Wally Wescott Wisdom
Few teachers shaped St. Luke’s quite like Wally Wescott—our larger-than-life 6th-grade teacher, coach, athletic director, creator of Project Fun and the legendary Annual Rummage Sale, and half of the much-loved Wally-and-Rosie duo who seemed to define St. Lukes in the 1970s.
In this special 50th Anniversary interview, filmed by Alesia, Wally looks back on 25 years at St. Luke’s with the same humor, honesty, and heart we all remember. He shares stories about teaching, coaching future Hall-of-Famers, the joys and mistakes of classroom life, and a few roasts of the Class of ’76.
Grab a seat and watch—this is Wally exactly as we knew him.
What a guy! Send “Mr. Wescott” a note—a favorite story, a hello, or a reaction to this epic interview—at Wallyworld555@comcast.net or his home at 30 Benhill Rd, St. Paul, MN 55105. We know he’d love hearing from you.
Interview Transcript
Q: First of all, how many years were you a teacher?
A: Let me tell you one thing before I answer that. I might get a little confused here, but I have an excuse. I was born in 1935, so that only makes me 90 years old.
Now, your question was how long I was a married teacher—yes? Well, I started in 1958, and I stopped in 1983. I was there at St. Luke’s for 25 years.
Q: And what is something special that you did before your first day of teaching?
A: Before the first day of teaching, I grabbed the textbook—the one I was supposed to give to the kids. As far as what I was going to teach out of there, that was fine, but I didn’t like their examples. They talked about rosebushes and teaspoons.
Well, I don’t think 11- and 12-year-olds give a damn about that.
So what I did was completely ignore it and used the kids for all my problems. And they loved it. They loved seeing their names, so it worked out with the percents and decimals and fractions—yep, I could use them (in the examples) for sure.
Q: What is one thing you did as a teacher that you would not do again?
A: Well, I was teaching math, and I looked over there, and there’s this kid—one of my students—with his library book. I’m teaching, and he’s reading it.
I said, “Knock it off.”
Again, twice I look over. The third time, he’s got it down between his legs, looking down there.
So I said, “Excuse me, young man.”
My classroom was on the second floor. So I took the book, walked over, opened the window, and threw it out.
About two minutes later, a little kid—second grader—comes in with the book. I said, “What’s up?”
He said, “My teacher said to tell you they’re throwing books out the window.”
And I said, “Oh, you just go back down and tell your teacher to keep watching, and she’ll probably find a desk coming down with a student attached.”
Q: What are a few things that made St. Luke’s unique?
A: We had a program during the summer. We wanted to get the kids out of bed and get them going, so we called it Project Fun. The kids would come to school and play intramurals—go out on the pavement out there and play softball. Or we’d go to Como Zoo, the Science Museum—just something for the kids to do. So we did that.
We also had what we called the St. Luke’s Rummage Sale, and it was put on by the kids and me. We would collect stuff all year round, go pick it up with the kids, bring it to the room at St. Luke’s where we’d store it all. Then we’d have our rummage sale every year. And we used the money for different things—mainly for athletics and equipment, stuff like that. We did that.
Q: Name one teacher at St. Luke’s that you will always remember.
A: I was thinking of Mr. Faust or Sister Carmen… There were so many different ones. But the one I really, really always remember was Mrs. D. Her first name was Mildred. I have a hard time with her last name. I think it was Daly or Delinger or whatever.
She was great. Number 1, she was an excellent teacher—every kid learned in there. And number 2, I have never seen a disciplinarian like her. She didn’t have to open her mouth. She just gave them a look, and they behaved. Mrs. D.
Q: You were the athletic director and coached a lot of sports. What was your greatest satisfaction as a coach?
A: Well, there were two different situations.
Number one, I had Paul Molitor, coached him in the sixth grade—he was the best player in the eighth-grade program. I coached him—he ends up being in Cooperstown, the Hall of Fame. And I coached Jack Morris when he was 17 and 18. Kept him pitching. He couldn’t throw strikes, but I never gave up on him. And of course, he wins the World Series for the Twins in 1991—set a record, pitched all 10 innings, and they won 1-0. Jack Morris.
But with those guys, there was also another kind of good satisfaction, which turned out kinda unusual.
I was coaching football in eighth grade, and I had a kid on the team I couldn’t get close to. No matter what I’d say, he’d always look away—like he was just putting up with me. So what I did was give up on him. I completely gave up and avoided him because I thought it’d be a problem, and I’d kick him off the team or something.
So many years later, I go to watch my grandson play baseball. I look out over the left-field fence, and here’s this kid—the kid I gave up on. And I said to myself, “You jerk. You big jerk.” But I wasn’t calling the kid a jerk—I was calling myself a jerk, because I hesitated to go out and say hello.
So out I went, I walked around behind the fence. He looks up—“Mr. Wescott!” He comes running up. “Don’t you remember me?” And I thought, I sure as hell do.
I said, “Yeah, I do.” And I said, “What’s going on? What’s going on?”
He said, “Mr. Westcott, when I played football for you, you used to tell us—you should tell us kids—you’d say, all you guys ever do is receive, receive, receive. And you’d say, ‘Dammit, someday it’s payback time, and I want you to pay back.’”
And he said, “Mr. Wescott, Mr. Wescott, I want to tell you— I never forgot that. I’m paying back. These are my kids out here. They’re taking batting practice; they play in the next game. And if that’s not enough of a payback, I also coach on Sundays a traveling team. So I never forgot, Mr. Westcott.”
Well, there was my greatest satisfaction—from a kid I gave up on, and I was totally wrong. For sure, yeah.
Q: Any final thoughts?
A: Final thoughts? Yeah. I jotted a couple down here.
Number one: Always remember what I used to tell you. I would say, “When you say ‘can’t,’ remember what you’re really saying is ‘I don’t want to.’” Quit making excuses. Remember that.
Number two: This is important. When you talk to people from St. Mark’s and Nativity—right? And you tell them—yes, these are nice parishes and nice schools and everything. But you also remind them—to always remember St. Mark’s and Nativity were suburbs of St. Luke’s!!
Number three (I only have four here): I just want to say God bless all the kids from 50 years ago—everyone of you.
And last but not least, the most important thing I would say—never forget what we used to sing:
“We are the Lukers, mighty mighty Lukers. Everywhere we go, people want to know who we are, so we tell them…”
Remember that, Lukers. Never forget it!
Roast Transcript
Q: How about any of the kids in our Class of 1976? Got a comment on any of those kids?
A: Yeah, I got a comment or two - wrote them down here. I’m not gonna say they’re all truthful, but anyhow—just came up with a few of them.
Sue Wollan.
First of all—nice going for putting on this great get-together after 50 years. Nice going, young lady.
Sue Wollan—in eighth grade a nun says, “Sue, I want you to go down to second grade and I want you to teach the kids something Christ-like or something they would always remember.” So what happened? She goes down and teaches them something. And the next day they’re running up and down the halls saying, “You too can be a star—eat the Sue Wollan candy bar!” Nice job, Sue.
Julie Fried.
How about Julie Fried? Yeah, she said, “I was a good softball player.” Yeah, she said, “I batted 3-for-4.” Yeah, she sure as hell was—three hits in four years.
Mark Faulkner.
Oh my God—Mark Faulkner. Yeah, that “D” I gave him in Conduct —that was a gift!
Kathy Steinmaus.
Oh yeah, Kathy was something. Kathy thought she was pretty sharp. She’d say, “I’m pretty sharp”. Sharp as a marble. Nice going, Kathy.
Terri Wollan.
Oh boy. She got a little confused. A teacher said, “I was born in Shakopee and my husband was born out in New Alm. Where were you born, Terri?” Terri said, “I was born in a hospital. I wanted to be close to my mother.”
Brian Williams.
I wrote down BOTA—he was a BIG kid. We called him –“Biggest Of Them All” – right? Yep!
Ruth Jansen.
Ruth loved Halloween. When she was a little short of money, you know what she’d do on Halloween? She’d grab her piggy bank, go out the door, go to the houses and say, “Tricks or treats—money or money.” Yeah, she liked money a little bit.
Casey Seabright.
Well, I guess in general, I’d say we should all share—that was important, right? But Casey, he kinda misused that because when they were cheating on my test, he’d say, “Well, we’re really not cheating… we’re just sharing answers.” Yeah, nice job, Casey.
Alesia Wescott.
She kind of loved the boys. She’d chase them on the playground. In eighth grade, she set a record. There was a nice-looking kid in the eighth grade. She chased him, she caught him on the playground, in eight seconds, chasing him. Wow! Wow!
All The Boys.
And final reminder for the gentlemen—the boys at the reunion today:
Remember, you were all a bunch of TRs. Yeah, you were. You were TRs.
You know what you were? Tarzan Rejects.
That’s what you were.