Now we are Seven

Quite unexpectedly, the Hovel siblings are now down to seven.  The recent passing of our oldest brother, Steve has taken the number, originally ten, to now seven.  Unfortunately, it has only been but three and one-half years since the death of our brother John from cancer less than two months before his 62nd birthday.  The first sibling to pass away was our brother Leo, he died after being hit by a car in 1959.  He was but four years old.  History, it is said, is intractable. That is quite true.  The news I received early Saturday morning about Steve having passed away shows not only the movement of time, but more importantly the fragility of life.  Steve turned 70 years of age just over a month ago, and now one less life is to be lived on earth, one less man to fish the clean water lakes of  northern Wisconsin, and one less man to impart wisdom to his family.   If there was a book of traits, and stereotypes common to family birth order, I have no doubt that the traits and stereotypes for the oldest sibling in a family would contain Steve's photograph as its definition.

Steve at Grandparent's farm just north of Sun Prairie, 1949
He began wearing shorts at an early age.
He used wood from the barn in the background to panel part of his basement

As an educator and coach, he not only found the best in himself, but in his students and players. He made the common be uncommon. A testament to a life well lived is how a large number of his past players would help him on his property. He played high school football, was all conference of his college football team at Stevens Point, and was king of the Point Winter Carnival being crowned as such fifty years ago on February 16, 1968.  Showing the ironies of life, fifty years later on Feb. 16 will be his wake.  For many years he played semi-pro football, with games on Saturday night even while coaching and teaching in Fort Atkinson, WI.

Steve visiting his Grandfather Rudy Hovel in Hollywood, FL

I well recall going to a number of his Madison Mustang games on fall nights with my Dad.  They were the kind of nights in the early 1970's true to a disappearing Wisconsin culture.  The field occupied by men who really played for the love of the game and camaraderie (as it certainly was not for the pay), and where the beer and pints liquor freely flowed among family and friends in the Warner Park stands.  A time when a 13 year old would ride home with an inebriated family friend, and end up driving the family friend home on the back roads of the Town of Burke.   Another time I recall my Dad asking a man a couple rows ahead if he could stop with his odd antics, particularly the way the man was affecting a women to his side.  The man, filled with alcohol, started to lunge toward my Dad, but as Dad got up to stop him, the man had better thoughts and pulled away. While Dad was not very large, he did have, as Steve said, strong large hands and forearms built by years of hard farm work. Dad did not need to weight lift, his lifting came through hard work.

Steve and our Mom upon his graduation from Sacred Hearts,
completion of sophomore year

Of course, there was the day after Steve's wedding, a fight between Steve and the next oldest sibling in the back yard.  Dad ran to get his movie camera to record this for posterity, while my Mom was screaming for them to stop.  Welcome to the family, Cathy!  Let me just add, no one wanted to get in the way of those two men having it out, but for the guy with the camera.

Hovel boys (Steve, Joe and Mike) planting the garden

Steve would know about strength, as he was a weightlifter, and I suspect was well ahead of his time as a coach in coaxing boys into the weight room.  My brother Greg, recently told the story he heard from a former Sun Prairie coach of how Steve, a Sun Prairie High graduate, went to the half-time locker room of Sun Prairie when he was a coach with Fort,  to give a pep talk to the Sun Prairie players.  Steve noted, apparently to one boy in particular, that they were losing because they had not spent enough time in the weight room.  One can wonder the expression on the faces of the Sun Prairie players about an opposing team coach coming into their locker room at half to give them a talking to.  Steve had a love of football, and as an all conference guard commanded respect.  As Steve advanced with the game, he still commented on the basic skill set he learned as a player from our Dad who had played guard at Campion High school and college at Marquette.  Being on the team to play in the first Cotton Bowl, Dad had developed skills from the early years of the game, which Steve said he continued to teach in all his years as a football coach.  He retired from being a football coach in 2001. He loved to teach the game, and took special pride when two of his nephews made first team defensive line all conference in their respective conferences in the same year.  Steve taught the nephews at a summer football camp in which he even had T-shirts made to commemorate the event.

Steve, with Cathy, receiving Top-Notch Teacher award
from News 3 broadcasters

After retiring from teaching he got back into the game as an assistant coach for Milton.  A number of family members showed up for a level 2 playoff game when he was the D-line coach for Milton.  Milton would lose to Waunakee (who doesn't), but Steve appreciated those family members who attended.  Yet, his love of football took a toll on his ability to move.  In his later years at Fort, he told me he often had to bike to the practice field as years of being a lineman was hard on his leg joints.  His coaching talent was not limited to football.  He also coached girls track and field.  He was the biggest fan for a daughter who to this day is an avid runner.

Photo at conclusion of Milton-Waunakee level 2 Playoff game

As good as he was as a coach, he was also a teacher.  He was selected by one senior class to give their commencement address.  In late January 2003 he was awarded the Top-Notch teacher award presented by News 3, Madison.  Since he was a biology major and natural resources teacher, and I am a planner who has promoted resource-based planning, our conversations would often turn to the natural environment.  His home site has a nice creek running through visible from his porch, and he was happy to harvest its water cress.  He raised a variety of small animals over time.  Even though one goose went after his nephew, Christopher, he did not blame the goose.  He had a great depth of knowledge from years as an educator, and a life long love of learning. He must have watched University Place on PBS, because he commented with my knowledge of Czech households, I should do a presentation on University Place.

National Guard photo

Steve had a love of the outdoors, and for years made musky lures, giving them the nicknames he had for his two daughters--Fuzz and Wubby.  He was an expert fisherman, who particularly liked the challenge of musky fishing. He was like some of my other siblings who could never really sit still and always had to be on the move if not physically, than in his mind.  I suspect fishing was his way of relaxing and to wind down. I myself never could take to fishing, so I never fished with him.  He also loved wood boats and the related craftsmanship. He took an old boat trailer that was hidden in for decades in the pine trees at the property in which we grew up and rebuilt the trailer.  A nice wood boat now sits atop a trailer.  He said he would sell the boat, but not the trailer.  Perhaps the hard work fixing the trailer brought back memories.  His first car was a 1946 Ford, which he had also begun restoring.

Rebuilt boat trailer

As a football coach, one would not think of him having a tender side.  His tender side, however, was most visible with their little dog Fizzle. A name that well fits that little dog, it was almost like his alter ego.  He had been the past owner of some large Labradors, therefore, so it was quite different to see him with a little dog on which he doted.  A nephew commented on a place for Fizzle on the passenger front seat of his car and asked where Cathy sat, to which Steve simply pointed to the back seat.  Having recently watched the movie "A Dog's Purpose", I can't but help think of Steve and Fizzle.

Stevens Point Winter Carnival article

It was also football that brought about his trait of wearing shorts--even in cold weather.  When I once asked him why he most always wore shorts, he said he wanted to dress like the boys (football payers) dress.  It was probably more related to a mental toughness he had developed in himself and to develop in them.  The last time I saw him, he was wearing shorts on a cool mid-November morning.  As we mourn the passing of a husband, father, and brother, a future is faced with unknowns not before contemplated.  Life can be hard, but Steve, from his years of teaching and coaching, would be the first to say there is a need to move on.  I will miss the stories he had told.  Many of the nephews and nieces were regaled by his stories at John's wake.  His story telling was always good for a laugh or maybe even a cry.  The family of ten siblings is now down to seven. As we mourn his passing, we hold to the memories from the past, and think of what will no longer be, but we also look to the future with a different perspective than perhaps we had last week Friday.

First Five of the  Eight Hovel Boys
L to R:  Mike, Leo, Joe, John, Steve
of the five, only Joe and Mike still live

My sympathy to Steve's family, spouse Cathy, daughters Kristin and Elissa, grandson Keagan, and son-in-laws Jason and Matt.