Citizenship Honor

As Brad and Bruce Bartell were heavily involved in sports from a young
age, their parents, Paul and Diane Bartell became used to following the
two of them in their sporting endeavors. Along the way, they quite
naturally met and became friends with other parents of the same spirit.
Part of that support of Wausau East High School sports spilled over into
a solid core of parents who would follow the team on road games, even
though being in the Big Rivers Conference meant road trips to La
Crosse, Eau Claire and the Chippewa Valley.

The fellowship among that group of parents and supporters led to a
meeting in Bartell's backyard in the summer of 1969 or 1970. Brad
and Bruce remember their father sitting in his basement office, working
on different iterations and spellings of the word BackYurJax. Also out
of that initial meeting came the idea of having the boosters rent buses to
follow the team when on away games and the idea of starting a fund for
a BackYurJax scholarship.