For a man whose Marine Corps service includes deployment during the Cuban Missile Crisis, whose business life saw him travel the country and build a small company into a nationwide leader, and whose athletic career included coaching the first UW-Green Bay soccer team (at the behest of Vince Lombardi, no less), you might expect Lou LeCalsey to be imposing, severe, larger than life.
Yet, if you meet him, you’ll instead encounter a man who loves to tell a story, to connect with people. A man of 85 years whose smile, ever so slightly upturned at one end, suggests a youthful roguishness. A man who has always led people with principle and compassion, who cares deeply about this university whose history he helped write.
South Philadelphia, Born and Raised
LeCalsey was born in Southwest Philadelphia, in the same neighborhood where Rocky would later be filmed. Then, it was a working-class community of immigrants, a place of grit and hard work that shaped his ethic and sense of empathy. Back then, sports were life for the kids who played in the streets. LeCalsey’s neighbor, a Ukrainian former soccer star and coach, became his mentor.
“He took me under his wing, taught me how to play goal,” he recalled. Through him, LeCalsey developed goalkeeper skills and ultimately got the chance to play for Franklin & Marshall College, then a perennially nationally ranked program and recent NCAA national college soccer champion. LeCalsey still holds most of the goalkeeping records at Franklin and Marshall and is a member of their Athletics Hall of Fame.
While LeCalsey excelled in college soccer, national tides soon changed his life course. It was 1962. LeCalsey was 22, the War in Vietnam was growing in intensity, and he knew his draft number was soon coming up. His father had served in World War II on a Navy carrier in the South Pacific, and four uncles served in WWII in the Army. His favorite uncle challenged LeCalsey, “If you think you’re really tough, enlist in the Marine Corps.” So, he did.
Le Calsey’s Marine service took him on what he called an Odyssey. He led a reconnaissance mission from a submarine miles off the coast of Cuba, swimming to shore and back with only rudimentary communication technology. He was sent off to Argentina with a group that aided in the capture of Che Guevera. He grew close with his squad of four, who he stays in contact with to this day. “The most important thing I’ve done was leading a team of Marines,” he reflected. “Because there was so much in the balance.”
Building Something from Nothing
After his military service, LeCalsey’s career began at Scott Paper, where he learned every aspect of the supply chain, moving 17 times for his assignments all over the United States. One assignment in 1967 took him to Marinette, Wisconsin, where he volunteered to start a soccer program and take on the role as the first soccer coach for UW-Marinette. In 1968, LeCalsey led that team to the 1968 National Junior-College Soccer Championship in New York, earning regional television coverage in a documentary titled “ The Littlest Giant,“ which raised Northeast Wisconsin’s awareness and interest in soccer.
That same year, UW-Green Bay’s Chancellor, Ed Weidner, and de facto athletic director, Vince Lombardi, decided to introduce soccer as the flagship sport for the young university. But they needed a coach. Weidner had heard of LeCalsey’s success with the Marinette team and had seen the documentary, so he gave him a call. LeCalsey met with Weidner and then with Lombardi. He recalls Weidner telling him, “If you get past the next hour with Vince and he comes out and says he wants to hire you, you’re hired.”
LeCalsey said the interview was less imposing than he feared, more a casual conversation that ended with Lombardi’s pitch: “This is probably your only chance in your life to start something from nothing, and leave something good behind.”
LeCalsey was in. He took the Head Coach job and began recruiting. He first took on an Assistant Coach, an immigrant soccer star who had played for the Libyan National team and made his way to Green Bay by way of Milwaukee, Aldo Santaga. LeCalsey gave Santaga the same pitch Lombardi had given him: “We have a chance to make something from nothing, start a program from the bottom and do it right.”
LeCalsey’s vision was clear: build a team that could compete nationally. He recruited players from the East Coast, where he had connections, and Santaga recruited talent from Milwaukee and beyond. The team represented a mix of backgrounds—players from eight nations and eight states. “We didn’t know each other, and there was no chemistry,” LeCalsey admitted. “The only way to fix that was to put them through ‘the crucible’—mental and physical conditioning at extremes they’re not used to, that most people never see. Aldo and I did that with those kids, and they came out not only tough as nails, but as brothers.”
In their second year, the team tied the national champion team from Michigan State, earned UW-Green Bay’s first national tournament bid in any sport, and posted 22 wins, 4 ties and just 4 losses in their first two seasons. LeCalsey and Santaga had, together, built something from nothing.
Santaga eventually took on the Head Coach role himself in 1978. He oversaw the soccer team’s transition from Division II to Division I as well as their first NCAA DI tournament bid. Santaga became and remains the winningest coach in Phoenix soccer history. LeCalsey and Santaga sustained a close friendship until Santaga’s passing in 2022, 55 years after they met.
A Legacy of Leadership
When his coaching contract was up, LeCalsey faced a crossroads. While he loved coaching, he missed the unique daily competition and challenges of the business world. In December, 1970, he decided to return to his career. “It was the toughest decision of my life,” he said.
LeCalsey’s 30-year business leadership career with Scott Paper took him across the country. Eventually, after the merger of Scott Paper and Kimberly Clark, his career returned LeCalsey to Green Bay, where he became CEO of a struggling wipes company, Tufco Technologies. Under his leadership, that company grew from $12 million in sales to the largest private wipes manufacturer in North America, with over $130 million in sales revenue and 600 employees in 5 plant locations east of the Rockies.
His success in business gave LeCalsey an opportunity to give back. For him, leadership was never about titles, but people. “I’ve always had a real soft spot for the people who are working their way up,” he said.
So, he looked for ways to help people and reconnected with UW-Green Bay. He became the founding president of the Council of Trustees and UW-Green Bay Foundation, where he bridged gaps between the University and the community and got the chance to mentor young aspiring professionals. To make a greater impact, he and his wife, Sue, endowed three student scholarships for UW-Green Bay Nursing and Business students. And, as a legacy donor, LeCalsey’s support promises to continue long after he’s gone.
“When people think about me,” LeCalsey said, “I want them to associate my name with things that are important. That’s legacy.” As with the Phoenix Soccer team, his business career, his Marine Corps service, his family and the adventures of his life, LeCalsey built this legacy himself.
