William "Bill" E. Castrow

Seattle Ramblers

 End

1953 - 1963

Bill Castrow began his athletic career at West Seattle High School where he bloomed into a giant 6'7" 230-pound athletic end, garnering All-City honors in 1948 and a member of the Tri-City eleven all-stars taking on the Washington All-State team in 1950.  An injury forced him out of the 1949 campaign costing him a 2nd consecutive spot on the all-city team.  Accumulating nine letters and three inspirational awards during his high school career, Castrow was nominated as one of West Seattle's best athletes of all time in November of 1950.

University of Washington football coach Howard Odell encouraged Bill to attend junior college to get his academics up so he could play for the Huskies, but following the 1952 season the Board of Regents fired Odell after going 7-3 and a 3rd place finish in the Pacific Coast Conference.  New coach John Cherberg was not interested in Castrow so he volunteered with the US Coast Guard.  Following his discharge, the Huskies loss was the Seattle Ramblers gain as Castrow went on to anchor the best minor league team in the Northwest, while Cherberg was fired after 3 seasons in what was considered the 2nd worst in Seattle history including a payoff scandal that led to NCAA sanctions against UW.

Bill Castrow was already making his mark by the 1954 season as sports writer Martin Chess described the "gigantic end" scoring the final touchdown as the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds were dominated 20-0 by the Ramblers.  From Canada to California, Bill Castrow was known around the football circuit and caught the eyes of the Los Angeles Rams and Green Bay Packers who offered training camp tryouts.  However, his mother fell severely ill, and with a new wife, he decided staying home in Seattle was his best choice.  54-years of marriage and a lifetime of community involvement and goodwill proved it was the correct decision.

For the next decade, Castrow would quietly lead the Ramblers as one of the best ends around and in 1959 was awarded the team's coveted Inspirational Award.  The Ramblers would go 43-7 from 1957 to 1961.  The expansion of minor league football in 1962 with the Tacoma Tyees and Edmonds Warriors started to chip away at the Ramblers dominance, but Castrow stayed loyal to the very end including becoming the coach from 1960-1963, remaining with the Ramblers until the untimely passing of Don Sprinkle, the originator and coach of the legendary team.

Following the end of the Ramblers franchise, Bill expanded his businesses in the food service distribution and brokerage industry specializing in frozen seafood, retiring in 1997 after forty years.  During that time he returned to his Coast Guard roots and in 1970 joined the Queen City Yacht Club where the family spent nearly every weekend cruising to Winslow to assist with marina construction or venturing out to Roche Harbor.  Even with all of his activities, he never missed any of his kids' or grandkids' sporting events, and rarely missed a football practice.

Honored as a life member of the Queen City Yacht Club, original Seafair Pirate, and West Seattle High 50-year Monogram Club, Castrow was honored by his Rambler teammates as one of the initial inductees into the Pacific Northwest Football Hall of Fame in the early 1990's.

Bill passed away in 2008 after a long illness at the age of 76.