But the Fieldhouse Bar & Grill in Campustown, three blocks from where sellout crowds once roared for their Braves, is just about perfect as far as artist Willard ‘Bill’ Waugh is concerned.
‘After everything that’s happened,’ Waugh says, ‘it’s kind of crazy.’
Waugh was a Bradley freshman, starting college late after a military hitch that began at the end of World War II, when the president of Commercial National Bank downtown commissioned him to paint the 1950-51 stars for display in the bank lobby. The original idea, Waugh says, was to cover one wall with a mural, but they settled on a 6-feet-by-4-feet canvas instead.
Elmer Behnke, the team’s starting center, was Waugh’s best friend, and the young artist was acquainted with the other players, too. So, while Waugh worked mostly off of a team photo, his personal interaction with the guys breathed life into the project. He worked on it for months, as the team rolled from victory to victory.
When finished, the work showed Anderson on one knee, giving a pep talk to Melchiorre, Behnke, Billy Mann, Aaron Preece, Fred Schlictman and Charles ‘Bud’ Grover. Waugh delivered the framed painting to the bank, which set it up in the lobby.
‘It was only there three days,’ Waugh says. ‘Then it disappeared.’
For 45 years.
Waugh transferred from Bradley to the University of Miami, in Coral Gables, Fla., where he studied architecture. He moved West and built a successful business career in Beverly Hills and Phoenix, where he eventually retired. But he never stopped wondering what happened to the painting.
Over the years one of Waugh’s sisters, Rosie Dersch, became friends with Bradley vice-president Gary Anna. In the mid-1990s, Dersch told Anna the story of the missing painting. Not long after, Dersch says, Anna called her with some good news. The painting had been found in the basement of another bank building, though nobody could explain how it got there.
‘When we finally found it, it was not in very good shape,’ Dersch says. ‘It was dirty and all rolled up.’
Once the painting was back in his possession, Waugh went to work.
‘It was pretty stiff,’ he says. ‘I would unroll it a couple of inches at a time and glue it to plywood. It took about a month to flatten it out.’ He also rebuilt the frame.
But what to do with it?
That’s when Waugh heard about the Fieldhouse Bar & Grill. What if … ? He contacted his sister Rosie, and in February this year, the two of them dropped in and asked to speak with the manager.
Molly Hughes has been collecting sports memorabilia for the establishment ever since her dad, John Renick, bought the place and renamed it in 2009. The Fieldhouse is more than just a Bradley joint, featuring jerseys and pictures that celebrate athletics at Illinois, Iowa and Iowa State, as well as pros with Peoria connections, such as Jim Thome.
But the Fieldhouse’s logo incorporates the iconic arced roof line of Robertson Field House, and Bradley stuff is everywhere: a section of bleacher seating from the old arena, the Sports Illustrated cover from the Braves’ 2006 NCAA Sweet 16 run and pictures galore. Among the latter: a large black-and-white of Melchiorre, who autographed it during a lunch visit to the pub a couple of years ago.
When Waugh and Dersch met Hughes, they pulled out an iPad and showed her a picture of the painting. Would Hughes be interested?
‘Oh my gosh! Yes! I want it! I want it!’ Hughes said.
They worked out a purchase price, and by the time March Madness was in full swing, Waugh’s painting was where it belonged: In the Fieldhouse.
‘It was meant to be, like it was fated,’ Hughes says. ‘People come in here and look at it, and they just go, ‘Wow!’ It just amazes me how many people remember that team and know so much about them.’
Waugh, now 87, is elated. ‘The orphan,’ he says, ‘has finally found a home.’
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