%20(300%20%C3%97%20150%20px).png)
November 29, 2018
By David Nordby The Brillion News
BRILLION – A conversation close to 30 years ago with Bill Behnke stayed in the mind of Earl Herring. That dialogue led to him putting together two books on the history of sports in Brillion that are now available.
“He said, ‘There could be a book written about sports.’ It just kind of stuck with me,” Herring says. “So, I decided to do it.”
Herring has a fondness for sports history. Behnke helped get the Brillion Athletic Association up and running again in 1946, after it had fallen apart, which made him the perfect catalyst for planting the seed in Herring’s mind.
“I kind of wanted to profile the Brillion Athletic Association because of it’s existence … Not too many organizations last that long, but they’ve had their big ups and downs,” Herring said.
The two books, one on the history of Brillion High School sports (452 pages) and one on the history of Brillion’s city sports (253 pages) are now available for purchase. The books have been donated to the Brillion Athletic Association and the funds help aid sports in the city. Herring was full steam ahead on the project in October 2016 after speaking about the idea at the annual association dinner.
“After I got into it, and decided which way I was going to go with it, then it was too much I felt (for one book),” Herring said.
Herring estimates that he spent upwards of a thousand hours on the project. He went through the Brillion High School annuals, Chatter publications from the Brillion Iron Works employees and archives of The Brillion News. The hours of work put in were not labor, he says.
“Really I never looked at it that way,” Herring says. “Because it was something I enjoyed doing.”
Please see the complete story in the November 29, 2018 edition of The Brillion News.
Editor’s note: The History of Brillion High School Sports and the History of Brillion City Sports books are available at Shear Design, Collins State Bank, Bullseye Screen Printing, Hardware Plus, Braun’s Deer Run, State Bank of Chilton and Zander Press, who printed the book.