CR Jefferson, Coach
IATC Hall of Fame, 2025
IATC Hall of Famers Tom Ecker, Harold Wilkinson and Bob Evans were very influential on a young track and field coach. Ecker was the man behind the science of the sport for Bill Calloway. With his encouragement the young coach wrote training articles that were published in various Track and Field magazines. His first, nearly 50 years ago, was an outline for introducing Plyometrics into a Track and Field program. Wilkinson was the Head Coach at Cedar Rapids Washington when Bill was a young sprint coach there in the early 70’s.
It was his father and brother who instilled the love for Track and Field in Bill Calloway, as a young athlete, growing up in Mt. Pleasant.
Bill was an outstanding track man but his claim to fame as an athlete just may have come as an All State running back on Mt. Pleasants, 9-0, state champion football team in 1963.
The Panthers would finish the nine-game season undefeated, untied and unscored upon. Only 15 teams in Iowa have ever done that and none since 1973. That success and the leadership provided by Hall of Fame Coach Bob Evans convinced Bill, that a coach, is what he wanted to be.
Calloway went to the University of Wyoming to play football, and ended up coming back to Iowa to attend Ellsworth Junior College where he played football and was a Sprinter and Pole Vaulter on the track team, before earning a scholarship and finishing his football career as a Wide Receiver at UNI.
After working as an Assistant at Wash, under Wilkinson for 4 years, he became the programs Head Coach from 1976-79. Then it was across town to Cedar Rapids Jefferson for the remainder of his career.
There he was the Head Football Coach for 9 years, nearly 40 years with Girls Track and Field, then closing out his coaching career in 2022 after 5 years as the Jefferson boys sprint coach.
Wherever and whomever, sprinters coached by Bill Calloway were always among the states best and were in fact the very best on more than one occasion.
At CR Washington, in 1977, the Warrior men won state titles in both the 440 and 880 yard relays, setting all time state meet records in both.
And the Cheetah Girls at Cedar Rapids Jefferson of 2013-16 were so special, in fact they were dominant in the sprint relays. At the 2015 Drake Relays, they ran 47.55 to equal the All Time best in the 4×1. At the 2015 state meet they won the 4×1 and made history by becoming the first ever to break 1:40 in the 4×2, running 1:39.24. All 4 of those young ladies, Abby Ranschau, who also won the 100 hurdles that year, Jasmine Blue, Morgan Meese and Lucy Schneeckloth, are here today to honor their coach. CR Jefferson won the 4×2, four years in row. Blue was on all 4, Ranschau and Schneeckloth 3 times and Meese twice.
Jefferson also won Drake 4×1 and 4×2 titles in 2016 and Class 4A Sprint Medley titles in ‘14 and ‘16.
As the J-Hawks men’s sprint coach, they won the 2018 4×1 and 4×2 titles at Drake, setting new Relays records in both before adding a state title in the 4×1.
Bill and his wife Carol stay very active on the bike trails around Cedar Rapids and have 2 sons, Doak and BJ and four grandchildren, Drew, Jake, Izzy and Elliott.