Editor’s Note: This is the second article in a series of three chronicling the activities, memories and Hilton Coliseum rantings of ISU alumnus, former employee and women’s basketball fan William “Wild Bill” Yungclas.

Cyclone fans and players love him. Opposing teams and referees don’t.

Like it or not, William “Wild Bill” Yungclas is at every ISU women’s basketball home game, and he lets you know it.

Yungclas said he tries to point out things to referees, but his main job is to make noise and lots of it.

“I do yell the kinds of things you try to call attention to the referees about. Three seconds in lane [and fouls],” Yungclas said. “Mostly it’s just making a lot of noise. When we’re on offense, with the help of the cheerleaders, I try to get the crowd into [the game]. On defense, it’s just a matter of trying to make as much noise as you can and take the other team out of the game.”

“You Betcha!”

Junior forward Mary Fox said Yungclas can be heard on the court as well as in the stands.

“Oh yeah, I definitely can hear him,” Fox said. “[He’s] either yelling at the refs or the opposing team.”

ISU senior Erica Junod said she pretends she can’t hear Yungclas but added it’s hard to do while playing her position.

“Since I run on the right side of court I hear him all the time, and I try to stay focused, so you don’t really recognize it when you’re playing,” Junod said. “But after the game you think about it and what he’s said and you just kind of laugh a bit.”

Fennelly said it’s Yungclas’ timing and humor that have made “Wild Bill” identifiable to Cyclone fans and around the Big 12, too.

“He’s like a good comedian — his timing is impeccable, and it just seems like his voice is one that pierces the crowd,” Fennelly said. “Every official now, every other coach has always commented about Wild Bill.”

“She even traveled on her free throw!”

Freshman Megan Ronhovde said Yungclas’ noise flusters visiting teams.

“I think especially when there’s a dead ball situation or when the opposing team is shooting a free throw, [he] gets his little section going,” she said. “I think it could rattle some of the opposing teams and coaches.”

Yungclas said he attends only home and postseason tournament games.

“My feeling is that if I show up in another team’s arena, I’m probably just going to get them riled up,” Yungclas said.

Besides three trips to Nebraska for women’s basketball, Yungclas said he’s been to more away football games than basketball games.

Work kept Yungclas from attending the first Cyclone NCAA Tournament berth in 1997, but since then he has been at all of Iowa State’s postseason appearances.

“About the second year [of coming to ISU games, my daughter,] Missy and I went out to the Big Eight Tournament,” Yungclas said. “We thought that’d be a neat father-daughter bonding thing, so we went to the [tournament in Kansas] and since that time, either Missy and I or my wife and me have been to all the Big Eight/Big 12 tournaments.”

For the last three years, the Yungclas family has taken its vacation to the NCAA Women’s Basketball Final Four, “just for the fun of it.”

Not even illness can keep him down

A couple years ago, the Yungclas family was hit with terrible news — Bill was diagnosed with prostate cancer, an illness the family knew too much about already.

“Two of my brothers had [prostate cancer], and one died from it,” Yungclas said.

But even cancer couldn’t keep Yungclas from the court for long.

“I missed two games because of [the cancer],” Yungclas said. “One of them was the Iowa game, which was pretty hard, but [the cancer is] all gone now, so I was real lucky. Got it early, got it out.”

For Yungclas, women’s games were a release from the cancer. He said it’s always been that way — even when he was working, basketball would ease the stress.

“I can’t imagine not going to women’s basketball games,” Yungclas said. “I couldn’t even think of what it would be like.”

First impressions

Even before stepping on the court, some players had heard about “Wild Bill” and his antics.

Junod grew up in Ankeny and remembers seeing Yungclas at Cyclone games before she became an ISU player.

“I used to come to a couple games before I even got there and I thought, ‘Who is this crazy guy?'” Junod said. “I thought maybe it was one or two games, or a big game that he was here doing that, but he’s here no matter who we play, he’s in the outfit no matter what. He does the fouls; he does everything he’s on the refs the whole time; he’s amazing. He brings a lot of energy to the crowd, and I think we feed off that, too.”

Other players got a taste of Wild Bill during college visits.

“When I came on campus I heard about him,” Fox said. “I think every school should have a ‘Wild Bill’— he’s a great supporter and obviously a huge fan.”

Ronhovde said she remembers how amusing Yungclas was when she initially saw him.

“The first time I actually saw him was when I took an official [visit] here, and I thought he was hilarious,” Ronhovde said. “It’s funny how he gets the crowd going.”

Who’s louder — Bill, or Bill?

Yungclas said that he out yells Fennelly by a comfortable margin.

“He is much more focused and obviously more intelligent, [but] I know I yell more than Bill, because I have to yell all the time and he has to keep his focused,” Yungclas said.

Fennelly agreed with Yungclas and added that he is sort of like a partner in crime.

“Oh, he [yells more] by far,” Fennelly said. “There’s no question he yells more than I do … He can pick his spots, and mainly he’s yelling at the officials. He gets to say and do things I like to do.

“He’s kind of like my partner when it comes to those kinds of things. He can make a comment and people laugh. If I made a comment like that to an official, I’d probably get thrown out of the game or at least a technical [foul], so it’s good he can do that.”

ISU women’s basketball players said it was difficult to decide which Bill was more vocal.

“I think that Wild Bill probably is the louder of the two, but it’s hard to say who yells more,” Fox said.