Throughout the process of researching about Bill Zorn I learned about what he did for this campus and how he effected the community.  Starting this project I knew that Bill Zorn was a basketball at Eau Claire but other than that I didn’t know much more.  My question was what did Bill Zorn do at Eau Claire and what did he accomplish. I wanted to know how successful of a coach he was and as I researched he was also the athletic director and the dean of men. Then I wondered how did he affect the university and what impact that had on the community.

As I did my research I found he was very involved with Eau Claire and that he was held high in the Eau Claire community.  One thing that I want to learn more about is the specifics of his accomplishments that he did because so far in my research I haven’t found a lot specifics but I wish to learn more of this highly respected person in the community of Eau Claire.

In the future I wish to research more of the Bill Zorn papers at the libraries archives because it is a large collection and I have not had enough time to go through all of it thoroughly.  So far my questions are being answered but they could be answered more deeply and have more detail.

My next source is a group of articles and pamphlets that were for the celebration of Bill Zorn towards the end of his coaching career and after he retired from athletic director.   I selected these because it has quotes from people who work with Bill Zorn and were important to the Eau Claire community at the time.  I feel like it will give me a good aspect of what people thought of Bill at that time.

This primary source will give me evidence of what kind of man Bill Zorn was because it had all of his achievements listed and peoples personal comments about him.  These articles will be biased because they will be promoting Bill but it will also show what good things he has done.  These will help my rhetorical context by helping build my invented ethos. 

From these articles I learned that Bill Zorn was a successful coach and helped build Eau Claire’s athletic programs as the athletic director.  One thing missing is heavy context of how he achieved all of these great achievements.  I want to know how he did all the great things he accomplished.  Putting this source with the other sources I have written about I feel that the picture of Bill Zorn that I am imagine is starting to become complete.

My next source is an honor student’s paper from Eau Claire about Bill Zorn and what he has done on and for this campus.  “’Mr. Enthusiasm’: Bill Zorn, Athletic Director, Dean or Men, Coach, Instructor University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire 1928-1968” by Zachary J. Ryan.  This source goes through the life of Bill Zorn but really focuses on his time at Eau Claire and what he did for the university.

This source will have a good rhetorical context because it comes from a secondary source that is also a student at Eau Claire and could help me establish certain ideas.  I also am using it because they listed their sources so I have access to more sources that are both primary and secondary.  The author set up this paper by describe some of the great coaches in college and compared Bill Zorn and all his achievements to them.  This showed credibility of this paper and how Bill Zorn really made an impact on Eau Claire athletics.

This source tell the story of how Bill Zorn became a coach, the dean of men, athletic director at Eau Claire.  It shows how he worked his way up and how he gained respect from many people.  It looks at the different part of how he was involved on this campus, which was the sports side and the dean of men position that he held.   I believe this source will be a good source use because it is coming from a similar view as a student and I can use this to find other sources that will also be of use.  I also believe that because this is a secondary source and has biased views that it could contradict my views.

The reason I am doing my paper on Bill Zorn is because when we went to the library to do some research I found documents about Bill Zorn.  When I looked at these documents more I became more and more interested.  The portion I looked was at his personal career and some of the awards he had received and the accomplishments he had achieved. 

Articles that were in this collection were letters from the university, newspaper articles, and invitations to award ceremonies that Zorn was involved in.  These articles show evidence of what he did and helps build my ethos as a rhetor.  Through these articles it shows how Bill Zorn was involved in the campus and how he helped the sports programs.  These also showed that Bill was a respected person in the community and he used that respect to help the community. 

These papers helped showed me that Bill Zorn was truly a good person and that he wanted to help both students and athletes here at the university.  They showed he was a professional and had a lot a power here on the Eau Claire.  Even though he was treated with high honor, he was just a normal person because there was one section of letters that he had received of his friends joking with him and making him seem like a normal average person. All of this helps my question of finding out who Bill Zorn really is.

            When I was originally looking for a topic I was hoping I could find something about local sports.  At first I could find anything about sports that intrigued me.  Then I stumbled upon papers about Bill Zorn, who was the basketball coach for Eau Claire for forty plus years.  As I read more about him I wanted to learn more because he was not just the basketball coach but he was also the athletic director and the dean of men.  My research question is, who really is Bill Zorn?

            This question is important because Bill Zorn had such an impact on the UW Eau Claire campus that the basketball arena is named after him.  People know him for being the basketball coach but he did so much more campus than just be a coach.  Students and citizens of Eau Claire should know how Zorn helped out this campus and community.  People might not know why Zorn Arena is called that or what Bill Zorn did to get it named after him. 

            The reason I myself am interested in looking into Bill Zorn’s life is because I am from the Madison area and I do not know a lot about Eau Claire but would like to learn more.  I also love sports and any time I can relate history and sports I take the opportunity.