New Coaches Named at University

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Posted: Thursday, August 1, 1968 at 6:02 PM

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (UWECBlugolds.com) - Named to coaching positions in the athletic program of Wisconsin State University-Eau Claire are Stephen J. Kurth, coach of tennis and assistant coach of football, and William Meiser, gymnastics coach. Dr. James Rice, director of athletics, has indicated that, in addition to coaching, they will teach courses in physical education and Mr. Meiser will develop an athletic training program which includes the treatment of athletic injuries.

Stephen J. Kurth, a native of Eau Claire, graduated from Eau Claire State University with a bachelor's degree in secondary education in 1961. He was voted the most valuable player in football in 1960 and was president of the Lettermen in that year. While at Regis High School, Eau Claire, he participated in football and basketball all four years. From 1961 to 1963 he was football coach at Cadott, and from 1963 to 1965 he was a Peace Corps Volunteer stationed in Casablanca, Morocco.

While overseas, he served as assistant coach of the Moroccan National Basketball Team which won the Pan-African Basketball Games. In the summer of 1966 he directed physical training for Peace Corps Volunteers at the University of Texas, Galveston, for service in Morocco. In the academic year 1965-66 Mr. Kurth was a teaching assistant in physical education at Washington State University, and from 1966 through 1968 he has been a teaching assistant at the University of Oregon and studying for the doctor of philosophy degree with major emphasis on the scientific aspects of physical education. Mr. Kurth is unmarried.

Bill Meiser graduated from Wisconsin State University-La Crosse in 1961 with a major in physical education, with emphasis on the study and prevention of athletic injuries. He received the master of science degree in physical education from the University of Colorado in 1965. In 1961-62 he served with the 32nd Division at Ft. Lewis. From 1962-64 he was in charge of the physical education program for the Fall River schools, and since the fall of 1964 he has been elementary physical education coordinator for the Eau Claire public schools. Recently he has been associated with the Headstart Program in the area of physical education and will continue as consultant to this program and also to the Wisconsin Education Association under CESA III. Mr. Meiser attended high school at Cedarburg. His wife, a graduate of Hillsboro High School and St. Norbert College, taught at Fall River and last year at Regis High School. She plans to enroll in the School of Graduate Studies at Eau Claire State University this fall. The Meisers have a son, Mark, four years old. They are spending the month of August in Boulder, Colorado, while Mr. Meiser continues his graduate studies in physical education.

Robert Scott of the Department of Physical Education staff at Eau Claire will be on a teacher improvement grant for two years working on his doctorate in physical education at Indiana University.