Bill J. Ralston

Service: 11 a.m. Tuesday, January 29, 2012 at Mayfield Kiser Funeral Home Chapel. Memorials: Donations in memory of Bill can be made to the Northside High School Legacy Foundation, 391 Las Colinas Blvd. East, Suite 130, Box 222, Irving, TX 75039-6225. Bill Ralston passed away Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at his home in Crowley, Texas. Now for the rest of the story… Bill was born in Edmonton Alberta Canada on October 17th 1939 and was quickly adopted by his wonderful parents William & Dorothy Ralston who brought him back to Ft. Worth, Texas after a short stint in Chicago, where he grew up in River Oaks. Bill was a standout baseball and basketball star for the North Side Steers where he graduated in the class of 1957. After high school Bill earned a baseball and basketball scholarship to Texas Christian University and played freshman basketball for the Horned Frogs in the fall of 1957. In February of 1958 after the Major League Baseball Winter Meetings had ended Bill was offered the opportunity to sign a major league baseball contract by many teams and it was the Pittsburgh Pirates that eventually won the bidding war for the tall flame throwing left hander from River Oaks, signing him to a three deal in excess of $35,000.00 back when a dollar, a handshake and a man’s word still had some value. Bill proudly purchased a brand new 300hp 1958 Buick Century 2-Door Hardtop with some of his bonus money when it was Buick’s top performance car of the day and he loved that car. He would often boast of making the fastest trip from Ft. Worth to the Pirate’s camp in Florida that anyone had ever recorded. After playing his first season for the Pirates Bill returned to TCU to continue his education and it was there where he had the good fortune to meet his soon to be Child Bride Madalyn Marie Maddox, who was the 1957 Paschal High School Homecoming Queen. After his second season with the Pirates Bill and Madalyn were married in Fort Worth the day after Christmas in 1959. They honeymooned in Acapulco, Mexico at the Las Brisas Resort and then traveled to Florida where Bill was invited to the Pirate’s Big League Spring Training Camp where he played with a couple of future Hall of Famers named Roberto Clemente and a rookie Willie “Pops” Stargell. Baseball aficionados will remember Bill Mazeroski’s 9th inning walk off home run in that year’s (1960) World Series against the New York Yankees as “The Shot Heard Round the World.” Years later, Mickey Mantle was quoted as saying that losing the 1960 series was the biggest disappointment of his career, the only loss, amateur or professional, he cried actual tears over. After Bill’s professional baseball career was over he returned to TCU and earned a psychology degree in 1963 the same year that Bill and Madalyn celebrated the birth of their oldest son Steve. A few short years later in 1967 Bill’s second son Lance was born. Bill quickly taught his two boys how to play both baseball and basketball and he spent many long hours coaching, teaching and leading many of their teams to numerous state and national championships. Most notably was his coaching of the 1975 Pee Wee Reese World Series Champs and the 1979 Texas American Legion State Champs where he and lifelong friend Tommy Cantrell worked together with the Arlington Sam Houston Texans. In fact, one of Bill’s many talents and passions was teaching, coaching and mentoring whether it was in the sports or business arena. Bill was always willing to work with anyone who shared his love of the game and he possessed the uncanny ability to recognize the one thing that was missing from someone’s repertoire that would, as if by magic, make all the difference in that person’s performance, whether it was how to throw a mean slider with a runner on third and two outs or how to shoot a game winning jumper coming off a baseline pick…he always knew just what and how to teach it and he would practice it with you until you got it right or the cows came home, whichever came first. Bill was a gamer, a winner if you will and a fierce competitor who always came ready to play and if you were going to play for a team that he coached you had better show up with your game face on. He believed that no one ever remembers who comes in second and it is much more fun to win, no matter the endeavor, than to lose. He took that same philosophy to the business world where he spent many years as a successful pharmaceutical sales representative and an animal health executive where he won many awards for his sales and marketing expertise. He was particularly proud of the Hoechst Roussel Agri-Vet website that he developed that won the 1999 National Agri-Marketing Association website competition “Best of NAMA Awards” that honored superior work in agricultural communications. The site was judged best in the nation in the “Internet Web site directed to farmers, ranchers or growers” category. Shortly thereafter, Bill decided to take early retirement in 2000 and moved back to the Dallas-Ft. Worth area from New Jersey where had been promoted to corporate headquarters a few years earlier and he and Madalyn settled in Crowley, Texas so that they could be near their beautiful grand-daughter Reagan Estelle Ralston and their many life-long friends and family members. He especially loved his new role as “Grampy” and cherished every moment he could spend with Reagan. Bill continued his life of helping and serving others even in “retirement” by teaching computer education classes for Burleson ISD’s Community Education where he was awarded their Outstanding Instructor for the 2005-2006 campaign. In addition, he was most proud of being one of the founding members of the North Side High School Legacy Foundation and he would be grateful for any donations