University of Wisconsin La Crosse Athletics

Claude C. Kaczemarek
Athlete: 1946-1949

    Claude Kaczmarek brought successfull football and swimming talents from Milwaukee Bay View High School to La Crosse in 1946. He played football all four years during college, lettering each year and was team captain his senior year. He was on the swim team his first two years of college, earning letters both seasons.

    In 1948, he took first place in the La Crosse Centennial Mississippi River Marathon Swim. After graduating in 1950, Kaczmarek began teaching and coaching at Hillsboro, Wis. During the next ten years, he coached football. His teams had a sixty percent winning record. Kaczmarek also initiated closed circuit telecasts of home basketball games, the first telecasts of their kind in the nation.

    In 1960, he became  high school principal. In 1965, Kaczmarek moved to the Milton (Wis.) School District to organize and administer its first junior high. A year later, he began working in the student financial aid office at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. He worked there until retiring in 1983. In DeKalb, Kaczmarek has worked with the park district's programs in golf, softball and swimming.