St. Laurence High School, operated by the Irish Christian Brothers will host the Class 1-A Quarter Final game between Leo and Ottawa Marquette at 2 PM on Saturday November 16, 2013.After a great Leo Family Get-Together last Saturday at St. Rita's Pat Cronin Field featuring a win by the Lions over visiting Stark County 31-20, the Lions head to Burbank for the Quarter Finals. Generations of Hogans, Mahoneys, Coopers, Paynes, Halls, Torres, Garzas, Greens, Jacksons, Sheehys and McNallys followed Jay Standring in whatever cheer, chant or taunt he could shout out. If you did not run into a pal that you had not seen in decades, you must have had your eyes riveted to the action on the field. Me? I'm a rubber-necker. I caught up with Ernie Kelly, Bud Monaco, Marquis "Biggs" Ball, Akim Hunter, Johnny Vasi, Bob Quick, Jack McNamara, Wally Macaulay,the Brothers Hopkins: Jack and Tom, George Spearekis, Mike Gurgone,The Brothers Finn: too numerous to name, George Newell, Coach Jack Fitzgerald, Senator Ed Maloney, Father Bill McFarland, Standrings and Earners and McElligotts Oh, My!!!! When I was not peeling off five-spots to Canaryville's own Duke Rusty Montana (2016), whom I drove to and from the game, and who eats like he's going to the chair, I made happy re- acquaintance with old friends. We all look exactly the way we did in 1967,'68. '69, & '70 - at least through the lens of Leo High School and parish camaraderie ( VIZ, John 'O God, Sabina's, KillYuns, Sain Nicks, Big Weed, Tommy More ( too old to fight, or just mellowed?) R Lady a Moun'Carmel, Caj-uhtins, & da res'). Come out and watch the Lion, catch the Ottawa Crusaders in its brawny paws. .St. Laurence High School 5556 W 77th St, Burbank, IL 60459(708) 458-6900
The Soul Bowl Champions - In the Maroon Shirt and Tie is Scholar Athlete Terron 'Mr. Touchdown' Bell. Old # 59 snagged a pass intended for a Hales Franciscan Spartan receiver and carried the ball into the end zone!
Terron Bell -5-7, 252 | 40: 5.48 | Class of 2014
They always call him Mr. Touchdown;
They always call him Mr. T.
He can run and he can throw;
Just give him the ball and look at him go!
Hip hip hooray for Mr. Touchdown;
He's gonna beat em today;
So, lets give a great big cheer
for the hero of the year;
It's Mr. Touchdown, USA**.
This song was originally posted at:
http://bussongs.com/songs/mr-touchdown.php
*This song was written for Chandos "Pete" Young. He was named Mr. Touchdown USA in 1933 when he scored 128 touchdowns playing for Bluefield College in WVA.
It has been my honor to meet and get to know hundreds of Leo Men. At the top left of this page from the Leo Alumni Website is one of the greatest - J. Dillon Hoey. Mr. Hoey went home to Christ in April of 2003. I accompanied Leo ,teacher, coach, President-CEO and Father Figure Bob Foster to St. Michael's Catholic Church in Old Town for the funeral Mass. Bob Foster was a year older than Dillon Hoey and had been a team mate on 1956 City Championship Team coached by the legendary Jimmy Arneberg.
Dillon Hoey was a very close friend of my cousin Eddie Burke. Eddie played for the Mendel Monarchs against his buddy and some of scariest human beings in Catholic League football: Leo Men Tom Winecki, Don Flynn, Eddie Ryan, Pony Cavanaugh, Rich Boyle, Bob Swast and of course Bob Foster. Eddie went to Notre Dame and Dillon went to Yale but they kept in touch all through college.
My cousin went on to play with the Houston Oilers and became an attorney in Houston after his pro career. Dillon Hoey became a famous labor lawyer and workers compensation advocate. At Yale he roomed with future Vice President Dick Cheney and like his long friendship with Ed Burke kept in close touch throughout his life. Ed Burke continues to send in money to help Leo kids and their families in memory of J. Dillon Hoey, Leo 1959.
I mention all of this because last night Leo President Dan McGrath, football coach and Dean Mike Holmes and me attended a high school recruitment night at J. Dillon Hoey's parish and alma mater St. Barnabas School in Beverly. We were joining the many Catholic high schools in presenting our case to 7th and grade students looking to their futures.
One young man who stopped by our table and filled out a card was the grandson of Dillon Hoey. His grandfather forged the competitive nature that made him a highly successful and very giving man. My cousin Eddie Burke and his pal Dillon Hoey faced one another over the scrimmage line and represented what is best in Catholic schools on the broken beer bottles, ciders and rocks of the old Shewbridge Field which was the home of the Leo Lions as well as the wonderfully maintained Eckersoll Stadium and the icon St. Rita Stadium, notable for the sewer manhole handicap in its south end-zone.
Catholic schools are God centered places of learning. Fierce competition for places on teams, as well as a desk in a classroom are part and parcel of this cradle of virtue. Catholic high schools are all fundamentally the same,but distinct in spirit and traditions. The is cost in time talent and treasure. Leo welcomes anyone who wants to succeed, base his life on the gospel, dedicate himself to others and give back more than he receives. It ain't pretty, neat, or easy; neither is life.
J. Dillon Hoey was the son of a Chicago cop. He put his heart and hands into the work all through his high school experience, knowing full well that goals are not the end of the story. Once goal is met, a Catholic educated young man should ask, " Okay, what do you want me to do now?"
It would be great to see Dillon Hoey's grandson choose Leo. This school would serve him as much as it did his grandfather. However, whatever Catholic school the young man decides up will be an equally great choice. A Chicago public school is out of the question, because there is only a "there" there. A Catholic education is lifestyle.
God Bless the young man and his wonderful grandfather. Read the tribute from Dillon Hoey's law firm, especially the wonderful quote fro St. Francis of Assisi.
Dillon Hoey - Leo 1958 wearing # 98
J. Dillon Hoey at Yale
Remembering a Life of Giving
J. Dillon Hoey 1941-2003
Our firm is deeply saddened by the loss of our wonderful friend, J. Dillon Hoey. Dillon passed away on Sunday, April 27, 2003, from pancreatic cancer.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Dillon’s wife Mary Ann, and other family members. The funeral mass was held at St. Michael’s Church, 1633 North Cleveland Street, Chicago, Illinois, on Thursday, May 1. In lieu of flowers, the family requested that donations be sent to The Alzheimer's Association.
Dillon will be greatly missed by the 35 families of Hoey & Farina, and by so many more in the railroad and legal communities. We want to thank everyone who has sent their sympathies. We have passed these condolences along to Dillon’s wife and family.
Born and raised on the south side of Chicago, Dillon was the son of a Chicago policeman and the grandson of a railroad worker who was fatally injured on the job. With an entire career representing injured workers, Dillon’s professional life manifested the personal values that grew from his strong south side roots.
Dillon grew up in Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood. He attended Leo High School, where he was part of the legendary football squad that won the city championship. Later, at Yale University, Dillon was on the undefeated 1959 freshman football team with Dick Cheney, the current vice president of the United States. After Yale, Dillon returned to Chicago where he attended DePaul University’s College of Law.
Twenty five years ago, Dillon started his own firm. He was appointed Designated Legal Counsel for the United Transportation Union in 1991, and appointed Designated Legal Counsel for the Transportation Communications Union in 1998. Never one to rest on his accomplishments, Dillon continued to build the firm, which now holds seven union designations. During these years, Dillon’s leadership was instrumental in Hoey & Farina, obtaining many of the largest verdicts and settlements for railroaders and their families in the United States.
In the process of building the law firm, Dillon also expanded the definition of Designated Legal Counsel. Dillon offered more than the best legal representation to railroaders and their families. His mission -- the firm’s mission -- was simple -- inform railroaders of their unique rights under the law. The fruit of his efforts is an array of resources; a collection of books, videos, email and print newsletters, websites and seminars that are available for free to railroaders and their families. Dillon raised the bar for what it means to serve as Designated Legal Counsel, and the union membership is the better for it. We know that this is exactly what Dillon envisioned and what he delivered.
Dillon's long list of professional associations include the Academy of Railroad Labor Attorneys, American Trial Lawyers Association, and the American Bar Association. Dillon’s involvement in the community was equally impressive. Dillon served on the executive board of Leo High School, where he was an active contributor to the school and a sponsor of Leo students. Dillon also served as chairman of the Art Committee of the Union League Club of Chicago, a leading civic and community organization. We have highlighted only a few of Dillon’s many community and educational involvements over the years.
St. Francis of Assisi reminds us, “When you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that you have received, only what you have given: a full heart, enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice and courage." Dillon left us on Sunday, April 27, 2003, and it is certain that he left with a wonderful heart filled by a lifetime of giving to others.
Hoey & Farina pledges to continue the firm and the mission that Dillon built as a tribute to his life. We will continue to honor and celebrate his life in our work, in our hearts and in our prayers.
Every parent knows the agony and ecstasy of watching a child perform.
Whether it’s a concert, a school play, or an athletic competition, it’s always fun, in that it evokes a real sense of pride in what little Millie or Billy has learned to do.
It’s also torture because you want your child to perform well—perfectly, if possible—for the child’s sake, of course. And it’s totally out of your hands.
My kids are well beyond their child-star years, but I have great memories of the hundreds of events I sat through…well, most of them.
Enthusiastic but staunchly objective: That was how I rolled. I was there to lend support to all the kids, not just my own, and wouldn’t think of criticizing an opposing player or belaboring an official or lobbying a coach for more playing time. No, sir.
Well, there was this one ref who somehow missed it when that beefy girl from Burbank blatantly went over my daughter’s back going for a rebound and a put-back basket at St. Francis one evening. What game was he watching?
And I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an umpire squeeze a pitcher any worse than my son got it from that nearsighted dweeb at Dooley Field one Saturday morning.
Hawk, I hear you.
But I’m over it now.
Or at least I thought I was until a recent Saturday when I found myself at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston for the Illinois High School Association state track finals. The state championship in Class 1-A would be decided in the final event of the two-day meet: the 4-by-400-meter relay. Newton High, from the tiny, Central Illinois town of Newton, needed to finish fourth or better to claim its first state title.
Newton’s anchor-leg runner was a gritty young man who had helped his team accumulate its 30 points by competing in three events in two days of blistering heat. Newton’s relay team was in third place as he took the baton from the No. 3 runner, and if he could hold that position for his grueling lap around the track, the Eagles would be state champions.
I was hoping he’d take a wrong turn. Or worse, fall. I was ashamed of myself for thinking that, and I tried to suppress the smile that came to my face and grew wider as each of three runners passed the game-but-spent Newton youngster, relegating the Eagles to sixth place in the event and a runner-up finish in the meet, with 34 points.
The Lions from Chicago’s Leo High School were first-place finishers, with 35 points, and state champions for the second year in a row.
I couldn’t have been happier if those were my own kids out there running for Leo. And, in a sense, they were. I went to Leo, more than a few years ago, and I work there now, as the school president, a surprising destination for me after a long career in journalism. I think of Leo’s students as “my kids,” and I’m proud to.
Leo is a small, all-boys, inner-city school of about 150 students in the Auburn-Gresham neighborhood on the South Side. We’re a Catholic school, so we have to charge tuition, and we serve some of the most disadvantaged areas of the city. Nearly all of our kids receive financial aid, most of it provided by a predominantly white, unfailingly generous alumni network.
Our kids are polite, friendly, motivated and well-behaved. They understand that someone is making a sacrifice for them to be at Leo—their parents, their grandparents, a guardian or an alum—so they work hard in school and they try to do the right things as people.
Being around “my kids” every day, I pick up on their likes and dislikes, on what’s important to them—for many, sports is the currency of the culture. I realized this shortly after I was introduced at my very first assembly. A well-meaning but windy speech was drifting right over their heads, going nowhere and drawing yawns until the vice-principal who had introduced me bailed me out.
“Before Mr. McGrath came to Leo,” he told the students, “he was a sportswriter.”
Well, it wasn’t like Derrick Rose had walked through the door, but it gave me a smidgen of credibility in the kids’ world. Sure enough, a little guy seated near the front immediately jumped to his feet. “Kobe or LeBron?” he demanded, and a lively discussion followed.
Darnell, the little guy, is now part of a group that comes by my office every Monday morning to recap the weekend in sports. They want me to know what they know.
We’re an academic school first and foremost, and we’re proud of our scholastic achievements. The week before the state track meet we graduated 100 percent of our seniors, for the third year in a row. (ESPN’s Stephen Bardo, co-captain of the 1989 “Flyin’ Illini”, did a terrific job as our commencement speaker). Each graduate has been accepted to at least one college, and they have earned more than $700,000 in scholarship assistance.
But sports is important at Leo. We believe that the hard work, dedication, and commitment necessary for success on the playing field will help a youngster get ahead in life.
The track team embodies that lesson. We don’t have anything resembling a track, indoor or out, on our 87-year-old, one-building campus; the kids get ready for the season by running the halls and stairways. The marble floors are murder on the shins, too, but I’ve yet to hear anyone complain. It’s a point of pride among our kids that our meager facilities don’t hold them back when they compete against more affluent opponents.
A big hurdle: track practice is relegated to school hallways at Leo High.
We had an all-school assembly to honor the track team a few days after the state meet, and the pride in the room was palpable when the captains walked in carrying the state championship trophy. It was our seventh one for track and field. The team has also received seven IHSA academic citations for carrying a GPA above 3.0
Senior Keith Harris Jr., a track co-captain, is an All-State running back who has a football scholarship to Northern Illinois University. He’s also the Class of 2012 valedictorian, a sharp, talented, dedicated young man. One of our best.
Winning state was especially meaningful for Keith because he was injured and missed last year’s meet. He scored points in each of his three events this season, so he’s leaving Leo a state champion, and when he addressed the assembly he thanked his coaches and teammates for making that possible.
“I love you guys,” he said.
That’s how we roll.
* * * * *
DAN McGRATH is the former sports editor of the Chicago Tribune and the current president of Leo High School.
STORY ART: Main image made in-house with photo courtesy Dan McGrath.
Here is the Map of Success - 2011 Leo Grads are going to school all over America!
When asked by (WLS AM Bill)Cameron whether the conditions were ripe for a strike this year, she (Teachers Union President Karen Lewis)said: “I think it’s very high. Because people are very upset and people feel disrespected.”
Chicagoist 8/15/2011 ( parentheses my own)
Earlier in the piece we find this, "she (Lewis) did not predict that teachers will ultimately go on strike, only that the probability is high that members will call for a strike vote." What's the deal? Will teachers be going on strike any time soon?"
Leo High School opens this week, but we have on-going registration. Leo High School is a Catholic college preparatory high school, often called a "pay school" by families more familiar with public education. There is tuition. Tuition is a covenant between the school and the family of the student. Picking up a financial obligation the family is assured that their student will have an opportunity to succeed in academics, participate in a glorious athletic program, be treated with attention to the student's needs. To help families meet their end of the covenant, there are thousands of Leo Alumni and the Big Shoulders Fund - a Catholic foundation dedicated solely to helping inner city families get a great Catholic education.
Leo High School had a great year last year.
1. 100% college placement
2. Leo graduates received hundreds of thousands of dollars in college scholarships
3. Leo families were helped by Leo Alumni, private and corporate foundations and generous individuals to the tune of $ 840,000
4. Leo tested and registered the largest incoming class of freshmen in twelve years, including white and Hispanic students
5. Leo 2011 graduate Eder Cruz was named a Gates Millenium Scholar
6. Leo's Track team won its sixth IHSA State Championship - Leo is the only non-public high school to win the IHSA Track Title in its 115 year history and Leo Captured Titles in both Class A and Class AA
The probability is high that Chicago Teachers Union will vote for a strike. Leo High School and all other Catholic schools will open this month an get down to the business of helping students.
Enroll, now. If you think that tuition is costly, imagine what a morale challenged public school faculty might cost your child. Leo High School has not been disrupted by violence in the school. The police officers of Gresham Sixth District only have come to the school to correct problems outside of the school that might impact on the safety of our Leo Men. The business of Leo High School is all about the student.
In fact, all summer long students have popped in to visit and ask for summer reading ideas from President Dan McGrath, chat with Principal Phil Mesina and learn some great study skills from Leo's Vice president and Gunny Mr. Frank Wilson, USMC, lift weights, shoot hoops, box in the Leo facility run by Mike Joyce, snitch candy from the Ms. Adams and Ms. Hemp in the office and pay Mrs. Townsend parcels of tuition, while Mom and Dad were at work.
Mike Holmes, Leo Director of Admissions and Leo Alumnus Mike Anderson have brought in many families seeking help for their sons who having a difficult time at other schools, or are concerned about meeting the costs of tuition.
Here is a transcript of a message left on my voice mail -" This is Pat Nolan, Class of '51. It was great seeing you guys at the Leo Golf outing. I'm sending my 21st Century (Spring Mailing) with my gift. I was little late in getting it in the mail. I hope all is well at Leo."
Pat Nolan and hundreds of other Leo Men have the kids who were here all summer, even though school was out, on their minds and in their hearts.
The teachers have been back since last week. The Maintenance( Ron Reynolds, James Crawford and Derrick De Berry) men have the place looking great. These gentlemen are solid gentlemen and great role models who do as much teaching throughout the day than many people calling themselves educators that I have encountered. They teach pride by example and respect for every task.
No Strike - Leo Treats Families Right. Take a look at the Leo High School Website
Call Mr. Mike Holmes here at Leo ( 773) 224-9600 and arrange a sit-down with any or all of us. Pop in for a visit even when school starts. Our students are our best reflection of the Leo Brand.
Leo High School
7901 S.Sangamon Street
Chicago, IL 60620
Open for business every year since 1926 - business is good!
Dad always said that I couldn't find my butt with both hands. I can. Allow me to add this imperative -“Defend the unborn against abortion even if they persecute you, calumniate you, set traps for you, take you to court or kill you." - Pope Francis to celebrate Pro-life Mass, Vatican
"You stand up for what you believe in, even if it gets in the way of what other people think. You are proud of yourself and your accomplishments and you enjoy letting people know that."
A peach of a guy with all the sweetness one could expect from a life well-spent and in good company: short on brains but a terrific dancer!
Author:
Every Heart and Hand: A Leo High School Story
The Chorito Hog Leg, Book One: A Novel of Guam in Time of War
St. Laurence High School, operated by the Irish Christian Brothers will host the Class 1-A Quarter Final game between Leo and Ottawa Marquette at 2 PM on Saturday November 16, 2013.After a great Leo Family Get-Together last Saturday at St. Rita's Pat Cronin Field featuring a win by the Lions over visiting Stark County 31-20, the Lions head to Burbank for the Quarter Finals.
Generations of Hogans, Mahoneys, Coopers, Paynes, Halls, Torres, Garzas, Greens, Jacksons, Sheehys and McNallys followed Jay Standring in whatever cheer, chant or taunt he could shout out. 
The Brothers Finn: too numerous to name, George Newell, Coach Jack Fitzgerald, Senator Ed Maloney, Father Bill McFarland, Standrings and Earners and McElligotts Oh, My!!!!
whom I drove to and from the game, and who eats like he's going to the chair, I made happy re- acquaintance with old friends. We all look exactly the way we did in 1967,'68. '69, & '70 - at least through the lens of Leo High School and parish camaraderie ( VIZ, John 'O God, Sabina's, KillYuns, Sain Nicks, Big Weed, Tommy More ( too old to fight, or just mellowed?) R Lady a Moun'Carmel, Caj-uhtins, & da res').
.St. Laurence High School 5556 W 77th St, Burbank, IL 60459(708) 458-6900
Terron Bell -5-7, 252 | 40: 5.48 | Class of 2014
_jpg.jpg)
J. Dillon Hoey
