Charlie Wedemeyer

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Charlie Wedemeyer is a former high school teacher and football coach, famous for continuing to teach and coach after contracting Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Wedemeyer was the last of nine children born to Bill and Ruth Wedemeyer. He was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. He was an outstanding high school athlete and was quarterback of the Punahou School football team. He was named Hawaii Prep Athlete of the '60s. After his graduation from Punahou in 1965 he attended Michigan State University where he played for famed coach Duffy Daugherty.

Charlie graduated from Michigan State in 1969 and obtained a Master's degree from Central Michigan University. In 1978 while he was the head football coach at Los Gatos High School he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

The disease has taken a terrible toll on his body (he can only move his eyes, eyebrows and lips).

The PBS documentary about the Wedemeyers, One More Season, won an Emmy Award. Michael Nouri portrayed Charlie in the made-for-TV movie Quiet Victory: The Charlie Wedemeyer Story. Wedemeyer and his wife, Lucy, penned his autobiography titled Charlie's Victory with Gregg Lewis.

Charlie is the younger brother of the late Herman Wedemeyer, the actor who played Duke on the CBS television series Hawaii Five-0.