EHSA Revives Scholarship Honoring Legendary Coach Bill Stewart

EHSA News

EHSA Revives Scholarship Honoring Legendary Coach Bill Stewart

Coach Bill Stewart Jr. doing what he did best.

In any given year, there are some 37,000 high school athletic coaches in the United States. The best ones know that the job is not just about wins and losses. It’s also about shaping young hearts and minds, inspiring students and creating a positive legacy. And perhaps no high school coach in recent decades has exemplified the position as well as ‘Coach Bill’ Stewart, Jr., EHS ’37, who during his 50-year coaching career — including 37 years as football, baseball and hockey coach at English High School mentored more than 4,000 students.

English High Alumni along with family, friends, former colleagues and athletes – as well as members of the community at large – are delighted that the Coach Bill Stewart Jr. Scholarship has been revived by The English High School Association. The scholarship was originally established on December 8, 1987, two days after Coach Bill passed, and is now awarded to the English High graduating senior athlete boy and girl who best exemplify academic achievement, competitiveness, spirit and good sportsmanship. The 2024 recipients are basketball player Elijah Smith and softball player Rose Monestime.

William Stewart III, son of Coach Bill Stewart Jr., at the English High 200th Anniversary Gala in 2022

The impetus for reviving the award came from Coach Bill’s son, William Stewart III, who heard from so many who wanted to keep his dad’s memory alive. He enlisted the help of one of Coach Stewart’s former players and President of EHSA, Mike Thomas ’67. Although initially stone-walled, Billy’s insistence and EHSA’s perseverance paid off.  The Coach Bill Stewart Jr. Scholarship funds were discovered (after 11 years of being unawarded) in the Boston Schools’ Trust where they were misfiled under the wrong spelling of the ‘Stewart’ name. During Bill III’s career as a teacher and probation officer, he also mentored thousands of young people.

Coach Bill Stewart Jr. and young William Stewart III (number 84) on the sidelines of the 1957 English v. Latin game. English went on to win the Thanksgiving Day game 26-20.

“I was my father’s shadow, following him into rinks, stadiums, baseball fields, even into prison baseball games,” Bill III remembers. “I listened when he was a featured speaker at banquets and at kitchen tables when he visited homes of players. I remember countless phone calls from people who needed his advice to help solve problems of all kinds. I remember kids, all shapes, sizes and colors, who stopped by our house in Mattapan or Jamaica Plain to grab a minute with ‘Coach.’ No matter what time of day, we would have visitors and my mom would feed them.”

Bill says, “One of my dad’s favorite lines to his players was, ‘You want to be a little bit better when you go to bed than when you get up. So when you look yourself in the mirror, you can say to those eyes looking back at you, ‘You had a good day.’  I can’t tell you how many times in my four years of teaching and 40 years of probation work I used those thoughts in my lectures to law enforcement groups in the 38 states and three countries I travelled to, teaching and working with youths involved in the court systems.”

On accepting the Coach Bill Stewart Jr. Scholarship funds, Mike Thomas, who played football and baseball under Coach Bill in 1964-7, told Bill III, “I know you made your dad proud. You are the perfect Stewart to be in the English High family. I applaud you because it’s people like you that make our job easier.” Coach Bill’s constant reminder was to ‘Keep your head up!’ All he would ask, win or lose,  ‘Did you try’?  If you could say you did, then you didn’t quit on something or someone.

Read more about Coach Bill Stewart Jr.