Santa Clara students thank retired teacher for 50 years of frog jumps

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (KGO) -- Students and staff at a South Bay elementary school came together to say thank you to a man who's given more than 50 years of his life to making education fun with the use of frogs.

It was a soggy yet foggy Friday for students and staff at Sutter Elementary in Santa Clara.

"You ask a kid who used to go to this school what their favorite activity was for this school and they'll tell you it was the frog jump," said retired Sutter teacher Bill Guzules, aka the Godfrogger.

An annual tradition, the Sutter Frog Jump has brought thousands of people together.

"Talk about hands on, you're actually handling live bullfrogs and that is such an experience that is so unique in our school," Sutter parent Yvonne Hirsch said.

It's the culmination of a week-long school-wide lesson on science and ecology. Guzules helped start the program in 1965 and has been running it ever since.

"It takes three jumps - one, two three - wherever he lands, that's where they put the stick. They measure back from the place where he started, straight back into a line," Guzules explained.

"His ability to jump frogs is amazing, too. He's like the frog whisperer for some people," the Godfrogger's granddaughter, Ellie Guzules, said.

Guzules and his frog team camped out for three days near Los Banos earlier this month to collect more than 150 frogs to be used in the competition, just as he has done for nearly 50 years.

Students say the event is the highlight of their Sutter experience. "Some of the frogs just refuse to move, no matter what you do to them. I mean, you just poke them," Sutter fifth-grader Eloise Phares said.

"It's like really exciting, like when the frog goes far or if it goes little, cause you don't know what's going to happen," fifth-grader Ajay Griffin said.

Guzules says this will be his last year of going out and collecting the frogs but he hopes other parents will step up to continue the tradition.