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William H. “Bill” Mehl (March 6, 1917 - October 26, 1938) was an unusually versatile football player at Valparaiso University in Northwest Indiana who attracted much local attention for his performance on the field. His death early in his junior year from an injury sustained during a game overwhelmed the small, close-knit campus. Mehl died of infection that began as a minor injury to his arm. In the era just prior to the availability of modern antibiotics he struggled for a month to survive, through aggressive and debilitating treatments no longer in use.

Background
Mehl was born in Sylvan Grove, Kansas, the son of Rev. Frederick and Mrs. Elizabeth Mehl. His father served as Lutheran minister for this tiny community of German Lutheran immigrants (population ≈ 520 at the time). Mehl attended Sylvan Grove High School, playing only basketball all four years. His parents forbade him to play high school football, fearing an injury. Mehl enrolled at Valparaiso in the fall of 1936 as an engineering student and was selected for the football team in spite of not having previously played the game. His size and strength (6’0”, 200 pounds) were likely to have been factors in making the team.

Noteworthy among his freshman contributions was playing three separate positions, fullback, right guard and point-after-touchdown kicker. He started in all eight games that year. The university newspaper, the Torch, referred to Mehl’s performance as a “sensation.”

The game, Mehl’s Death and aftermath
On September 24, 1938, early in Mehl’s junior year, the game was at home on “Valpo’s” Brown Field against the Manchester College Spartans. Mehl sustained what was described as a “slight contusion” to his wrist or lower arm.

Within two days, he developed a fever of 105 degrees and was admitted to a local 8-bed hospital. When the severity of the infection became apparent, he was transferred to Passavant Hospital in Chicago (now Northwestern University Medical Center) where he was diagnosed with a blood-born streptococcal infection. He was treated with radiation therapy, blood transfusions and was placed in an oxygen tent. But his condition deteriorated progressively and Mehl died on October 26, 1938. This was only a few years prior to the common availability of antibiotics. (Penicillin was discovered in 1928, research into its use progressed slowly, and the first human life saved by the drug did not occur until 1942. )

The next Saturday’s home game against Ball State was cancelled in light of Mehl’s death and it remains the only football game ever to be cancelled at Valpo. A funeral was held in Sylvan Grove on October 30 with over 1,000 people in attendance, doubling the population of the little town. A memorial service was held on the Valpo campus on November 16 with every student invited, filling the Valpo chapel beyond capacity. The following year, in the spring of 1940, a memorial bench for William H. Mehl was constructed and set in place on the Valpo campus by a teammate and fraternity brother; the bench was accidentally removed and lost during the 1980s.

Legacy
In 2007, an effort began to revive Mehl’s memory and history at Valparaiso. In 2009, the University authorized the creation of an exact-as-possible replica of the original memorial bench and it was placed on Brown Field near the southeast corner of the football field. The new memorial bench was dedicated on April 24, 2010 as a permanent memorial to Mehl.