Bullet Bill Dudley by Steve Stinson

Author:Steve Stinson [Stinson, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lyons Press
Published: 2016-12-10T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Heartache to Hero in Ninety Days

For all the trauma of the 1946 season, Bill went home feeling a little wind at his back. The weekend in New York with Libba was encouraging. Libba could shop whenever she chose. A train left Lynchburg for New York every day. Why did she pick Bill’s weekend? Was it because of, or in spite of, it being Thanksgiving? Where was Paul? Why did she go out of her way to say goodbye? Did she want just one more look? Was any of it really a coincidence?

Bill was too lame to drive home after the 1946 season. A friend drove him. On the way to Bluefield, they stopped in Charlottesville, where a doctor examined Bill’s knee. They drove on to Lynchburg—again a detour—and spent the night. Bill managed to work in a visit with Libba and then it was on to Bluefield. He was there only a day when the phone rang. It was Libba. Would he like to come to Lynchburg and escort her to the Junior League dance? Paul was traveling on business on the West Coast. The dance was at Oakwood Country Club. They would be chaperoned by her parents. “I came to Lynchburg and took her to the dance,” Bill said. “I stayed at her house and had a delightful time with her parents. We stayed up ’til 3 a.m. over coffee and drinks. The next day I said, ‘Can I see you again?’ She said, ‘No.’”

Bill went back to Bluefield, yo-yo’d again. From there it was on to Charlottesville to work on his degree—Spanish again—and to talk with Art Guepe about coaching the Cavaliers. Guepe took over head coaching duties at Virginia in 1946, when Frank Murray returned to Marquette. Bill would need a job that fall. When he revealed to Guepe his decision to retire from the Steelers, Guepe hired him as a backfield coach. Bill would begin during spring practice at the end of the semester.

It was a long distance call from Charlottesville to Lynchburg. Bill kept slipping in the nickels. During a call in February, Libba lifted the anvil she dropped on him almost a year before.

Libba: “I may be having second thoughts.”

Bill: “About what?”

Libba: “Marriage.”

Pause.

Bill: “Oh, can I see you?”

Libba: “Yes, but we can’t go any place.”

Chuck Yeager made headlines in October 1947 when he broke the sound barrier. It could well have happened seven months earlier when Bill Dudley borrowed Art Guepe’s car and drove to Lynchburg after that call, arriving with the same set of goosebumps he started with.

For the next three months, Bill pressed his case. He and Libba saw each other, but avoided public appearences. Again and again, they met at the Leininger home. They sat and talked. The wedding plans progressed. In March, Bill mailed the letter to Sutherland. He told Libba about it and about his new job in Charlottesville. The wedding plans progressed. Bill abandoned his Spanish studies. He wore out Art Guepe’s tires and Route 29 between Charlottesville and Lynchburg.

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