Welcome everyone, and thank you for attending tonight’s inaugural St. Joseph’s High School/College Intramural and Interscholastic Sports Hall of Fame Induction hosted by the St. Joseph-St. Patrick’s College Alumni Association. It’s great to see so many former seminary athletes in one room, along with your wives, family members and friends. It’s also good to see that so many of you are looking fit. A few months back, I resolved to lose 10 pounds for this event, and as of today I only have 15 pounds to go.
Some of you may wonder why we didn’t hold this kind of event years or even decades ago, before all the joint replacements, and this new ache or that new pain that seem to pop up almost daily as time passes. I recently had one of those DNA tests, and had always thought I was Irish and Italian-Swiss. It turns out I’m now 30% Vicodin, 20% Advil, and 50% Bengay. Who knew?
But as former seminary athletes, we all know it’s important to remain active. Last time I saw the doctor, he asked “Do you know how often someone succumbs to a sedentary lifestyle?” I told him, “I’m guessing it’s once.” But, as for tonight, better late than never.
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It’s an honor to stand up here and share the spotlight with some of the finest athletes in St. Joe’s history, including upperclassmen that perhaps you as freshmen or a 6th Latiner may have looked up to, guys who often made playing sports look effortless – which kind of makes you wonder how good they could have been if they had actually made an effort.
By the way, whether you’re being inducted or not tonight, this celebration is for all the athletes who competed at sports and put in long hours of practice. Sports were a big deal at St. Joe’s. Most students regardless of their athletic ability were involved at some level, and many teammates developed lifelong friendships and took away lessons that lasted a lifetime, such as “be confident, not cocky.” My favorite quotes were from a former summer league baseball coach who said, “Any time we score at least 5 runs and the other team scores less than 5 runs, we almost always win,” and “Whenever I think of the past it brings back memories.”
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I’d like to recognize our guest of honor, Athletic Director and Varsity Soccer and Baseball Coach Gordon Lacey, and his wife, Lynne, as well as their family members who flew down from Washington state. It’s great to have you here tonight, Coach.
One quick recollection. During senior year, Coach Lacey told the soccer team that he would push us to be in such great condition that we’d own the last 20 minutes of every game. I mean really own it. Whenever the players heard, “just bring your sneakers to practice, no soccer boots,” we knew we were in for it. In fact, Coach told us, “Guys, you’re going to run 5 miles a day to get in shape.” Two weeks later, we called him up and said, “Coach, we’re 70 miles from the school. What do we do now?” At least, we were in good shape.
I want to thank inductees and friends who’ve traveled long distances and from out of state to be here. The hands-down winner is Bill Roonan from the High School Class of 1974. Bill and his wife, Maureen, flew all the way over from London, England. That’s called dedication. Unfortunately, John Cantillon from the Class of 1971 couldn’t make it over from Japan, so Bill thank you for representing the international contingent of former St. Joe’s star athletes.
We also honor a number of outstanding intramural athletes from 1950 to 1967. Gentleman, as Bears, Indians, Ramblers, and Trojans, you helped pave the way for interscholastic sports, and we thank you for the opportunities that you helped provide. The interscholastic athletes stood on your shoulders. More than a half-century later, it’s amazing to hear St. Joe’s grads still talk proudly about how they were a Rambler, or a Bear, or an Indian, or a Trojan. Of course, as some of you may remember, by 1970 the intramural team names had changed, with perhaps the most infamous being the Intramural soccer champion captained by German-born Peter Gosch, called “Pete’s Panzers.” Not only was his team good, Pete had them halfway to Poland before Coach Lacey could stop them.
That same year, the St. Joe’s student body adopted “Bruins” as the official name for its teams and mascot, which is on the program cover. In fact, the school even had these great seat cushions made with the Bruins logo (show cushion), apparently for all the invisible fans who didn’t attend our games. That’s why mine is still in such good shape after 48 years.
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I’d like to especially thank Coach Gordon Lacey, Sports Hall of Fame committee members Pat Cloherty and Mike Davis, and a number of Alums and Board members for their invaluable input and recommendations that enabled us to form the induction list for the inaugural 2019 Hall of Fame class.
You might wonder not only why, but how we got here tonight. As to the why, most importantly of course, 1) we want to recognize the outstanding St. Joe’s athletes and coaches for their achievements. But 2), the Alumni Association also hopes that tonight will serve as a springboard for getting more ex-seminarians to become active participants in Alumni events, such as the annual Alumni Day. This especially applies to the so-called “younger guys” who attended St. Joe’s in the late 1960s and 1970s – and seriously, guys, any time you’re more than 60 years old and referred to as younger or when you walk into a meeting they ask, “who brought the kid?” you should consider joining that organization immediately.
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I also want to thank St. Patrick’s Seminary for providing tonight’s venue, and of course the Sulpician fathers who provided an excellent and inexpensive education, but even more valuable, taught us about what Jesuit author, professor and 1940s athlete Father James Schall, calls “the highest things.” True virtues and choices. For example, during freshman year, one of the profs presented the idea that before you judge or criticize someone, you need to walk a mile in their shoes. And even as a freshman, I thought that really makes a lot of sense because that way, when you do judge or criticize them, you’ll be a mile away and have their shoes. No way are they going to catch up to you barefoot. Thanks for the advice, Father.
Of course, the Sulps also gave us sports, which became a huge part of our seminary lives, and eventually a source of pride to beat the largest public schools and particularly the Catholic schools, who often looked down on St. Joe’s teams as simply a “bunch of weenie priests.”
I’d like to conclude with this thought: They were just plain wrong. We didn’t have hot-house orchids on the seminary sports teams, just regular teenage boys who were as competitive and as tough as our opponents, no matter who we played. And some of the Eastside public-school guys could be crazy tough. For example, during a home baseball game, one guy threw a batting helmet at the umpire while his teammate was still wearing it!
But we knew tough at St. Joe’s too. There was normal stuff, 1) like that the school rang a loud, obnoxious bell to wake us up before sunrise, or that guys would suddenly disappear (Poof!) from the school for who knows what reason. And those were the so-called lenient years, not like the 1950s, where star athletes almost unbelievably got the boot for listening to the World Series on a radio. Coo-coo!
But here are some facts about St. Joe’s toughness that many of you may not know about, but that were 100% true in the late 60s and early 70s – 1) our school’s head maintenance man was a former FBI most-wanted outlaw who drove for notorious gangsters in the 1930s. Someone must have thought 31 years in Alcatraz prison and Leavenworth wasn’t hard enough time, so after he was paroled they sent him to St. Joe’s; 2) we had ex-felons on the kitchen staff with access to sharp objects; 3) the scary workman who took care of the swimming pool had a hook instead of a hand; and 4) and one of the priests was nicknamed “Fang.”
Enough said! Time for dinner.