It’s time to say goodbye to a Richland legend and the sports program he wrestled into campus activities. Bill Neal, Richland’s men’s and women’s wrestling coach and physical education instructor, on staff for 48 years, is retiring at the end of the spring semester.
Neal started the wrestling program in 1972 and it ran through 1984. He said Richland won seven state championships in 10 years during that time period. Then Texas colleges dropped wrestling and the program ended. It was reinstated in 2016 after a hiatus of more than 30 years. Neal said the program is not expected to continue in his absence
Neal said he always knew he would be a coach and teacher for physical education.
“I knew when I was very young that I wanted to teach and coach. I played and coached programs all around the neighborhood while growing up. Our backyard was the playing field and we hosted all kinds of sports and games. I just needed to go on to college to get the education for a lifetime of enjoyable teaching and coaching,” Neal said.
Neal graduated from college with his Bachelor of Arts degree from Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio in 1962. In 1965 he went on to graduate school at Southern Illinois University (SIU) for his Master of Science in Education. He was a graduate assistant for the football program at SIU and Maryland University (MU).
Neal played various sports in college, like football, basketball, baseball, and he ran track and field. He practiced with his college wrestling team in their sessions but he never competed in the sport. Neal learned a lot from his college roommates who were wrestlers, which later helped him in the start of his wrestling coach career when he coached high school wrestling in Florida.
“My roommates were wrestlers and so they beat me up in the hallway every night. I learned a lot. I got into wrestling while coaching high school in Florida,” Neal said.
Neal became a wrestling consultant for the 1990 movie, “Born on the Fourth of July.” He worked with director Oliver Stone, who Neal said is a real different character. On the set he was strict but he treated Neal very kindly. Part of the movie was shot in Dallas.
The young coach had a role in the film as a referee for the wrestling match scene with legendary actor Tom Cruise. The gym scene was shot at Sunset High School in Oak Cliff.
“We practiced the wrestling scene with Tom Cruise in our wrestling room. I then played the part of the wrestling official in the movie,” Neal said.
Neal and his wife, Donnie, have six children who are all grown and have children of their own. He has 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. He and his wife live on a 50-acre ranch in Canton, where they own and take care of animals.
For many years, Neal and his wife have invited Richland students and faculty to their ranch to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with them. He tells students every year to come check out the ranch, see the animals, eat and watch television. It’s just kind of a gesture of opening up his home to spend a holiday with others outside of his family. Neal said they normally have 15 to 30 guests.
Neal has lived throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area and has traveled great lengths to work at Richland and coach student wrestlers.
“I have driven a great distance most of my years at Richland,” he said.
“The past 18 years I have driven three hours a day roundtrip, getting up at 4 a.m. and arriving at Richland at 6 a.m.,” Neal said.
In his retirement, Neal hopes to start an emeritus exercise program at Trinity Valley College in Athens and plans to work with their kickers on the football team.
Neal is in two wrestling halls of fame in Dallas and has worked with the Olympic Training Center for seven summers.
He received the Minnie Stevens Piper Professor Award at Richland in 2000 and was named “teacher of the year.” As part of that honor, he gave the commencement speech that year during the graduation ceremony.
Neal was an inspiration to a former Richland wrestler who transferred in the early ‘80s with a scholarship to the University of Minnesota. Evan Bernstein, an Israeli-American citizen, wrestled in the 1988 Olympics and carried the flag for Israel in the Olympic parade. Neal helped him get a job cleaning mats in the Olympic Training Center. While he was there, Bernstein was able to train with fellow athletes.
Neal coached several wrestlers to notable success. In the mid-1970s, Richland alumni Rudy Perez won three national championships and a world tournament. NJCAA All-American Brian Nelson went on to Carson-Newman University in Jefferson City, Tennessee and won a NAIA title in wrestling. Neal said he was so happy when they had success in their athletic endeavors.
Neal is also credited with coming up with the Thunderduck mascot in the 1970s. At the time, he said, all of the individual sports at Richland had their own mascots. In the 1980s, when Richland decided to go with one mascot, the Thunderduck was selected due to the success of the wrestling team. A plaque outside the main gym in Guadalupe Hall commemorates the occasion.
In his early days of coaching at Richland, Neal coached volleyball and baseball along with wrestling. He has grown close to the coaching staff and feels that Richland has always had the best coaches.
“Coach [Louis Ray] Stone (1941-2019) and I were close colleagues as his basketball program and my wrestling program were tops in the district and state. We have a great complement of coaches. All are well versed in their sport but so cooperative and supportive,” Neal said.
Neal is disappointed that there will no longer be a wrestling program at Richland. He said it has been a huge part of the school’s success story.
As a physical education teacher, Neal was upset about the COVID-19 shutdown and the DCCCD’s move to online classes. He said he loves working with students to help them with their health and fitness.
“I got into teaching to have face-to-face contact with students and to be involved daily with their faces and minds. I always said if I had to teach online I would retire and, well, how about this timing for my exiting?” Neal said.
