Jim Amidon — My memory is too cob-webbed to accurately recall when I first met the late Will Hays, Jr. and his wife, Ginny. “A long time ago” is about the best I can do.
They were — and Ginny continues to this day — omnipresent at all things Wabash College. I can recall seeing them from time to time when I was an undergraduate at the College in the middle 1980s, but the depth of our friendship developed during my early years working as the sports information director.
Bill and Ginny were fixtures at Wabash athletics events, particularly football and basketball games.
Ginny, and sometimes Will, would arrive at the football stadium to reserve their seats about the time the sun rose above the east end of the field, dew still glistening on the grass. Anyone who knows Wabash football knows you can always find a good seat. Bill and Ginny saved theirs by 7:30 a.m. on game days. They wanted to be in the same spot so the players on the field would always know where they were.
Together they cheered for the Little Giants from just behind the team bench at basketball games, too. Win or lose, Bill would write a letter to the team after every game. Every game.
Since Bill was a writer (among his many pursuits), you wouldn’t be surprised to know that those hand-penned letters were beautifully crafted. But few people outside of the Wabash locker rooms ever saw them. I often wonder if coaches Mac Petty, Stan Parrish, and Greg Carlson saved those letters; compiled they would provide an illustrative record of our athletics history.
First and foremost, though, Bill Hays was a storyteller; the best I’ve ever heard. Right up until his passing, he could spin a yarn that would captivate anyone within earshot. My favorite memories are of his funny tales; long, old-style jokes that led you up to a knockout punchline.
All of us who knew Bill genuinely miss his ability to tell stories and recall memories in truly moving ways.
At the time of his death, his family and friends established the Will Hays, Jr. Visiting Writers Series at Wabash College. Every other year, a nationally recognized writer is invited to campus to spend time in class, talking with students, and to give a reading or lecture.
I’m pleased — and I think Bill would have been, too — that this year’s Will Hays, Jr. Visiting Writer is the award-winning reporter and novelist Philip Caputo.
For me, the connections here are interesting. I was a history major at Wabash 20-some years ago, and I found the oral histories of the Vietnam War to be among the most compelling books I had ever read. Philip Caputo’s memoir, A Rumor of War, was among my favorites because of his compelling, first-person depiction of his time in Vietnam. Reading that book made me feel as though I was right there with him and he was telling me the story.
Will Hays sharpened his writing skills and story-telling ability as a writer for the old TV show, This is Your Life. Philip Caputo spent nine years writing for the Chicago Tribune, earning a Pulitzer Prize in 1972.
Since then, Caputo has written seven books and two memoirs. His latest novel, Acts of Faith, was inspired by work he did for National Geographic in Sudan.
His public talk, “Fiction is Better Than Truth: Turning Journalism into Art,” will be given Thursday night at 8 p.m. in Salter Hall of the Fine Arts Center. I hope you’ll come to both honor Will Hays’ legacy and to listen as Caputo talks about the relationship in his work between reporting news and developing novels.
In an age when we’re pushed and pulled rapidly in directions beyond our control, a good book — a good story — can slow us down, engage us, and move us. Philip Caputo knows how to do this remarkably well.
And I just have a hunch that if he were alive today, Will Hays, Jr. would be the first one in his seat to listen Caputo tell his story.
