Early in the summer of 1951, a proud grandfather was show ing off his 2-year old grandson to a crowd at an old country store on Hwy 73 in Prairievlle. "That boy is pretty active for his age," noted one vendor as the child darted from one part of the store to the other. The owner, Nick Delaune stopped the youngster long enough to address the crowd. "Tell'em who you are, boy." The

2-year old, thrilled to be the center of attention replied on cue, I'm Wild Bill from Prairieville... never worked and never will," and a nickname was born.

Bill's grandfather Nick Delaune, had been a leading figure in the developement of Prairieville. His general supply store was a focal point where locals came to town to talk, trade, buy, sell, and barter. "My grandfather was a very giving man", said Bill. "He felt very fortunate to have, at a time when many did not. I guess my fondest memories were of all the kids catching the bus there and listening to all the great stories about my grandfather and some about my own father. Once my dad, William Delaune Sr. bought a truck load of onions, which at that time were very scarce due to rationing around war time. It seems that my dad had met a guy who was boasting about the onions in a local tavern the night before and Dad had said "You're not going anywhere farther than Nick Delaune's Store with those onions because I'm buying them. They were delivered to the store the next morning much to the surprise of my grandfather. Nick quickly decided what to do about the problem of having all these extra onions. Grandpa Nick donated them to a church fair at St. John the Evangeline and of course everybody said what a fine gentleman Nick Delaune was and how charitable he was in donating all the onions when it was really a matter of having a huge surplus. "Grandpa Nick also kept a herd of cattle so his family always had food, income, and staples. He would extend credit to many families even when he knew they did not have the means to repay him. Many of those debts were never recovered".

Nick and his wife Malvena, also accomplished another remarkable feat for the times, sending not one, but two sons to college during those hard times. Their older son Jack, would eventually take over the reigns of the store in the 1950's. Jack had taken a job at Standard Oil in Baton Rouge and when he got off work he would relieve Thelma at the store. Mrs. Worsham lived in a small house close to the store. She eventually came to own the house and land and raised a family there. Her family still lives on the same tract of land.

"When my Uncle Jack would run the store he quite often would smoke his cigar when nobody was around. When someone came into the store he didn't want them to know he was smoking, so he would put the cigar in a drawer with most of the invoices and bills. One day as we came in he quickly put his cigar away so that we wouldn't see it, (even though everyone knew he smoked). Of course the invoices caught on fire causing quite a stir in the little country store. Later before the store was torn down, the board of health visited. The store was built directly over a large ditch called the Grand Goudine. The board of health asked my Uncle Jack if he had running water and he said, "Sure it runs right under the store'. Shortly after that the country store was out and convenience stores took over... another part of Prairieville fell victim to progress."

The Delaune's younger son William Delaune Sr. had dreams of practicing medicine, but when World War II broke out his sense of duty led him to join the Army Air Corps, which later became the United States Airforce. He flew several dangerous missions over Europe and upon his return home, had lost his desire to become a doctor. He returned to LSU and one day pulled a card off a bulletin board and took a job as a forest ranger in Oregon where he stayed for a short time. He would eventually complete his education at LSU, and joined his brother working in the accounting department of Standard Oil. William Sr. stayed there for over thirty years and saw the company become Esso, and later the Exxon Refinery. He had met Miss Laverne Bullion of Prairieville and the young couple married and started a family having five children. They had three girls, Diane(King), Liz(Mire), and Christine(Sotile), and two sons Nick and William Jr., "Wild Bill'.

Early in life "Wild Bill' became known for his sharp tounge and quick wit. "The world was quite different back then", said Bill. "People didn't travel very far or very often. My best friend Keith Dixon lived near Airline and Hwy 42 and going to his house seemed like a real road trip. Some people would ask us why we didn't say we were from Dutchtown since that's where we went to school, but come on, "Wild Bill from Dutchtown'? That just doesn't work," he laughed.

"Wild Bill from Prairieville' was a part of the last graduating class from the old Dutchtown High School in 1966. "Besides the store and the church the other big social gathering was the Prairieville ball park run by Mr. J. B. Landry. From the time I was six years old until probably fourteen or fifteen I played in the 9-12 league so I guess I had a pretty good year when I was 13 playing against 12 year olds. I had had to pay for it when I was younger because I gave away 2 or 3 years to everybody. The big event in the ball park was the Fourth of July where everybody would gather for day long baseball and you could win prizes up to a whopping 5 dollars. One of the contests was a "greasy pole climb' where Randall Leblanc always seemed to shine. He had a technique that was very difficult to copy. He'd get every cap that he could find in the ball park, place them on his head, and wipe the grease off the poles as he shimmied up. He almost always came away with the 5 dollar bill. There was also a talent show that gave away the same 5 dollar prize. We all clamored for it at the time but most of the time that was won by J. B. Landry's son Joe and his daughter Patsy who did versions of the "Dale and Grace' hit I'm Leaving It All Up To You and other hits of the time. So even my Waughbash Cannon Ball and all the country songs usually got me only as high as second place. Later on we were recruited, I guess, to go all the way to Gonzales which was a big deal to us. While there we heard stories of the legendary Lavigne boys including Hubby Lavigne who was probably the best short stop that I can remember. Once again it opened up a whole different world for us because we met people as far away as Gonzales and St. Amant and at that time it was really something. My baseball career ended at USL in 1966. During tryouts, I faced a skinny left hander named Ron Guidry, "Louisiana Lightening' who would later go on to win a Cy Young Award with the New York Yankees. He threw me three pitches, none of which did I even take my bat off my shoulder to swing at. As I walked away Coach Banta asked "Why didn't you even swing just to try?' I told him, "they all sounded low to me!" Bill did well in school and managed to have a little fun as well. "In 1968 Playboy Magazine rated the Top 10 Party Schools in the nation and USL topped the list. The following year I transferred to LSU and that year the winner of the Playboy contest was LSU...strictly a coincidence. Anyway, I saw some great basketball stars at USL when, in a matter of months we went from fourth in the conference to fourth in the nation due to some incredibly lucky basketball recruits that seemed to win cars and things in businessmen's drawings downtown. It was fun to watch before the NCAA came in and took all the basketballs away."

Later that same year 1969, Prairieville also made headlines for its part in the nation's "Summer of Love' It was an uneasy time. Intergration in the public schools was progressing amid social opposition. During the summer 50,000 hippies descended on the area for a pop music festival held at the racetrack. There were three major pop festivals that summer. The most well known was Woodstock, of course. There was also one in Atlanta where Jimi Hendrix debuted his famous guitar version of "The National Anthem, and then there was Prairieville. "It was kind of funny," Bill said. "The festival was billed as "The New Orleans International Pop Festival at the Baton Rouge Speedway in Prairieville, Louisiana'. I won't bore you with the details but let's just say it was quite a memorable time. We had more than a little fun. "I even got to meet Janice Joplin."

As a senior at LSU, Bill was the sports editor for the campus newspaper, "The Reville'. "I got to see some great football at LSU. Probably the greatest time period was 1970 when I got a chance to go to Notre Dame to watch the Tigers in likely the greatest defensive battle I've ever seen. We came out on the short end of a 3-0 score. I think anyone who didn't see LSU as a national power changed their opinion after that game. It really sort'a put us on the map. I can remember Tommy Casanova dropping the interception in the end zone that would have at least kept the score 0-0. Of course Casanova went on to be one of the greatest players, if not the greatest defensive back that LSU ever had. That was also the year that Archie Manning came to Baton Rouge. Having beaten LSU as a sophomore and a junior, costing us an undefeated season in 1969, Archie tried to play with a broken arm. In those days athletes sat out with a hangnail. I know it sounds strange but Manning was actually going to put a protective cast on his arm and attempt to play against LSU. Early in the game Manning led Ole Miss to an early score and they took a 7-0 lead and I actually thought about leaving the game. I said "I'm not gonna sit here and watch him beat us with one arm'. Fortunately Tommy Casanova and Craig Burns started running back punts at a phenomenal rate. One thing I remember about the game is John Sage and Ronnie Estee tackling Manning for a safety and just holding him there instead of throwing him down so that it wouldn't hurt his arm. That night saw some of the great Tiger sportsmanship along with a tremendous 61-17 victory for LSU."

Over the years, Bill has developed a reputation for liking the ponies. "My love affair with the Kentucky Derby goes way back to when my Uncle Harry, who, whether it was a blessing or a curse I'm not sure, in 1958, told me about a horse named Tim Tam. He used a word that I had never heard before when he said this horse was a cinch. Tim Tam won the Kentucky Derby and I was just so impressed as a child of nine or ten years old that I couldn't wait until the next race to see how many cinches Uncle Harry could come up with. Later that year I had a cousin born to Uncle Harry and his wife and he must have done fairly well on the race because my cousin's name is Timothy Tam Bullion. I would attend a Kentucky Derby some forty years later when Uncle Jim and I drove up to Kentucky and had just a phenomenal time there. The experience rivaled my trip to Notre Dame as my two best road trips ever and it was about that long before I had another winner. His name was Real Quiet and he paid for the trip that day. I haven't had many cinches lately in the Kentucky Derby, but it's a big race for me every year. "Back in the early seventies, the place where we hung out in Gonzales was called Fish-N-Pic. The proprietor Levy "Noody' Diez, was also a big horseman so the horse talk and the horse wagering and trips to the track all continued. In 1973 Noody came up with his cinch. We had been burned a lot of times so when he said that this was the greatest horse ever, we just rolled our eyes and said "old crazy Noody's got another one. That one turned out to be Secretariat. Noody had spotted him at a very early age and I would say he was a pretty good cinch. He went on to win the Triple Crown and he was probably the greatest race horse I've ever seen."

After graduation Bill eventually took a job as a teacher at East Ascension Junior High School where he also helped out with the football team. "Coon Shexnayder was the principal. The faculty was a closeknit family and while I didn't make much money that first year, about $7200, I loved the environment. While at LSU I had met my wife, the former Pam Jolissant from Baton Rouge. I stayed at East Ascension Junior High School for five years and we put together a 41 game winning streak. In 1975, following a carefully timed plan, our first son Jeff was born. Nine months and six weeks later, our second son Brian was born following a "not so thought-out plan." In the meantime, plans were underway to build a new high school in St. Amant. Bill was targeted to work at the new school so it was decided that he should transfer to St. Amant Middle Scchool to help prepare and scout out the kids who would comprise the initial teams at the new high school. He spent two years there and his teams experienced more success winning the championship in his very first year as coach. My coaching career got started in 1971 and it carried over to St. Amant Middle School where I coached one year of basketball and I tried to make John "Hot Rod" Williams the point guard, (How did I know he was going to grow to be 6' 11" and play all those years in the pros. I guess my favorite sport was always baseball thanks to Mr. Landry and everybody else that helped to shape my early years there."

Bill then moved to the high school where his vast insight into sports and his inate teaching ability was a terrific combination for success. "I had a very successful coaching stint at St. Amant as head baseball coach thanks to some outstanding talent. I've always said, "good coaches were always lucky to have good players' and that was certainly it in my case. I thought I did a wonderful job of under coaching such players as Kim Batiste who went on to play for the Philadelphia Phillies and played in the World Series. There was also Andy Sheets who is still playing in Japan after playing for several major league teams in the United States. He makes a lot of money playing over there in Japan and was recently voted to Japanese all-star team, He won a golden glove last year playing first base. Jason Williams was another player that came through the St. Amant program and he would later go on to win a gold medal and break all sorts of records at LSU during his four years there. Those were some fond memories and there are many, many more players that I don't have time to mention. One day last summer I played golf with three of my former catchers. I was talking about how I yelled at the catchers because our pitchers, (you couldn't mess with their psyche), so even if the pitcher did something wrong the catchers were the ones who got yelled at. Their revenge was to come back and beat me on the golf course. As I look back on it, I've been very fortunate to have been blessed with family and friends that have taken care of me through it all. They have allowed me to live a Peter Pan existence for the last 37 years. (Baby Boomers are allowed to take 20 years right off the top, everybody knows that.) But at the end of the day, if anybody wants to stand up and say he wasn't that good of a coach or he wasn't that good of a golfer or he wasn't as good as his uncle on the guitar, just tell them the words of one of my favorite songs, well at least dammit he tried!!"