Legendary High School football coach Bill Freeman is set to be inducted into the KFBCA Hall of Fame during a banquet on Sunday. Freeman, a longtime coach at Le Roy High School, now Southern Coffey County High School, was a member of the 2021 class. Due to COVID-19, that class is being honored this weekend, along with the 2022 class. “He was tough,” said Freeman’s daughter, Jennifer Freeman-Liles. “He was a competitor. He pushed the kids, but it was more about the life lessons than it was the winning or losing.” Freeman passed away in 2015 at the age of 84. Freeman won eight state titles in football and two in track. “He would be humbled by the induction,” said Freeman-Liles. “He was not about show or being honored. It was more about the guys he helped on and off the field and the impact that he made in their lives.” Freeman also coached in Osawatomie and Lawrence among other schools. “If his players won and they were in Lawrence, he would always take them to Burger King,” Freeman-Liles said, while laughing. “He wouldn’t call it a ‘Whopper’, he called it a ‘Whooper’ and he would get the kids those and what he called a middle fry and a middle drink. I had to remind him it was a medium fry and not a middle.” “He always wore a white towel around his neck and was very superstitious,” she added. “During games he had a quarter a coach had given him and he would rub it. He rubbed it so much he rubbed its face off.” Later in life, Freeman became the mayor of Le Roy. Freeman did not take a paycheck while mayor. “His getaway was coming to Le Roy. We owned the bank and about 3,000 acres in the area,” Freeman-Liles said. Freeman never envisioned himself being a grandfather but excelled at it. “When he found out I was pregnant with my oldest it was amazing,” Freeman-Liles said. “He wanted to live a full life and long enough to see them graduate. He got to see all but one graduate.”
Legendary High School football coach Bill Freeman is set to be inducted into the KFBCA Hall of Fame during a banquet on Sunday.
