H. Jerome Thompson

Athletics and faith

As a coach and later a professor, Herman Jerome “Jerry” Thompson helped merge athletics with academics during his tenure at Ripon College.

He was born March 25, 1923, in Baldwin, Wisconsin. He attended St. Olaf College from 1941 to 1944 when he transferred to University of Wisconsin. He graduated in 1946 and earned his master’s degree in 1949. He played football and baseball and was a member of the Big Ten Championship team in 1946.

He coached football and track at Manistique (Michigan) High School, Upsala College in New Jersey, Augustana University in South Dakota, and Neenah (Wisconsin) High School before coming to Ripon.

As associate professor of physical education from 1956-58, Thompson also served as head coach of football and track. In his inaugural year at the helm of the football team, he led Ripon to a 4-3-1 season. The following year, the team finished with a perfect 8-0 record, boasting its first undefeated season since 1891.

He then left to earn his master of divinity degree from Luther Theological Seminary in 1961 and was ordained. He returned to Ripon to found the religion department and served as a professor of religion and College chaplain from 1962-1985.

He once said of his abrupt change from being a football coach to being a minister: “I was really good at teaching young men how to knock each other down; I now am more interested in teaching young people how to build each other up.”

He served 16 years as commissioner of the Midwest Conference; founded and directed the Ripon College Upward Bound Program, an educational enrichment program for Native American and African American junior and senior high school students, from 1965 to 1973; founded and directed the Ripon College Educational Opportunity Program (now Student Support Services) from 1973 to 1983; and was chairman of the Fond Du Lac County Democratic Party.

He received an Honorary Doctorate Degree of Sacred Theology from Ripon College in 1992 and was inducted into the Ripon College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1998.

He co-wrote “The Bible as Literature” with then-Professor of English Dr. Robert Ashley, and hundreds of sermons, speeches and publications on Jesus, love, community, Native American cultures, religion and Christian pacifism.

In 1965, he led a group of Ripon college students to Selma, Alabama, to march with Martin Luther King Jr.

He was a member of the United States Tennis Association for 26 years and was ranked first in Wisconsin, second in the Midwest and 19th in the nation in the 65-year-old bracket.

He died Dec. 23, 2010, at the age of 87.