Joe Kaster

[TomM]

Joe Kaster passed away of natural causes at 2:00pm Friday, January 19, 2024.

Joe taught/coached in Janesville, officiated and owned/edited/wrote for the Crossface Magazine for many years. He kept us informed regarding all facets of Wisconsin wrestling for a long time.
He was a fixture photographing dozens of events each year including the WIAA tournaments and the Badgers.

Joe was the initial director of the Wisconsin Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and for the first fifteen years, held the chapter together.

Thanks to Joe, Wisconsin was one of the first states to have a Chapter and one the Nation could look to as an example.

Joe paid his dues!

At this time no service details are available.

1995 - George Martin - Wisconsin - Wrestling Hall of Fame
https://www.wiwrestlinghofhonorees.org/alpha/k/kaster-joe/
 
2003 NWHoF - Lifetime Service to Wrestling - Wisconsin
https://nwhof.org/hall_of_fame/bio/1767


Joseph L. Kaster Obituary
Joseph L. Kaster of Janesville passed away peacefully on Friday, January 19 surrounded by family members. Joseph was born in Portage, WI and raised in Cuba City, WI. He was the oldest of four children (Paul, Anthony, and Donna) to Dr. Martin and Elizabeth (Judkins) Kaster. He graduated from Cuba City High School in 1957. He went on to UW-Platteville and earned a B.S. degree in English and Business Administration in 1962. He received a M.S.T. degree in 1979 from UW-Whitewater.

In 1962, Joseph started a long and successful career in education and coaching. He started at Waterford High School. He was hired at Big Foot High School in Walworth in 1966. From 1967-1995, he was an English teacher at Janesville Craig High School. In addition to teaching, Joseph coached football, track and field, softball and wrestling. He earned many expansive accolades for his contributions to the sport of wrestling. These included being inducted into the Wisconsin Wrestling Coaches Hall of Fame in 1995, the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2003, and the Janesville Sports Hall of Fame in 1996. He not only coached but was a referee at the high school and collegiate level. In addition, he was a member of the wrestling media. He was an owner and editor of the Wisconsin wrestling newspaper, The Crossface, and held an esteemed press pass for photography at the Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea.

Joseph married his high school sweetheart, Patricia Muller, from Dickeyville in 1960. They recently celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary. Together, they had 5 children: Greg (Kate), Steve (Claudia), Jeff (Melissa), Lisa (Chris), and Dan (Marcia). They were blessed with 13 grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren with another one on the way. He was loved and adored by all his family members. Joseph was preceded in death by his parents, his sister, Donna Dalsing and brother-in-law, Jim Dalsing, and sister-in-law, Carol Kaster.

Beside spending time with family, Joseph had a passion for his motorcycle, his Catholic church, his dog, reading, the St. Louis Cardinals, the Chicago Bears, and road trips to local establishments with family and friends or solo trips to places like the Bourbon Trail. He had an expansive vocabulary, but "boredom" was not one of those words.

There will be a Celebration of Life in Joseph's honor at a later date. Memorials are encouraged to the Humane Society of Southern Wisconsin, please visit: www.petsgohome.org to donate. 

https://www.schneiderfuneraldirectors.com/obituaries/Joseph-L-Kaster?obId=30463726

[LaValle]

Sad to hear, but Thank you for sharing the news.  I use to race to the Middle School and High School Library to grab the Crossface before others got to it.  There was usually not much left to the paper by the time the next issure rolled around.

The Crossface was the holy grail of Rankings.  Since it was the only rankings, it was uncontested.

[maggie]

Yes Tom a sad day for sure, Coach Kaster was a close friend to all wrestling fan, glad I had the pleasure of enjoying him and his wife's company many time over Lunch in the last 40 years.As Miltons Champion coach Bob Johnson said , Joe put Milton Wrestling on the Map with his Crossface Mag..RIP Coach You will be Missed Dearly