Remembering Art Bergstrom, LHS Football/Basketball coach, 1936-47

• The following is part of an ongoing series of articles in celebration of Libertyville High School's 100th anniversary.

Art Bergstrom came to Libertyville Township High School in the fall of 1936 after coaching six years at Casey and Monticello high schools, two small Central Illinois schools. He began an 11-year LTHS teaching and coaching career, serving as the head football and basketball coach, teaching physical education, bookkeeping, and physiology. He was a Jacksonville native, graduating from Illinois College in Jacksonville where he played football, basketball and baseball.

By his third season at LTHS, his football team was the undefeated conference champions in the fall of 1938, the first of four undefeated conference champions.

In Basketball his teams won the 1945 and 1946 District Tournaments, the only State Series Championship an LTHS team won until 1974.

Art left LTHS after the 1947 school year, taking a job at Stephan Decatur High School for one year. His next stop was becoming the head football and athletic director at Bradley University. He only coached football for two years at Bradley before becoming the full-time athletic director.

He stayed at Bradley for seven years. During his tenure, the basketball team placed second in the NCAA twice (1950 and 1954). The baseball team won three conference championships.

Bradley basketball was connected to the 1951 NCAA point shaving scandal. The NCAA was so impressed with how Art handled the scandal from an administrative standpoint that four years later Walter Byers, the first executive director of the NCAA, asked Art to join the NCAA as the director of enforcement in the fall of 1955. He also spent some time at the NCAA as the comptroller.

One of his early tasks as director of enforcement was trying to figure out how University of Kansas star Wilt Chamberlain, a future NBA Hall of Famer, was able to drive around campus in a new Oldsmobile 98.

Before retiring from the NCAA in 1974, one of his final tasks was responding to Darrell Royal (Texas) and Frank Broyles (Arkansas) recruiting violation claims of Barry Switzer's Oklahoma football program of the 1970s. He was credited with the development of the NCAA Division II and III levels.

After retiring from the NCAA, Art moved to California to be close to his children. He died in 2006 at the age of 100. When asked why he was able to live so long, he said he wanted to live until the Cubs won the World Series.