| Bill Roetzheim | |||||||||||||
| Full Name: | William Henry Roetzheim, Jr. | ||||||||||||
| Country: | United States | ||||||||||||
| Birth Date: | 7 August 1928 | ||||||||||||
| Birth Place: | Chicago, Illinois, U.S. | ||||||||||||
| Death Place: | Plant City, Florida, U.S. | ||||||||||||
| Discipline: | MAG | ||||||||||||
| Collegeteam: | UIC Flames, Florida State Seminoles | ||||||||||||
| Show-Medals: | yes | ||||||||||||
| Module: |
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William Henry Roetzheim, Jr. (August 7, 1928 – February 26, 2014) was an American gymnast, collegiate coach, and administrator.[1] He was a member of the United States men's national artistic gymnastics team and competed at the 1948 Summer Olympics and the 1952 Summer Olympics.[2] Roetzheim won gold at the 1951 Pan American Games,[3] and he was also an army veteran who served in the Korean War.[4]
Roetzheim was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1928.[1] His career in gymnastics began with the Southside Turners.[1] From there, he attended the Navy Pier campus at the University of Illinois Chicago before going to Florida State University.[1]
At Florida State, he became the NCAA Men's Gymnastics All-Round Champion,[5] and led his school to win the team event.[1] Later the same year, Roetzheim travelled to the 1951 Pan American Games in Buenos Aires at his own expense.[1] At the games, he won two gold medals, in the individual all-around and horizontal bar,[6] [7] along with two silver medals, in the floor and pommel horse.[8] [9] During the 1940s and 1950s, Roetzheim went on to win seven AUU titles.[1]
Roetzheim competed at two Olympic Games.[1] Upon selection to his first, the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, he was the first collegiate freshman to qualify for an Olympic games.[10] He was part of the United States team that finished in seventh place in the team all-round event.[11] [12] Four years later, at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, the US team finished in eighth place in the same event.[13] [12]
From 1955 to 1968, Roetzheim coached high school gymnastics in Illinois. He had 3 Illinois team championships and a further 19 individual state champions.[14]
In 1968, Roetzheim became the gymnastics coach at the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle, a post he held until 1973.[12] He compiled a record of 82–25 with the team and the following year, he became the athletic director at the University.[15] He oversaw the transition of the school's athletic program to NCAA Division I status in 1981 before leaving the role in 1985.[15]
He was also a judge at four consecutive Summer Olympics from 1984 to 1996.[4] [12]
Roetzheim was inducted into the US Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1975,[4] the UIC Athletics Hall of Fame in 1990,[15] the National Gymnastics Judges Association Hall of Fame and the Illinois High School Hall of Fame.[16]
Roetzheim died in February 2014 in Plant City, Florida, at the age of 85.[17] [18]