{"id":658,"date":"2024-03-14T14:21:29","date_gmt":"2024-03-14T20:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/desmoinesofficials.com\/?p=658"},"modified":"2024-05-12T20:55:38","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T02:55:38","slug":"the-guy-who-just-showed-up-to-stuff-for-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/desmoinesofficials.com\/?p=658","title":{"rendered":"The Guy Who Just Showed Up to Stuff for People"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Bill Quinby is a name most Central Iowans are not familiar with. Cedar Rapids may be a bit outside of our normal footprint, but it&#8217;s my hometown where he&#8217;s a legend. I recall meeting Bill who was as an NFL official, mostly at side judge. Truly a remarkable man with many accomplishments. He was also the principal at Kennedy High School when I saw him speak in the early &#8217;80s. He was a school administrator at several high schools in that area. Highlights of his colorful career include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Big Ten football official<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>NFL side judge &#8211; 17 years, retired in &#8217;95, Super Bowl XIX<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Amateur boxer &#8211; Golden Gloves<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Hawkeye football player under Forest Evashevski (1 year)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Student manager for the Hawkeye football team (3 years), including an incident where he had to punch a Minnesota Gopher fan who took a swing at Evy (Bill tells the story video in the <em>Gazette<\/em> story below).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Hawkeye baseball player<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Coe College athletic director<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Original board member for CR&#8217;s minor league baseball team (Reds, Kernals, etc.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Longtime advocate for The Special Olympics, and a board member<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Volunteered his time to mow the baseball fields at Coe (now Bill Quinby Field) for nearly 20 years<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Mike Hlas of <em>The Cedar Rapids Gazette<\/em> published this article almost a year ago about Bill Quinby and this includes several video clips from their interview. Bill is still going strong at age 92, sharp as ever and lives in a Robins, Iowa retirement home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let me know in the comments below if you&#8217;ve met Bill Quinby and have similar stories of your own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>UPDATE: Bill Quinby recently died on April 20, 2024 in Cedar Rapids.<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thegazette.com\/staff-editorials\/quinby-leaves-an-amazing-legacy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Gazette Editorial here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thegazette.com\/obituaries\/william-h-quinby\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Obituary here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thegazette.com\/sports\/bill-quinby-has-been-cedar-rapids-torchbearer-helping-light-many-lives\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.thegazette.com\/sports\/bill-quinby-has-been-cedar-rapids-torchbearer-helping-light-many-lives\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"388\" height=\"485\" src=\"https:\/\/desmoinesofficials.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Quinby-w-Sweetness.jpg\" alt=\"Bill Quinby with Walter Payton\" class=\"wp-image-660\" srcset=\"https:\/\/desmoinesofficials.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Quinby-w-Sweetness.jpg 388w, https:\/\/desmoinesofficials.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Quinby-w-Sweetness-240x300.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 388px) 100vw, 388px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Bill Quinby with Walter Payton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bill Quinby is a name most Central Iowans are not familiar with. Cedar Rapids may be a bit outside of our normal footprint, but it&#8217;s my hometown where he&#8217;s a legend. I recall meeting Bill who was as an NFL official, mostly at side judge. Truly a remarkable man with many accomplishments. He was also&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/desmoinesofficials.com\/?p=658\" rel=\"bookmark\">Read More &raquo;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Guy Who Just Showed Up to Stuff for People<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[22],"class_list":["post-658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-officiating-legends"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/desmoinesofficials.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/desmoinesofficials.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/desmoinesofficials.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desmoinesofficials.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desmoinesofficials.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=658"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/desmoinesofficials.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":773,"href":"https:\/\/desmoinesofficials.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658\/revisions\/773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/desmoinesofficials.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desmoinesofficials.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desmoinesofficials.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}