Athletics remembers Theunissen, ‘father of CMU baseball'
The home field for the Central Michigan University baseball team is named after Bill Theunissen, but that’s far from the greatest achievement of the retired coach and professor.
Theunissen coached the Chippewas from 1953-1962 and was the first to reach 100 victories in program history. He died Saturday at the age of 89.
“There are very few individuals in the history of Central Michigan University or the history of this community that contributed more to the university and this community,” said Dave Keilitz, who played under Theunissen and coached CMU from 1971-1984.
Athletics Director Dave Heeke said Theunissen’s tenure changed the landscape of CMU baseball.
“He truly was the first that stepped our program forward onto a larger stage,” Heeke said. “There’s no question he expanded our baseball competitiveness and leaped it toward a nationally recognized sport for Central.”
Before coaching, Theunissen played basketball, baseball and golf from 1945-1947 at CMU and became a professor and freshman coach at CMU for football, baseball and basketball.
The baseball team never played more than 15 games in a season before Theunissen took over as head coach.
“He kind of set the tone,” said current head coach Steve Jaksa. “A lot of people say he’s the father of the Chippewa baseball program and I think in many ways that’s a very, very true statement. He started to really put us on the face of the map. He took spring trips which they’d never done before, he upgraded the schedule, he started recruiting a little bit more.”
Theunissen stopped coaching when he was offered the position of Dean of School of the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, yet he never lost his love for Chippewa baseball.
“Bill has always had a role in our baseball program,” Heeke said. "He was a regular attendee to all of our home games. He would come into the clubhouse. He was around the guys as much as he could be.”
Theunissen was also the chair of the CMU Athletics Hall of Fame.
Keilitz played first base at CMU under Theunissen and went on to win 453 games, the second-most of all coaches in program history. He said much of what he learned about the sport came from Theunissen, as well as lessons outside of baseball.
“It was more than just baseball,” Keilitz said. “Education was very important. How you conducted yourself was very important. It was all aspects with him, but he was an outstanding coach, teacher, mentor for us.”
Before Theunissen’s passing, Keilitz said a week didn’t go by when the two didn’t get together. Keilitz left his vacation in South Carolina early to come up for Theunissen’s funeral Tuesday.
“Outside of my family, no person has ever helped me more,” Keilitz said.
The current team attended Theunissen’s visitation Monday. Jaksa was one of the casket bearers for Tuesday’s funeral.
The team found out about Theunissen’s passing before Saturday’s game on the road against Buffalo, which they won 7-2.
“We talked about it briefly before the Saturday game. We really wanted to win that one for him,” said senior pitcher Tim Black. “It’s a tough loss for Central Michigan baseball. We definitely played the next two games for him and the rest of the year’s going to be for him as well.”
The team will wear a patch with Theunissen’s initials for the rest of the season.
“(Tuesday was) just a tough day, not because he didn’t live a full life, just because that’s a void that’s passing,” Jaksa said. “That’s a void for that family and a void in our community for somebody that’s been really good to it.”
