The Coach Jim Haluska Wall of Champions honors the outstanding athletic teams of our school’s history. Coach Jim Haluska taught and coached at Don Bosco and Thomas More. Haluska was a standout athlete, most notably at quarterback, for Racine St. Catherine’s. He went on to lead the Wisconsin Badgers to their first Rose Bowl appearance in 1952 and is inducted into the UW Hall of Fame.
He was drafted and played for the Chicago Bears in the NFL, appearing in five games in 1956. Haluska turned down an offer to play for the Los Angeles Chargers of the upstart AFL to embark on a coaching and teaching career that spanned over three decades.
Coach Haluska’s teams won three WISAA State Championships, five Metro Conference Championships and seven Catholic Conference Championships during his tenure at Don Bosco and Thomas More combined, amassing a 206-60-4 record in that time.
The Wisconsin Football Coaches Association added Haluska to their Hall of Fame in 2001. In 2011, STM added him to the hall that will now bear his name.
Coach Haluska’s coaching techniques and sarcastic one-liners are legendary, and there is no question that his influence on Don Bosco and Thomas More athletics was profound.