Please click here to view a student eulogy for William Yates recorded at Marion National Cemetery in 2026: https://youtu.be/6YFFlEfs4Rc

Biography - Part 1

Early Life 
William Alford Yates, Jr. was born April 20, 1921, to William Yates, Sr. and Belva Yates in Bluffton, Indiana. He was the third of four children, with two older sisters, Lucille and Louise, and one younger brother, Charles. His father worked as a coal miner, while his mother worked as a maid and housekeeper for affluent families in Bluffton. Yates grew up in a small family home in town in Bluffton.

Yates was very active in school, showing a passion for sports and for leadership. While attending P.A. Allen High School, Yates was involved in football, intramural basketball, and baseball. Yates also had a job shoveling coal, most likely to earn some extra money for the household. While in school, Yates already had a dream for his future; when asked in his yearbook what he wanted to be when he grew up, he responded, " a coach.”  He was also voted “Most Talkative” out of his senior class.  Yates completed high school in 1939, and needing money to attend college, decided to get a job.

After graduating from high school, Yates began working for Estey Piano Company, which had been in business since 1869. He made pianos and church organs. His enlistment record also showed he worked as a park and wildlife protection officer for the State of Indiana. However, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Yates made the decision to leave his job and enlist in the United States Marine Corps on January 20, 1942.

Homefront 
Bluffton, Indiana, located along the Wabash River, was a small agricultural community during Yates’s youth. Like many towns across the United States, Bluffton experienced significant economic hardship during the Great Depression. Businesses struggled to survive, and many families relied on agriculture and trade to sustain themselves, often using barter rather than currency.

Government programs such as the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), established under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, played a vital role in keeping younger men employed in jobs that would develop and benefit America’s natural resources. The CCC contributed to infrastructure and environmental projects, including the development of Ouabache State Park, where workers built facilities and improved the land. During the war, the CCC camp at Ouabache State Park was converted into a work camp for conscientious objectors.  

The war, which led many young working men to leave Bluffton, also brought new groups into service in Bluffton, including women and migrants. The local women’s group took up farming and food conservation. Some would establish clubs or groups to promote rationing or the creation of victory gardens to support the war effort. Migrant workers from Mexico also traveled to Bluffton as part of the Bracero Program to work legally on farms and railroads. 

The people of Bluffton supported the war effort by rationing, so any extra materials they could find were shipped overseas. At this time, ration stamps were created. Farmers also primarily switched their crops to soybeans during this time, so any surplus food could be sent to soldiers overseas. Anything that could be recycled, even if it was small, was used to benefit the military, not the community. Books were collected to mail to servicemen overseas.  

In 1944, Franklin Electric was founded in Bluffton by E.J. Schaefer and T.W. Kehoe, and began manufacturing electrical products, including small engines.  Their first major product was a backpack generator that paratroopers carried.

Biography - Part 2

Military Experience 
Yates enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in Indianapolis on January 20, 1942. Following his enlistment, he completed basic training in San Diego, California. Yates was then stationed at Bremerton, Washington, where he served for nearly five months, guarding the Puget Sound Naval Yard, serving with Company 1 of the Marine Guard. This shipyard played an important role for the Allies’ Navies, handling the repair and maintenance of battle-damaged ships in its dry docks. 

In August 1942, Yates was stationed on the ship William L. Thompson, a cargo ship, en route to Kodiak, Alaska, where he remained until 1944. Kodiak is an island located off the easter shore of Alaska in the Gulf of Alaska, about 25 miles off the mainland. It is often called the “Emerald Isle” for its temperate weather and plentiful rainfall. He was trained on Anti-Aircraft guns and became a field artillery specialist, specifically a light artillery gunner, and served as a guard.  

During World War II, Kodiak Island became an important U.S. military outpost because of its location in the Gulf of Alaska, close to two powers that posed a threat to the United States: Japan and the Soviet Union. The U.S. Navy established Naval Air Station Kodiak in 1941 to patrol the North Pacific, protect shipping lanes, and monitor Japanese naval and air activity. Then the U.S. Army also built Fort Greely on the island, adding coastal artillery, anti-aircraft guns, radar stations, and lookout posts to guard against possible attack. After Japan invaded the Aleutian Islands of Attu and Kiska in 1942, Kodiak became a vital base for the Aleutian Campaign. Although Kodiak was never directly attacked, aircraft and personnel based there conducted patrols, escorted ships, trained troops, and supported operations that led to the recapture of Attu and the evacuation of Kiska in 1943. 

Yates served in Kodiak, Alaska, until February 1944, when he returned to San Diego to serve as a guard. In March 1944, he moved to El Toro, California, to guard the Air base located there. Throughout his service, Yates still found time to enjoy the sports he loved, playing baseball, basketball, and football in the Marine leagues. Finally, he ended his service in San Diego in January 1946, was honorably discharged, and returned home to Bluffton, Indiana.

Veteran Experience 
After completing his military service, William Yates returned home to Bluffton, Indiana, where he pursued his higher education dreams. Back home, Yates met and later married Ramona Jean Oliver on May 18, 1946. Yates then used the GI Bill to attend Ball State Teachers College in Muncie, Indiana. 

Yates graduated in August 1949 with a bachelor’s degree in teaching industrial arts and physical education and secured his first job at Springfield Township, where he led the boys’ basketball team to claim the LaPorte County Conference Championship. His early success led to a new opportunity, and he was hired in 1951 as a teacher and a coach at Union Township High School.

He immediately made an impact on Union Township for his competitive spirit, discipline, and sense of fairness. The 1950s were a time of rising racial tensions in the United States, and Union Township had both White and Black students. Yates would not stand for discrimination. When a new teacher insulted Black students, Yates stepped in to help assure the student that he would take care of it. The teacher never returned. He also placed a Black freshman on his varsity team, making him only the fourth Black player to suit up in all of LaPorte County.  Yates did not care about a player's skin color, only the work ethic they demonstrated in practice. 

His first two years were rough, as Union Township lost most of its games, but by 1953, the program started posting winning seasons. By 1956, Yates had led the Union Township team to claim the same trophy he won earlier, the LaPorte County Conference Championship. His success would continue, winning more county championships. Yates's enthusiastic and relentless coaching would also earn him the nickname “Wild Bill.” Yates started an all-Black starting line-up numerous times in the 1958-59 season, and again in the 1959-60 season. At one school, the opposing team refused to play them until the referees insisted. He also refused to follow the rules at segregated restaurants, walking all of his players in despite protests. 

In 1964, Union Township and the other tiny county schools were consolidated into a single school for LaPorte County. Yates gave up coaching and then became the principal of Boston Junior High School in LaPorte, where he retired in 1983. He and his wife eventually moved to Mission, Texas, where they enjoyed time with their kids and grandchildren, as well as the outdoors.

Commemoration 
Bill Yates passed away on September 13, 2006, and was interred in the Marion National Cemetery in Marion, Indiana. Yate’s legacy is defined by measurable contributions to educational leadership and racial integration in Indiana during the early 1960’s. As the basketball coach of the Union Township Tigers, Yates built an inclusive, interracial team during segregation, insisting on equality and respect on and off the court. Coach Yates’s team won multiple county championships and an undefeated regular season. 

His leadership extended into administration as a principal, where his impact on school culture and student development was evident. William Alford Yates Jr.’s impact has been formally recognized through a memorial in Union Township that commemorates both his athletic achievements and his years of institutional leadership.

"Bill Yates took a tiny school from out in the sticks of cornfield country Indiana and just didn't win, but dominated LaPorte county in all sports playing black players.  Sticking his neck out, taking heat from so many directions, Bill Yates did what he believed was right.  There were no small schools where hallways were mixing pots of ethnicities and basketball starting line-ups were composed of five black players.  There were no communities where white and black kids sat at a soda fountain sharing a burger and fries.  Not too many had a twenty-five game home winning streak in basketball or went perfect in conference for multiple years in a row."
Christian Porter, Those Were The Days: The Story Of a Small Town, A Wild Coach, and Indiana Basketball. 


This profile was researched by Luke Bean, Cadence Henderson, Jonathan Pratt, Annalise Swonger, and Clinton Wolfe, mentored by Columbia City High School teacher Mrs. Kristin Rentschler, as part of a Veterans Legacy Grant Program led by National History Day in the 2025/2026 academic year.

This profile was funded by a grant from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. The opinions, findings, and conclusions stated herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.



William Yates passed away on September 13, 2006, and is interred at the Marion National Cemetery, Indiana. On the day the group visited, his children had their mother, Ramona, interred with him, April 10, 2026. Courtesy of Kristin Rentschler.

William Yates's grave at Marion National Cemetery.

William Yates cutting down the net from his team’s 1960 championship game. Courtesy of Terri Denney.

William Yates cutting down a basketball net while his team looks on.

“Wild” Bill Yates was known for both his integrity and his sideline enthusiasm, 1960. Courtesy of Terri Denney.

William Yates being carried by members of his team.

Yates and his Union Township team captured the LaPorte County Championship again in 1960. Courtesy of Terri Denney.

Yates shows off the game ball from his LaPorte County Championship game from his season with Springfield Township High School, 1950. Courtesy of Terri Denney.

William Yates showing off a basketball to an unknown man.

William Yates, wearing his Marine Corps uniform. Courtesy of Terri Denney.

William Yates standing in military uniform.

On Kodiak Island, off of Alaska, Yates trained as a field artillery specialist and a light artillery gunner. Courtesy of Terri Denney.

William Yates and other Marines training in snow.

Yates joined the Marine Guard at the Naval Yard at Puget Sound, a major ship repair station along the west coast. This photograph shows an aerial view of Dry Dock Number Five. National Archives and Records Administration (NAID 299592).

An aerial view of Dry Dock 4 in Seattle, Washington.

Yates played on the Marine football, basketball, and baseball teams during his four years of service. Courtesy of Terri Denney.

William Yates and other members of a Marine Corps baseball team.

William Yates’s enlistment photograph from the U.S. Marine Corps, January 27, 1942. Official Military Personnel File, National Archives and Records Administration - St. Louis.

Yates loved sports and participated in football, basketball, and baseball in high school. Yates is in the second row, fourth from the left (number 14). P.A. Allen High School, 1938.

Yates was a graduate of the 1939 class from P.A. Allen High School in Bluffton, Indiana. P.A. Allen High School.

William Yates as a student, wearing a jacket and tie.

WILLIAM A YATES JR

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