Craig Rupp

 

Craig Rupp

I first meet little wild-haired Craig Rupp when he's ten-years-old and attempting to steal money from a charity.

It's during half-time of the boys' basketball game. Some good folks have grabbed a blanket by its four corners and parade it around our GICC cracker box of a gym. Faithful fans are encouraged to toss coins and wadded up bills into the middle of it for Muscular Dystrophy - surely a noble cause if there ever was one. 

A brand new first year teacher, I'm squeezed next to the good Central Catholic Sisters in the hot and crowded bleachers when a sturdy little boy with hair like a lion's mane rushes out to the gym floor. In a mad frenzy, he scoops up all the loose change that misses the blanket and stuffs it frantically into his pockets. When he discovers a silver dollar coin, he actually crows in delight and holds it above his head like a trophy.

The nuns are apoplectic.

"Someone must stop that boy!" It's Sister Mary Leo. Sitting beside me, she clutches my wrist in an iron grip and makes it clear that the someone who must stop the boy is me. In fact, she practically pushes me out to the floor. Feeling like a ten-year-old myself, I chase down "the boy". 

"Put it back," I order him. 

He gapes in disbelief. "What? No way! I found it!"

Staring daggers, I grab his ear lobe. "Put. It. Back."

At last, he grumbles and empties his pockets. When the blanket makes a second round, he obediently throws the money in then dejectedly returns to the bleachers. 

A moment later as the second half begins, I glance over to see him grinning as he shows admiring friends his prize. It's the silver dollar coin.

Senior pic, 1986

Shaking my head in amazement, I fervently pray. "Please God, don't ever let me have to teach that little monster."

Except that I do. He's the orneriest boy I've ever known in my life, and 46 years later, he's the orneriest adult I've ever known. Craig Rupp has never changed. 

At Central Catholic, Craig Rupp was in trouble almost every day. As a seventh grader, he was so mouthy that Steve Nelson - a senior in Craig's brother's class - shoved him into a trash can. In the cafeteria one day, Craig smashed a full milk carton with his foot just to see what would happen. What happened is that Mr. Schumann grabbed him around the neck and hoisted him away. That very afternoon after school, Shu made Craig crush every pop can in the school for the recyling bin.

"There were thousands of them," Craig shakes his head now. It seemed, however, to fulfill his craving for smashing containers for at least a little while. 

Another time, librarian Julie Skow - now Counselor Dr. Julie Hehnke - caught Craig and good pal Tony Wray crawling above the ceiling and speaking to various classrooms with disembodied voices. He and Tony also managed to sneak into the tunnels in the bowels of GICC. When his friend Jamie Jarecke graduated, Craig thought it would be funny if he and classmates Tony Jarecke and Pat Carey changed the school marquee from "Congrats, GICC Grads!" to "Congrats, Jamie Jarecke!" The police, unfortunately, caught them on the roof and hauled them into the squad car for questioning. They swore they were only GICC students having a little fun which could only be confirmed when the police contacted Principal Hugh Brandon.

Rupp family, from left: brother Bobby, Craig,
dad Bob, brother Roger, sister Anne

It was late at night, and Hugh was in the middle of a sound sleep. "Yes," he groaned. "Those would be our students."

Craig yelled into the policeman's phone. "By the way, Mr. Brandon, you should tell Coach Hellwege he forgot to turn off his lights!" 

His worst infraction occurred at Worlds of Fun where Craig and his musical classmates were invited to sing at a special concert. Afterwards, Craig decided to leave the hotel and take a little jaunt around town.

"Hey, Rupp!" his buddy Mike Hemmett screamed from the hotel window. "Where ya' goin'?"

In response, Craig dropped his pants and presented Mike with a great big full moon. Later he learned that not only Mike Hemmett but half the hotel was privy to his performance. Word got back to the school chaperones in short order, and Craig was suspended from all activities when he returned to school.

Craig's beloved mother Mary
Ellen Rupp who died in 2011

"It was bad enough that I couldn't golf. It was my favorite sport. But the worst thing was that I couldn't go to the Fine Arts and Athletic banquets," he recalls. Pam Krall had planned to award Craig for his performance in the school musical GREASE for his lead performance as Danny Rizzo. Mrs. Krall was as disappointed as Craig. Every year, she created little wooden letters spelling out the title of the musical and awarded each letter to an outstanding performer. She had planned to give Craig the letter "E". 

At the banquet, she announced that the letter "E" was awarded to "everyone" but then secretly gave it to Craig's mother who was baffled by Craig's absence at the banquet. Craig had never told her he'd been suspended. 

Like Pam Krall, all of us loved Rupper, as he came to be called. In spite of his wickedness, he breathed life into the role of Danny Rizzo in the musical, and he played basketball as if his very life depended on it. Unlike his older siblings Bobby, Roger and Annie - all of whom were athletic football, volleyball and basketball players - Craig excelled only at golf. However, he loved basketball. He and Tony Curtis didn't start but were the first two off the bench, and Craig lived for his brief time on the floor.

"That's how it was," he says. "If I could contribute two minutes or ten minutes, I loved it and gave it everything."

As soon as Coach Fred Northup subbed Craig in, his classmates and GICC fans erupted. Rupper might not have been the most talented player on the floor, but he was certainly the most loved. 

Still, his teammates loved to torture him. One afternoon before practice, his friends Tony Wray and Mike Luna secretly filled his jock with Icy Hot.

"I couldn't figure out what was going on with me," Craig laughs now. "I'd never run so fast in practice. I beat everybody on the lines."

Craig and wife Karen

Golf, however, was a different matter. Craig excelled at the sport and earned a scholarship to play at Hastings Community College. During his first year, his high school classmate and best friend Tony Wray was killed in a car accident. Craig was devastated.

"I devoted every one of my meets to Tony and always wore a black band to remember him," he says.

Rupper, being Rupper, still had fun in college. Golfing was important. Having fun was just as important. 

After graduation and along the way, he got married. He and his second wife Karen share four children - Devon, Sterling, Bailey and McKayla - and five grandchildren. Craig eventually went to work for Tino Martinez, GICC's head boys' basketball coach, for 11 years at Pro Team Design. Two years ago Craig bought the business from Tino and loves his work. Still, he gravitated back to his old haunt, Grand Island Central Catholic, and earned the spot as head boys' golf coach 12 years ago. During that period, he and his teams have garnered four state titles and one runner-up. Every single year, Craig has coached an individual state champ or a team state championship.

Rupp's 2016 state championship golf team, from
left: Coach Craig Rupp, Tucker Kryzki, Collin
Toner, Eshan Sood, Gavin Fox and Jack Goering

He remembers the first time his team won the championship in 2015. His golfers included Gavin Fox, Tucker Krzycki, Eshan Sood, Collin Toner and Casey Brown.

"Everybody had written us off," Craig recalls. "I still get emotional when I think about it. After we won, we went to Lazlo's and put that trophy right on the middle of our table."

Craig volunteers to get his hair cut
to raise money for the school's
FLBA organization

The next year, he added Jack Goering to the roster and won another back to back state championship.

"That 2016 team will always be a special," Craig says. "We were one of the top three teams in the state in all classes. Those boys were so good."

In 2019 the Rupper was selected as the Grand Island Independent's boys' coach of the year. He doesn't make too big a deal of the honor, though.

"I have been blessed, really," he says with characteristic Rupp modesty. "The boys have given 90%, and I give 10. Their families have been so great and supportive, too."

After coaching the last of three Fox brothers - Gavin, Eli and Bowdie - Craig asked their mother Laura if she could produce a few more boys for his golf team.

"She didn't think that would happen," Craig laughs.

Rupper's coaching technique comes from his dad and grandpa. 

"At every hole, I try to advise the kids about how they could play it. That's from my dad and grandpa. They taught me how to be instructive."

Craig and grands at GICC

His relationship with his kids, though, is purely Craig. He's been advised, he says, never to be a kid's friend. Still, he confesses, he can't help it. His players have always been good friends, and that's how he treats 12 years of golfers to this day.

"All those players - 12 years of them - and I are on a group text," he says. "We text all the time. We're definitely a community."

In the meantime, he still makes his presence known at GICC in a big way. Last year he readily accepted the invitation to volunteer his services to raise money for the school's FLBA organization by having his head shaved at school. The kids loved it. Most of all, they love Craig Rupp, and he loves them. 

More than 46 years ago, when that crazy-haired demon stuffed money into his pockets, I hoped to God I'd never see the little thief again. 

But Craig Rupp is still here. Moreover, he hasn't changed one bit. Not one single bit. I'm so glad. That wild haired little boy has become one of my favorite people in the whole world.

But then, the Rupper is everybody's favorite.