Hall of Fame
Winning became a tradition for John Thome as an All-State football and basketball player at Port Washinton High School.
The Port Washington High School Athlete-of-the-Year in 1960 earned 10 letters and served as co-captain of the football team for two years while attending UW-Oshkosh from 1960-64.
A life member and former officer in UW-Oshkosh's National "O" Club, Thome received All-WSUC honors in football as a junior and senior.
Upon graduation from UW-Oshkosh in 1964, Thome taught and coached at Chilton High School where his teams won three consecutive Eastern Wisconsin Conference titles and went undefeated in 1966. He founded and was president of the Illini/Badger Conference, a league affiliated national with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Division II, in 1973 while the football coach at Lakeland College in Sheboygan. During his 14 years as head football coach at Lakeland College his teams won nine titles.
Since 1964, he has conducted football coaching/psychology clinics in Wisconsin and is a coach counselor at the Warhawk Football Camp at the UW-Whitewater.
Thome translates the motivation to succeed in sports into his present position as a youth employment coordinator in the Howards Grove/Plymouth School District. He also serves as assistant football coach at Howards Grove High School.
