In the 1940s and 1950s, unable to field competitive football teams of eleven boys, small high schools across the United States started playing with six, instead. Claremont, South Dakota, was
one such place. Bill Welsh strode into town in 1947, started a six-man team at the high school, and six years later had racked up a national record of sixty-one consecutive victories. His
career as a high-school football coach is without equal. His role as mentor, coach, and teacher influenced the lives of many young men across the state, but his legacy is the record of the
Claremont Honkers and their domination of six-man football in South Dakota, North Dakota, and Minnesota.Marc Rasmussen has unveiled the many facets of Bill Welsh's life and shined a spotlight
on the all-but-forgotten sport of six-man football and the all-conquering Honkers.In the 1940s and 1950s, unable to field competitive football teams of eleven boys, small high schools across
the United States started playing with six, instead. Claremont, South Dakota, was one such place. Bill Welsh strode into town in 1947, started a six-man team at the high school, and six years
later had racked up a national record of sixty-one consecutive victories. His career as a high-school football coach is without equal. His role as mentor, coach, and teacher influenced the
lives of many young men across the state, but his legacy is the record of the Claremont Honkers and their domination of six-man football in South Dakota, North Dakota, and Minnesota.Marc
Rasmussen has unveiled the many facets of Bill Welsh's life and shined a spotlight on the all-but-forgotten sport of six-man football and the all-conquering Honkers.
