MARCELLUS — Out of the 90 years William Skye was given on this earth, the dozen he spent at Marcellus Central School were among the most cherished, not only by the man himself but by many who knew him well.
Born in New Jersey, Skye had been destined to make his presence known on the gridiron judging by the towering frame he grew into, but once his playing career wound down, it was his knowledge of the game of football that convinced principal Chester Driver to grant him that treasured coaching gig in 1955.
Recognized as the first at the helm to oversee the switch from eight-man to 11-man football, Skye would end up leading the 1956, 1963 and 1965 Marcellus squads to championship titles while earning individual honors as head coach those same three years.
In the time in between, he was often known to make the most from the limitations of the school’s athletics budget, occasionally even finding ways to get around it.
Adding to his establishment of the district’s track and field program in the late 1950s and his purported creation of both the Mustangs moniker and logo, Skye was uniquely responsible for introducing the sport of wrestling to Marcellus and giving it a facility all its own, even if that space was the boiler room in the high school’s basement.
“In his ingenuity, he painted it and got it all ready, and we practiced down there by the boilers with the coal shoots up above,” said 1964 grad Chuck Planer, who wrestled, threw the shot put and discus, and played football under Coach Skye.
According to Planer, Skye also used a square section of fencepost to fashion a curved, four-inch-high shot put toeboard when the school’s budget was too short to cover the cost of one.
“My dad was a doer,” said Skye’s oldest daughter, Nancy, after his passing on Nov. 23. “He was able to be very resourceful, innovative and persistent. He’d say, ‘If you don’t know how, learn how.’”
To enhance the home game experience for the fall football season, he rented pedestaled lights that were connected to a generator in the end zone, thus setting the stage for the school’s first-ever night games.
However, since the lights could only be reserved for Friday nights at one point, the players practiced past sundown on the preceding Thursdays with the help of the local volunteer fire department, which had some of its men line up their trucks and flip on the headlights.
Having been a three-year defensive starter for Syracuse University, a member of its first Pro Bowl roster in 1952, and the coach of undefeated freshman football and wrestling teams on its campus, Skye depended on that connection to receive used equipment from the university, such as bleachers from Archbold Stadium, leather shoulder pads and helmets, and the cotton gym mats that his teams would carry up and down the stairs from the safety-checked, repurposed boiler room.
As for his actual coaching style, Skye was described by Planer as a believer in the basics with a “hard-nosed, no-nonsense” approach.
He expected his ballplayers to do everything they could to work through injuries, Planer said, and not a peep was to be heard during roll call.
Skye also required all of them to visit the barbershop across the street to get crew cuts, and he held a reputation for sending letters home three weeks ahead of football season to ensure his starting and backup lines were in proper physical shape.
“Some appreciated the discipline and others resented it, but he was well-respected,” Planer said. “He taught me all kinds of values of hard work, and never did he utter a curse word on the field or anywhere through my four years.”
By the time Skye had left Marcellus to become the assistant principal at Watertown High School, Jim Jerome had already long considered him a role model.
While Skye was at Syracuse, Jerome’s father had played against him as a member of the rival Cornell team, and they both had stints in the pros—Skye with the New York Giants and the Green Bay Packers and the elder Jerome with the Ottawa Rough Riders. The latter would also take up a position as Skye’s line coach at Marcellus, and from there, the families grew to be close.
The captain for Watertown football and a future part of SU’s defensive line, the younger Jerome recalled being sent to Skye’s newfound office on occasion due to misbehavior.
“He was coaching me up on some life skills that I needed as a young man,” said Jim Jerome. “He tried to keep you from stubbing your toe so that you’d stay on the straight and narrow and all.”
In the case of the Marcellus class of 1958’s first-string quarterback Mert Raner, whose father passed away two years after in 1960, Skye became the go-to figure for guidance and care, eventually helping him to get into both the Manlius Military Academy and Syracuse University.
Raner later followed in Skye’s footsteps by becoming a physical education teacher before stepping up to Marcellus’ athletic director post, a spot he occupied for about 20 years beginning in 1970.
“He was a great guy who would do anything for his players,” Raner said. “I give thanks to him and bless him every night.”
In his life, William Skye was also honored with a Letter of Distinction from his collegiate alma mater in 1992, and he served in the U.S. Army Reserves for a total of 30 years, retiring as a lieutenant colonel.
