Soft spoken and low key, Ike Kepford lettered in three sports at Muskegon High School between 1935 and 1937. As captain of the football squad, Kepford earned All-State honors in the fall of 1937. Considered one of the finest blocking backs turned out by head football coach C. Leo Redmond, the 6-foot, 173-pound senior led the Big Reds to a 9-0 record and the mythical state title in 1937. Kepford was also a member of Muskegon’s 1936-37 state-championship basketball squad.
Following high school graduation in 1938, Kepford attended Northwestern University and lettered in football for the Wildcats in 1939, 1940 and 1941. The 1940 Northwestern team lost only to No. 1- ranked Minnesota and No. 3-ranked Michigan to finish seventh nationally, according to the Associated Press poll, with a 6-2 mark. Star backfield mates Paul Soper (also from Muskegon High) and Bill DeCorrevant graduated after the ’40 season. In his senior year Kepford led Northwestern to a fourth-place, 4-2 record in the Big Ten and an 11th place finish nationally, according to the AP poll, with a 5-3 record overall in 1941.
Following the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Kepford was inducted into the Navy during the half-time ceremony of a Northwestern game. Enrolled in the school of Dentistry, he left the university late in his senior year to become a Navy aviator. As a Navy fighter pilot, Kepford notched 16 documented kills in combat over the South Pacific. At one point early in the war, he was the U.S. Navy’s leading air ace. Presented with two Navy Crosses, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, the Air Medal and the Silver Star, he was actually considered under-decorated by his commanding officer.