BIO

When Wilho Maki stepped onto the playing field it was impossible to not notice his imposing physique and intimidating demeanor, whether it was on the gridiron, the basketball court, the diamond or on the track at Barnstable High School from 1931 to 1935.

Maki was so dominant in track & field in the mid-1930s that it was several decades before his shotput and discus records at BHS were even challenged. He led the Red Raiders to their first-ever South Shore Class A Schoolboy Championship as captain of a 60-man squad in 1935, the first-ever undefeated season in school track & field history (5-0).

He achieved this while simultaneously changing uniforms and run-ning over to the baseball diamond where he lettered three times roaming centerfield and playing first base for coach Vernon B. Bearse. In his senior year, Maki batted .471 (24-51). In his senior year of 1934-35, Maki was one of the rare, few four-sport varsity letterman, as he first led W.P. Bang’s gridiron boys to their third straight Cape Cod Championship title and he garnered a first team All-Cape team selection at end from the New Bedford Standard Times. He then earned his first and only varsity letter in varsity basketball, taking over the center position for Bearse’s 11-2 squad, where he routinely poured in 20 or more points per game.

In the ensuing spring, he lettered in both track & field and baseball. All totalled, in Maki’s senior season, his teams tallied a combined 30-11-2 win-loss mark, three Cape Cod championship titles and the equivalent of, then, the Eastern Massachusetts state title in track & field. It has been over 70 years since the late Maki’s dominance in athletics graced the fields and courts and hallways of BHS, but his accomplishments shall never be forgotten. He now joins his younger brother Tom Maki as a member, in perpetuity, of the BHS Athletic Hall of Fame.

He was inducted into the Barnstable High School Athletic Hall of Fame on November 25, 2007.