Paperback(1st Edition)
-
SHIP THIS ITEMTemporarily Out of Stock Online
-
PICK UP IN STORECheck Availability at Nearby Stores
Available within 2 business hours
Related collections and offers
Overview
The ultimate book for high school football fans in Illinois, Dusty, Deek, and Mr. Do-Right is infused with Bell's own love for the game and illustrated with sixty photographs of the players and coaches who made lifetime memories under the Friday night lights.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780252077319 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | University of Illinois Press |
| Publication date: | 07/16/2010 |
| Edition description: | 1st Edition |
| Pages: | 280 |
| Product dimensions: | 7.00(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.80(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
"Dusty, Deek, and Mr. Do-Right"
High School Football in IllinoisBy Taylor H. A. Bell
University of Illinois Press
Copyright © 2010 Board of Trustees of the University of IllinoisAll right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-252-07731-9
Chapter One
The Players
Johnny Lattner: Heisman Trophy Winner
Johnny Lattner, who once had his picture on the cover of Time magazine after winning the Heisman Trophy for his football exploits at Notre Dame, admits he experienced "one of the biggest thrills of my life" while playing basketball.
As a senior at Fenwick High School in Oak Park, he was an All-State tailback and captained the football team to the Prep Bowl for the second year in a row. But he also was the captain and leading scorer on a Friar basketball team that beat Tilden at Chicago Stadium for the All-City championship.
"I enjoyed basketball as much as football," Lattner recalled. "After my sophomore season in football at Notre Dame, I tried out for the basketball team. I didn't make the traveling squad but when two players were declared ineligible, I was put on the team.
"We're playing Navy and NYU in Madison Square Garden in New York and I'm sitting on the end of the bench watching the girls and not paying attention. We're losing by one point and Leroy Leslie, the team captain, fouled out and assistant coach Johnny Dee called me to go in.
"I get the ball with 17 seconds to play, I score and we win by one point. [Famed New York sports columnist] Red Smith, a Notre Dame guy, wrote how athletes could play football and basketball. Leslie scored 32 points and I get one basket and get a big write-up. The next year, I figured I'd flunk out if I played basketball."
In fact, Lattner loved basketball so much that he nearly passed up his trip to New York to accept the Heisman Trophy because he didn't want to miss a basketball game at Dayton.
"He asked, 'What should I do?' He invited his mother to go to New York in his place. Then he decided he'd better go," said Bob Rigali, a Fenwick classmate who roomed with Lattner at Notre Dame for two years. "He was serious about playing the basketball game and not letting the other guys on the team down."
But his biggest disappointment came in football, when he fumbled at the goal line with his unbeaten team leading 7-0 and Fenwick went on to lose to Schurz 20-7 in the 1949 Prep Bowl before nearly 58,000 witnesses in Soldier Field. It was the second year in a row that Fenwick had lost in the Prep Bowl.
"I'll never forget that loss. Neither will the other Fenwick guys. That was my biggest disappointment in football," Lattner said. "We beat St. George for the Catholic League championship. We were better than 1948. We beat Leo, the preseason pick, and Mount Carmel, which was being coached by Terry Brennan in his first season."
Lattner, halfback Bob Rigali, quarterback Norm Canty, guard John Dwyer, and center Don Weaver were the hubs of the 1949 squad. Rigali, whose father had played for Knute Rockne, won the Tony Lawless Award (named for the Fenwick coach) for his academic and athletic prowess. Lattner was the second choice.
"He still talks about that fumble in the Prep Bowl," Dwyer said. "It still hurts him to think about that fumble."
In 1948, Lattner was an All-State end on a Fenwick team that also was unbeaten until losing to Lindblom and Dale Samuels 13-7 before 65,000 in the Prep Bowl. Because teammates Bob Rigali and Ed Lejeune were injured, Lattner was called upon to play a lot of halfback. But he couldn't do anything about Samuels.
"Samuels was a legend in the city," Lattner said. "They used him like a spread offense. We chased him all over the field. He'd stand 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage and throw the ball. I chased him all the time but never caught him."
Samuels tormented Lattner on defense, too. "I was deep on kickoffs. Twice after they scored I'm running down the sideline and a blocking wall formed in front of me and I thought I was going to break away for a touchdown. But Samuels tackled me twice," he said.
Lattner, the youngest of three children, grew up on Laverne and Madison, on Chicago's West Side. Former Austin star Bill DeCorrevont still was a legend in those parts. His mother lived in the Lattners' apartment building. There were 20 kids in the neighborhood who were his age. He had to learn how to handle himself.
"I was a big sissy and I got beat up all the time," Lattner said. "After getting knocked on my butt a lot, I figured I better start fighting back. My dad, who played baseball in the old Three Eye League, told me, 'You've got to be competitive.' So I started to play a lot of sports."
He became a gym rat and played basketball at St. Thomas Aquinas grammar school as a fifth grader. As a sixth grader, he became a tackle on the eighth-grade football team. He was going to enroll at St. Ignatius to play basketball and could have gone to Austin to play football for Bill Heiland. But his parents wanted him to get a Catholic education. Finally, he was persuaded to attend Fenwick because of Tony Lawless' reputation as an outstanding football coach. At the time, however, Lattner never dreamed the game would take him as far as it did.
"I never thought I'd play football in college," he said. "As a freshman, I would mop floors in the school on weekends to earn $1 an hour to pay for my tuition, which was $15 a month. My goal was to go to St. Benedict or St. Lawrence or Quincy, a small college. I didn't sense I could play big-time football in college—until the end of my junior year."
Lawless drove a busload of 20 players, including Lattner, to Notre Dame's spring practice. Coach Frank Leahy's assistant, Bernie Crimmins, took Lattner aside and said, "If you work hard and keep improving, we'd be interested in you." Up until then, Notre Dame had only been a dream in Lattner's mind. But Crimmins' message was great incentive.
After his senior year, Lattner had 100 scholarship offers. He said he almost went to Michigan because Lawless wanted him to go there and he would have been highlighted in Coach Bennie Oosterbaan's single wing. But Red Noonan, a Notre Dame bird dog who scouted players in the Chicago Catholic League, became friendly with Lattner's parents, who encouraged their son to enroll at Notre Dame.
"When I entered Notre Dame, they hadn't lost a game in four years. People said I'd only be a number, that I wasn't big enough [at 6-2 and 180 pounds] to play there," he said. "There were a lot of negatives but one incentive was to go there and see how good I was."
Lattner was used to tough competition in the Catholic League. Could Oklahoma be any tougher? The rivalries were intense. St. George of Evanston was Fenwick's biggest rival. Lawless and St. George coach Max Burnell didn't like each other. The Christian Brothers didn't like the Dominicans. Burnell worked his players until darkness to prepare for Fenwick.
On the West Side, it still was Fenwick vs. Austin. Lawless told his players, "If you beat Austin, you have a good team. But if you think you have a great team and lose to Austin, you're not that good."
"But the games against St. George at Hanson Stadium as a sophomore and junior and at Soldier Field for the Catholic League championship as a senior were as intense as any game I ever played in high school or college," Lattner said. "We hated each other."
Dick Butkus: The Ultimate Competitor
The hundreds of quarterbacks and running backs who were terrorized by Dick Butkus during his Hall of Fame career would be surprised to learn that "Moby Dick in a goldfish bowl," as he once was so poetically described in an NFL highlight film, still gets mad at people who don't think he is a sensitive and caring person.
"He isn't a mean, growling person," said lifelong friend Rick Bertetto. "He never bit anyone's ear. There was a difference when Dick stepped on the field. It started a few days before a game. He'd go into his moods and try to build up a hatred for his opponent. But people thought that was who he was. Not so. He is sensitive and inquisitive about other people. He wants people to know his sensitive side."
Despite a successful post-football career that saw him become a celebrity endorser, broadcaster, an actor who starred in three weekly television shows, and the founder of a national program to address the issue of steroid abuse by young athletes, Butkus remains a very private person. In fact, because he dislikes going through airport security, he was influenced by Bertetto to purchase a motor home to travel coast to coast.
"Rick and I met in kindergarten," Butkus recalled. "We hit it off from the beginning. We had devilish twinkles in our eyes. We fooled everybody. People wondered, 'How can these kids succeed?' He was a social worker at Thornton Township High School. He could take kids away from drugs. We'd play handball at Fernwood Park and watch Uncle Johnny Coons on television at lunchtime. We've been close ever since."
In fact, Bertetto influenced Butkus to enroll at Chicago Vocational School (CVS) instead of Fenger or Tilden, where his older brothers and sisters had attended, or Mount Carmel or Leo. Because Coach Chuck Palmer had retired at Fenger after producing a city championship team in 1954, Bertetto talked his friend into going to CVS to play for Bernie O'Brien.
"I didn't know about him [O'Brien] at first," Butkus said. "But he seemed like a father figure. He took an interest in kids. He was such a good guy. He never swore. He was mad when he came close to saying 'damn.' He looked for kids who would do anything to improve. He couldn't cut them open to see all the desire they had but he loved to take someone who had ability and desire and see how good he could make him.
"He understood what football meant to a lot of kids who came out of south Chicago and didn't have much. He knew football was an outlet for a lot of guys, to get them away from the street gangs. He was able to take a lot of tough kids and teach them rules and how to funnel it on the football team. If you were looking for the ultimate coach, O'Brien was the guy."
Butkus grew up on 103rd and South Lowe in Roseland, not far from Gately Stadium. He skated in the winter and swam and played baseball in the summer. But football was the love of his life. From the outset, he relished the physicality, the running and tackling aspects of the sport. In his judgment, it was the best of all team sports.
Before his junior season, teammate Landis Rush joined the Navy, leaving an opening at the fullback position. Urged by Bertetto, O'Brien gave the 225-pounder a tryout.
"I played center, guard, and nose tackle on the freshman team," Butkus said. "As a nose tackle, I was free to roam, like [former Chicago Bears greats] George Connor and Bill George. They stood up and turned into linebackers. I played fullback, too. Selfishly, I felt I could do more for the team on offense. I didn't see anyone I couldn't beat out. I did all the kicking, too. I didn't want to get off the field. I even felt I could play quarterback in high school because I could throw the ball."
Even before Illinois assistant coach Bill Taylor convinced Butkus that he could make an indelible mark as a linebacker in college and the NFL, he realized he could play better on defense.
"A linebacker could impact the game. That's why I loved it," he said. "Linemen made blocks but the linebacker was in position to do more. That was exciting to me. I felt the way I performed made a difference in the game. Certain positions are more key than others. I don't like to say it but it's true. There are key players in key spots. At that time, linebackers and fullbacks were most important."
In 1959, he became the first junior to be chosen as the Chicago Sun-Times Player of the Year. His team tied Lane Tech 6-6 for the Public League championship but Lane Tech had an edge in statistics and was awarded a berth in the Prep Bowl against Catholic League champion Fenwick.
"I don't recall much about the Player of the Year award but it was the first major achievement of my football career," he said. "Not making it to the Prep Bowl was another incentive for me not to get complacent and to work harder. 'Maybe someone is still out there working out harder than me,' I thought to myself."
In 1960, Butkus was injured. CVS lost to Taft 14-6 in the Public League final and Taft running back Al MacFarlane was named Player of the Year.
"It was a bummer of a year," Butkus summed up. "I felt I let everyone down. I was on the field all the time and I couldn't play up to what I could. I was banged up [he had a stretched ligament in his right knee] and I knew I couldn't perform up to expectations. It prevented me from having any lateral movement. After winning the Player of the Year award as a junior, everyone was pointing to me."
He chose Illinois because Notre Dame, his first choice, wouldn't accept married students and Illinois would. He was 15 years old when he met his wife, Helen. She was a student at Fenger, and then transferred to CVS. They have been married for 45 years. After being a two-time All-America at Illinois and starring for the Chicago Bears from 1965 to 1973, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1979.
"The second I saw him on the field at training camp, I knew my playing days were over," said Bill George, another NFL Hall of Famer. "Nobody ever looked that good before or since."
Despite his fearsome reputation, Butkus never participated in weight training in high school or college or even with the Bears. He worked construction, lifted cement blocks, moved furniture, and pushed cars.
"If I had it to do all over again, I'd train more," he said. "It would have helped me. It might have helped to cut down on the severity of my injuries. But strength training doesn't give you the skill to play a sport. At the time, before weight training became popular, I did what I thought I had to do to be better.
"For me, football was a great way of life. I found something I really loved to do and was able to do it. It ended too quick. You can't do it all your life. Then it's tough to find something to do after football. I loved every part of the game. It's like a toy. Kids love to play with toys. I never grew out of it. I loved it from the first time I saw it.
"I made sure football came first, even with my marriage. It was an edge I had on everyone. I would question if there was a guy who outthought me or dedicated himself more to football, how many days he thought about football. I had to have an overdose of football. There wasn't a day went by that I didn't think how I could get better."
Dave Butz: Illinois' First Goliath
Dave Butz was the first Goliath of high school football in Illinois, an intimidating and overpowering 6-6, 280-pounder in an era when 225-pounders were considered overweight. He defied the axiom that big kids were too slow and too uncoordinated to be competitive in sports. He was a Clydesdale who could run and perform like a thoroughbred.
"I was taller than my kindergarten teacher and always could reach higher to get stuff off a shelf," Butz recalled. "I was 6-5 in junior high school and 6-6 and 265 pounds as a sophomore in high school."
That's when Maine South varsity coach Marv Nyren approached Butz during a practice session, put his hands on his shoulders, and looked up at the towering youngster.
"Dave, you should consider a career in professional football," Nyren told Butz. "You have the size and speed of most NFL players right now."
"He was an inspiration, the best mentor I had," Butz said. "He gave me goals, something to strive for. I was languishing in mediocrity. As a sophomore, I started at offensive and defensive tackle. He was the one who encouraged me to do more. He didn't try to coach by humiliating you. He gave me a goal. I knew I wanted to be in sports.
"In the old days, we used to have Parent Appreciation Day at the school. You'd spend an entire day with your parents. And you had to wear a sport coat and tie. When we'd walk down the street, I'd say to myself, 'Dave, I hope I can play football long enough and well enough that I don't have to wear a sport coat and tie and have to work every day.'"
Butz was born in Lafayette, Alabama, on a cattle and poultry farm about 45 minutes from Mobile. His family moved to Park Ridge, a Chicago suburb, when he was nearly three years old. It was a bit of a culture shock. At the time, he didn't know money existed on paper. And shoes, socks, and underwear weren't part of his daily wardrobe.
He also suffered from dyslexia as a child. It wasn't discovered until he was about to enroll in high school. But once Nyren inspired him to become a big-time football player, he started to work harder, physically and academically, to prepare for college. When he graduated in 1969, he had 132 scholarship offers, including one from the legendary coach Adolph Rupp to play basketball at Kentucky.
Longtime friend and classmate Gary Posel characterized Butz as "a gentle giant" who was a legend in high school. He wore No. 77, Red Grange's number, and always was the biggest player on the field. In a basketball game against Niles West, he soared over 7-foot Gary Cartwright to jam the ball and shattered the glass backboard. In track and field, he set a state record in the discus of 180 feet, 4 inches, that stood for 19 years. In football, he once tussled with Deerfield's 6-5, 260-pound Jim Anderson, who later played at Northwestern.
"Playing three sports in high school was important to me," Butz said. "I wanted to play football because that's what I wanted to do. I went out for basketball to use my agility, to cover smaller guys, to get quicker and react. I can recall getting a rebound, throwing an outlet pass, and running down the court and putting the ball in the hoop. Basketball helped me to be a better football player."
He still insists his best sports memory of high school was scoring 32 points in a basketball game as a junior.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from "Dusty, Deek, and Mr. Do-Right" by Taylor H. A. Bell Copyright © 2010 by Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Excerpted by permission of University of Illinois Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Chapter 1: The Players....................1Johnny Lattner: Heisman Trophy Winner....................3
Dick Butkus: The Ultimate Competitor....................5
Dave Butz: Illinois' First Goliath....................8
Mike Kenn: Here's "Mud" in Your Eyes....................10
Kellen Winslow: One-Year Wonder....................12
Don Beebe: 4.21? Are You Kidding?....................15
Russell Maryland: A Charmed Life....................17
Bryant Young: A Future NFL Hall of Famer....................19
Mike Alstott: Riding the A-Train....................21
Dusty Burk: The Spread Offense Cometh....................24
Chapter 2: The Coaches....................29
Tony Lawless: "Sculptor of People"....................31
Harvey Dickinson: Cradle of Coaches....................34
Deek Pollard: In the Mold of Lombardi, Bryant, and Hayes....................36
Murney Lazier: Mr. Do-Right....................39
Bob Reade: A Wise Decision....................41
Gordie Gillespie: Carrying a Big Stick....................44
Pat Cronin: A Damon Runyon Character....................46
Bob Shannon: The Tradition Continues....................50
John O'Boyle: The Seven-Degrees Solution....................52
Gary Korhonen: Setting a Precedent....................55
Matt Senffner: Know Your Capabilities....................57
Dan Sharp: Six Titles in Nine Years....................59
Frank Lenti: The General....................62
Chapter 3: The Teams....................71
Mount Carmel 1950: Best Team of Its Era....................73
Fenwick 1962: The Jim DiLullo Show....................75
Metamora 1968: Stromberger's Gadget Play....................78
St. Rita 1971: The Difference between Great and Super....................80
Evanston 1971: Even without Howard Jones....................83
Decatur St. Teresa, 1972: 404-6....................85
Joliet Catholic 1975: Gordie's Best Team....................87
Geneseo 1976: The Green Machine....................90
East St. Louis 1985: Shannon's Best Team....................92
Mount Carmel 1988: "No Super Stars"....................95
Wheaton Warrenville South 1998: Best Offense Ever?....................97
Joliet Catholic 1999: "They Had It All"....................99
Providence 2001: Senffner's Best Handiwork....................102
Chapter 4: The Games....................109
Glenbrook North 19, East St. Louis 13 (OT): 1974....................111
St. Laurence 22, Glenbard West 21 (OT): 1976....................114
Wheaton Warrenville South 40, Joliet Catholic 34 (2 OT): 1992....................117
Maine South 31, Mount Carmel 28: 1995....................120
Driscoll 42, Mount Carmel 41 (2 OT): 2001....................122
Aledo 41, Carthage 40: 2002....................125
Chapter 5: Small Schools....................131
Aledo: Rekindling a Tradition....................133
Arcola: The Monahan Brothers Ride Again....................135
Bloomington Central Catholic: Building a Foundation....................138
Carthage: The Unruh Era....................141
Decatur St. Teresa: Decade of the 1970s....................144
Galena: Not Just a Tourist Attraction....................147
Pittsfield: "The Streak"....................150
Sterling Newman: Building a Tradition....................152
Stockton: The John O'Boyle Era....................155
Woodstock Marian Central: Decade of the 1980s....................158
Chapter 6: Midsized Schools....................167
Addison Driscoll: Eight Titles, Seven in a Row....................169
Belleville Althoff: Time to Retire....................171
Du Quoin: Stanhouse and the Hambletonian....................174
Geneseo: Five Decades of Excellence....................177
Joliet Catholic: Four Coaches, 13 State Titles....................180
Kankakee Bishop McNamara: Rich Zinanni Era....................182
Metamora: Coming of Age....................184
Morris: Darlington to Dergo....................187
New Lenox Providence: The Matt Senffner Era....................190
Oak Lawn Richards: Moving On Up....................193
Chapter 7: Large Schools....................205
Chicago Mount Carmel: Frank Kiszka's Legacy....................207
Chicago St. Rita: 100 Years of Football Memories....................209
East St. Louis: "Common Thread Is Tradition"....................212
Harvey Thornton: Football Gets Its Props....................215
Mount Prospect: Team of the New Millennium....................218
Park Ridge Maine South: A Coaching Clinic....................221
Peoria Richwoods: The "Rich Kids" School....................224
Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin: Downstate Power....................227
Wheaton North: The Jim Rexilius Era....................230
Wheaton Warrenville South: Red Grange's Legacy....................233
Chapter 8: Fourth Quarter....................241
State Playoff....................243
Prep Bowl....................245
Chicago Catholic League....................249
Chicago Public League....................251
Index....................257