Windy Childs grew up in Danville, Illinois and went to Bradley University. After graduation, he started teaching at Pearce Grade School in the fall of 1953. Coach Childs started off as an assistant coach under Coach Tom Mooney. Coach Childs told me, “I always felt I learned more from Coach Mooney, than I could have from any college coach.”  In 1955, he was drafted and fulfilled his obligation to the United States Army, he came back to Pearce in the fall of 1957. For the next few years, Childs would have his hands full by coaching three sports. In the fall he would coach the boys’ baseball team. By the start of winter, he would focus on boys’ basketball, and by spring, he would be coaching the boys’ track teams. His players always remembered Childs as being one of the most fundamentally sound coaches they have ever played for. Randy Crady, one of Childs’ players in all three sports said, “Coach Childs may very well be the best coach I ever played for.” That is a huge compliment considering Crady went on to play college Basketball and Track at Bradley University.

In 1958, Childs took his first team to the Little Sweet Sixteen. The Lightweight team bowed out without a win. The following season, Childs’ 1959 Heavyweight team returned to the Sweet Sixteen. This time, the outcome was very different. Despite winning their first two games, they didn’t match up well with the eventual state champion out of Mahomet. The team bounced back to win in double overtime to take 3rd Place. The team was led by Dave Level and Bill Davis.

In 1962, Chillicothe got their first State Baseball Title. The state tournament was a one-day tournament, with the semifinals played in the morning. Chillicothe would beat LowPoint Washburn by a score of 4–3. Gary Cotter was the winning pitcher while also adding a home run. In the afternoon, the Mustangs would meet the Tigers from Oblong in the title game. The Mustangs would score early in the contest by getting seven runs in the first three innings. The early runs proved to be all they needed, and the final score was 8–5. Harold Pence was the winning pitcher, but Rich Sefried came in during the fifth inning and shut the opponents down. Gary Cotter was the offensive star for Mustangs going 3 for 4 with a home run. The Mustangs finished with a perfect record of 11 wins to no losses.

In Spring 1963, hoping to get back to their winning ways, Childs took the Mustangs’ Heavyweight qualifiers, which consisted of four individuals, to the State track meet. The four-man team was all that was needed. Harold Pence would take first place in the High Jump, while also placing second and fourth in the 100- and 200-yard dash. The 400-yard shuttle relay made up of Harold Pence, Gary Cotter, John Penstone, and Jim Appel took second place after the favorite to win the race was disqualified after they dropped the baton. Chillicothe would finish with 15 team points to beat the runner-up Urbana by one point and take the state title. This would be Chillicothe’s eighth and most recent state championship in Track & Field. The title years include 1938, 1941, 1943, 1944, 1946, 1947, and 1952.

The start of the 1963 school year was much different for Childs’ baseball team. This time they were reigning state champions, with the hope of repeating. The team did well and returned to the state tournament, winning easily in the semifinals, beating Carmi by a score of 15-2. They were all set to back-to-back champions, but their opponent had a different outcome in mind. The Mustangs had to settle for runners-up to Rantoul Eater in a tough 6–4 loss. The loss would be the team’s first in their last 23 games, dating back to the 1961 season. Mustangs end the season with a 10–1 record.

In 1964, the Chillicothe Mustangs Heavyweight team finished with an unblemished record of 23 wins and 0 losses. Chillicothe outscored their opponents 171 to 119, for an average margin of victory of 13 points. The win gave the Chillicothe Mustangs their first basketball state title in the school’s history. “This team was fueled by the drive to win along with a powerful full-court press defense” added Charlie Koch, one of the starting five for the Mustangs. The team was led by leading scorer Gary Cotter, who scored 12 in the title game and totaled 66 in the four games of the Little Sweet Sixteen. “After we won, I remember the rush of excitement, the sense of accomplishment, and the feeling of exhaustion!” added Jim Castle, starting point guard for the team. The win gave Childs his third State Title in three different sports. No other coach in Chillicothe history has state titles in two sports, much less three.

Childs would leave Chillicothe Grade School the following year to pursue a coaching position in the Richwoods school district. He would end up returning to Chillicothe in 1968, when Illinois Valley Central school district was formed. Childs would coach the varsity boys’ basketball teams for four seasons, while also becoming the first coach of the newly organized Cross Country team. Childs would go on to coach the program for the next 24 seasons.

If life is a book, this was an interesting few chapters. Thank you, Coach Childs, for your many years of dedication to all the student athletes you’ve coached. You were the original Jedi Master, and we now understand that everything IS relative!