Thank God and John Kass - G-Men Meet Leo Men

John Kass again reports on the great young men of Leo High School.  Today, John presents the story of the visit of Jeremy Clark, Darryl Johnson and Mike Braxton to FBI Headquarters in Chicago.


At the start of the CPS Teacher Strike, John Kass of the Chicago Tribune paid a visit to Leo High School and talked to the great young men who work to become contributing people who will make a difference in Chicago's inner city.

Leo High School is a Catholic college preparatory high school, founded in 1926 at the orders of Cardinal George Mundelein to serve poor kids from neighborhoods south of the stockyards.  Leo has never been what some might call an elite secondary school and God willing never will be.  Some people term a school, that in reality is an exclusive school - where tuition and tests make it impossible for blue collar sons to find a seat in the classroom.  Leo is elite - it is blessed by God.

In the late 1960's, I heard street talk that Leo High School was on its last legs.  In the 1970's, when I began teaching high school, folks in the know  placed no chips on the Black and Orange ( Leo's Colors).  In the late 1980's, when I was teaching at La Lumiere School, alma mater of Justice of the United States John Roberts, word was out that Irish Christian Brothers were planning to leave Leo. In the 1990's Cardinal Bernardine ended all Archdiocesan financial support to Leo and the Irish Christian Brothers ended their sixty year presence at Leo, with exception of the heroic Brothers Rupert Finch and Steve O'Keefe.  Bob Foster became the first lay Principal in the school's history and the smart set gave fierce Foster  six months to one year until the Lion's roar would end.  The Lion roared louder behind the leadership and stewardship of the Leo Alumni. The Old Lion leaped into the New Millenium clawing and biting.  When President and CEO Bob Foster retired, everyone with half a brain sang the same old song.  Only a Father Pfleger could save Leo.  Wrong again.

Irish Christian Brothers, Cardinals, Educators, Business Wheels, and mythological heroes like Bob Foster and Mike Holmes,or quietly fierce leaders like Pete Doyle and Dan McGrath are merely human beings. Catholic schools are God centered.  God Provides.

Leo High School faces tough times financially and it always has. Enrollment goes up and down, because inner city families are challenged to pay what they honestly are able to do.  Support from Alumni and friends is always limited - there is only so much money. We would love to have piles of gold and swag to provide more for our wonderful, funny, challenging and sweet young gents, but we thank God for reach day, each gift and each opportunity to do more.

Life is prose and not poetry.  It is quotidian, messy, unsettling, costly and challenging - it is supposed to be. God provides the gestures from good souls like John Kass.

There is always God.  I do not believe that John Kass came to Leo merely to do a solid for old an pal, or get a great story. I believe that God's hand gave Kass's shoulder a shove. The same hand that wakes me up and sends me Leo High School, guides my hands on the wheel of the Canaryville van, keeps my tired old lamps focused on the proper Dan Ryan lanes and back to 79th & Sangamon with the Young Lions.

Thankl God it is not just up to me.

Leo Freshman Context and Consensus - Assyria & A Prophet

We often find that our academic courses begin in 1900, or perhaps with the French Revolution, or the Protestant Reformation, or Machiavelli, or the discovery of the New World. Whenever we see this happening in our courses, we must be ready to look elsewhere and seek out what we are not presented. The fact is that very few human truths or errors were not already treated by the Greeks, by Plato and Aristotle. Not to know this is a very serious intellectual impediment.

Father James Schall, S.J. Crisis


Yesterday, I had the pleasure to take over classes from Pete Doyle, who has taught on and off here at Leo High School, both as an Irish Christian Brother, lay teacher/coach and Principal since 1967.

One floor above Pete Doyle's classroom Denny Conway '62 and Dr. Jack O'Keefe '59 were conducting ACT and SAT exam prep with seniors and juniors. Denny and Jack volunteer their time and talent.

Pete Doyle and football coach Mike Holmes took a ride over to check on Father Dan Mallette who was brutally beaten and robbed in the early morning hours of Monday, by two thugs who broke into his rectory at St. Margaret of Scotland Church and robbed the saintly man.

I had a roomful of freshmen. We were studying the Old Testament prophet Isaiah. The Son of Amos was known as the Evangelical Prophet, because Isaiah foretold of the coming of the Messiah.

I asked the gents, if they knew the context of Isaiah's ministry. They did - Pete Doyle teaches.

The Kingdom of Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians under Tiglath Pileser III leaving the Tribe of Judah and taking most of Israel into Captivity.

The Assyrians ( Medes, Babylonians, Persians, & etc.) were a New World Order in the 800 BC Cradle of Civilization. Israel was plagued by self-interested kings. Ahaz was the Jimmy Carter of the day. The Children of Zion went into Captivity - Babylon.




Isaiah railed against Kings going against God's Will. It is believed that Isaiah was martyred by the son of Hezikiah -Manasseh who cashed in faith for economics.

The guys had the context. We talked about being a prophet. Most of the kids at Leo are African American and most are Baptist and AME Christians, a few are Nation of Islam. To say the least, these guys are schooled in the Old Testament.

Okay, Gents - what is a prophet - Isaiah is said to be one - what makes him a prophet? Raheem?

A prophet appears in a bad situation for his people and speaks to truth.

Nice words. What do they mean?

We got into it. We covered all manner of topic merging to our core issue.

Jabari -A prophet is a guy who is aware of what is going and can make sense of it by what went on before and predict future outcomes.

Joe S.The person who refuses to accept bad terms in exchange for moment a peace is a prophet.

Chris McS. A prophet can not be bribed or bought off.A prophet will not be a crook.

Raheem A prophet believes in more than his own comfort. Like Father Mallette, Hickey!

Context - Father Mallette is beaten viciously, but Father Mallette forgave his torturers.

Consensus That is a prophet, Hickey.

You may say, gentlemen.

I never work a day in my life.

Leo 26, St. Laurence 20: The Lions off to a Nice Start

The Leo Lions won a tough one against Irish Christian Brother sibling St. Laurence last night in the newly up-graded and re-surfaced Gately Stadium at 103rd & Corliss in Pullman.
Gatley Stadium was covered with the obsolete Astro-turf, which was like playing on a pool table. The Lions and the Vikings have a long and mutually respectful rivalry begun when Leo men Tom Kavanaugh and the great Mike O'Neill ( son of legendary Leo coach Horsey O'Neill)* led the Irish Christian Brother school in west suburban Burbank, IL.
Last year St. Laurence dominated the Lions on their home field.

Last night at the iconic limb-taxing Gatley Stadium the Lions bested the Vikings.

I am off to Dan Ryan Woods to catch the Leo Freshman play against the young Vikings at 9AM.

UpDate: The Young Lions lost to the Vikings 19-14 in a very well-played and disciplined game. Way to Go, Vikings!


Well done Lions - Coach Holmes and his staff prep-ed you gents solid.


White Division Chicago Catholic League 2010-2011

Conference Overall



Bishop McNamara 7 0 8 3
Saint Ignatius 5 2 5 6
St. Laurence 5 2 6 5
Leo 4 3 5 5
De La Salle 3 4 3 6
Gordon Tech 2 5 2 7
Hales Franciscan2 5 2 7
St. Joseph 0 7 0 9

Leo Fight Song
Oh, when those Leo men fall into line,
And their colors black and orange
are Unfurled,
You see those Brawny stalwarts wait
The sign,
And then their might against the foe
Is hurled
For then the foe shall feel the lions might,
And spirit of our team’s attack,
For with every heart and hand,
We will fight as one strong band,
For the honor of the orange and black!
RAH! RAH! RAH!

From the Great Taylor Bell
*

To this day, Mike O'Neill hasn't gotten over it. He is retired after coaching football for 20 years at Andrew High School in Tinley Park but he still remembers that day in 1977 when, as an assistant at St. Laurence, the heavily favored Vikings lost 14-0 to Deerfield in the semifinals of the state playoff and coach Tom Kavanagh quit.

"We were an outstanding team. We were playing our best football. We had played so well the week before to beat Elk Grove (34-15)," O'Neill recalled. "But Deerfield did some things that we didn't figure out. They were much better than we thought. Emotionally, we just didn't have it that day."

Losing to Deerfield was unexpected. But what came afterward was unimaginable.

"When we got back to the school, he told us: 'That's it for me.' We had no hint that he was quitting. He wanted to go out and build homes," O'Neill said.

Kavanagh had gotten married. His teaching salary wasn't enough to support his family. He had a side job, contracting to build new homes, which he did before and after school. He just walked away from coaching. He never attended another football game at St. Laurence.

So ended a short but brilliant coaching career. The Chicago Catholic League peaked in the late 1960s and 1970s as Kavanagh and fellow coaches Pat Cronin of St. Rita, Lou Guida of Mendel, Bob Spoo of Loyola, Tom Winiecki of Gordon Tech and Tom Mitchell of Brother Rice took the conference to another level and into the state playoff.

Kavanagh coached for only eight years. His teams won 80 percent (67-17-4) of their games, won a state championship in 1976 and three consecutive Prep Bowls from 1972 to 1974. He inherited a program that was 17-41 in its first seven years and went from 1-8 to 4-3-2 and the school's first-ever Catholic League playoff victory in his first season.

"He was a genius, ahead of his time in football. Whatever he did, coaching football or teaching math or building homes, he thought he could be the best," O'Neill said. "But he used to laugh when people called him a genius. He'd say as long as our players were better than the other team, we will be geniuses. Coaching can't win games, he said, but it can lose games. He believed when St. Laurence started to get talent, they started winning."

Jerry Skizas was the first talented football player to enroll at St. Laurence in 1968. It was the first year that the Burbank school offered leadership scholarships, which paid tuition for 15 to 20 athletes. Skizas was recruited as a quarterback. He chose St. Laurence over Brother Rice, St. Rita and Leo. It was a coup for coach Frank Minik. After graduating in 1972, Skizas earned a scholarship to Tulsa.

Minik was fired after going 1-8 in 1969, Skizas' sophomore year, and Kavanagh was hired. "I cried when Minik was fired But it only took a little time around Kavanagh and you knew him. When I left, I knew Kavanagh was going to do great things. He was brilliant. I was in on the ground floor of the program. More than anyone, he was responsible for building the St. Laurence program," Skizas said.

Kavanagh was an enigma. He had played football for Mike O'Neill's father at Leo and had been a member of the Irish Christian Brothers order that ran Leo, Brother Rice and St. Laurence. He was athletic director at Leo when Mike O'Neill was a student. Then he left the order, taught math at Loyola Academy, then moved to St. Laurence in the spring of 1970.

He was a warm and fuzzy guy. He was intimidating and demanding. He had brutal one-liners for his players. He didn't socialize. He didn't have social graces. He once invited a coach for dinner, then itemized the bill. He was a very private person. No one knew him well. He seemed cold and arrogant and distant and aloof. He didn't have a wide circle of friends. He didn't hang out with coaches. He drank coffee by the pot. He didn't have a retirement party.

He also was an epileptic. Few people were aware of his illness. After one practice, he confided in assistant coach Ray Konrath. "You know when we left the films last night at 11? I left and wound up in Joliet," Kavanagh told Konrath. Some players said he had a seizure in the overtime of the 1976 state championship game. In 1985, he suffered a seizure, drove his pickup truck into a retention pond and drowned.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/lockerroom/2010/08/remembering_tom_kavanagh.html

Leo Lions Defeat De LaSalle 27-26!

Leo comes back to upset Meteors

Lawrence Huff scored on a fumble return and recorded an interception at the Leo two-yard line with 40 seconds to play as the Lions stormed back from a 20-point, third-quarter deficit to stun No. 24 De LaSalle 27-26 Thursday night at Gately Stadium.