have been much worse and that Steil got lucky he wasn't hit any worse.
Since Steil had his back turned to the play, he blamed Reif for throwing the ball at him. Both Reif and Jonas said it took a while to calm Steil down, who eventually forgave Reif after about 24 hours.
"The ball skimmed Bill's shirt and you would have thought he got shot in the arm," Reif said with a chuckle. "He came out holding his arm and was being very strong with his emotions. Whatever emotion Bill had at the time, he gave you it all. He told me that I threw the ball at him on purpose from the mound during the game. I didn't know what to say other than 'That didn't happen, Bill.' We talked him off the ledge with that one."
Added Jonas: "Bill was quick to forgive Zach and ended up giving a speech at his wedding. It's hard not to look back at it and laugh a little. Zach, of course, never would do anything like that."
Reif, 38, now lives in Plymouth with his wife and two kids. As a computer software salesman, he travels a lot and doesn't get back to his hometown of Rockville or Cold Spring much anymore. However, he was making the trip to Steil's funeral on Thursday because of how much he meant to him.
"I didn't get to see Bill a lot after I moved to the Twin Cities. I'm regretting the opportunity I had to maybe see him in the nursing home more these past few years and to spend more time with him," Reif said. "You just don't realize the impact people have on you until they're gone. He touched so many lives in Cold Spring and the entire area.
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"My parents always said how lucky Bill was to have a caring community like Cold Spring looking over him. Well, I look at it completely opposite. I think Cold Spring was lucky to have a guy like Bill."
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