Sunday 27th July 2025

A former high-school and college basketball coach who penned a book featuring a Marshall native will be in Marshall on Thursday, June 14.
A news release says when Gene Steinmeyer was a junior-high student at a small school in Nebraska in the 1960s, he saw a picture of a black coach being thrown in the shower after a basketball championship. That coach happened to be Wilson Fitzpatrick, a Marshall native and the head coach at Lewiston School in southeast Nebraska.

The book– “I’m Not Irish– The Incredible Journey of Wilson Fitzpatrick” chronicles how times were back through Fitzpatrick’s days in Marshall and follows him throughout his coaching days and to today.
Steinmeyer said a number of people in Marshall or with Marshall ties provided him with information during his research, including former Negro and Major League Baseball player Bo Mason, who now lives in North Carolina.
Steinmeyer says he’s not doing a book tour, and he doesn’t have a set schedule. But he said he plans on being at the Marshall Public Library at about 11 a.m. to thank some of the people who helped him with his research.