Leathernecks pay it forward, and get something back in return
The men who played baseball at Western Illinois University in 1974 were, and remain, a tight group.
They stay in touch with each other and with their coach, 86-year-old Dick Pawlow.
They came from the old Driscoll and Forest View high schools, and from Addison Trail, Crystal Lake South, Fremd, Glenbard North, Glenbard West, Larkin, Maine West, Naperville Central. Others now live in Batavia and Buffalo Grove.
Success helped tighten the bond. Enshrined in Western’s Athletic Hall of Fame, the 1974 Leathernecks went 31-12 and in the program’s first postseason appearance were an 11-inning loss away from the Division II College World Series.
The 1974 club set 30 program records that season. Six of those are still No. 1, 50 years later.
Proud accomplishments, but not too proud for the 1974 Leathernecks to turn their noses at Western’s current team.
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 1974 club at Western’s Baseball Alumni Reunion Weekend in Macomb earlier this month, the old ballplayers meshed with the current team. It was a mutual appreciation society.
“These young players on this current team that we’ve connected to, they’re so nice, they are so respectful, they are just model student-athletes. That just shows the kind of caliber that Western baseball has,” said Connie Kowal, a 1970 Glenbard West graduate now living in Libertyville.
Kowal met WIU first-year coach Terry Davis following Davis’ July 2023 hiring. When Davis said he’d like to “meet as many alums as possible,” Kowal marshaled the troops at several get-togethers statewide.
Later, at a golf benefit for the team, Kowal asked Davis if there were anything the 1974 team could do to help this year’s group.
Well, their uniforms were a little worn, Davis said.
Kowal spread the word to his buddies.
“Within three days they had enough money for two sets of uniforms,” Kowal said.
What tickled the old boys was when they went down to Macomb in May, those uniforms displayed patches on their sleeves commemorating the 1974 team.
“A lot of times those commemorative logos are for dead guys,” Kowal said. “It’s always pretty neat to have people remembered when they’re still alive, so we were very touched.”
If they’re lucky, this current Western Illinois baseball team will maintain the same type of connection with their teammates as the 1974 team, whom Kowal called “hall of famers off the field and in life.”
“I love my teammates and my teammates love me and we all love each other,” Kowal said. “That type of positive emotion was something that transcended the whole weekend.”
Kaneland track approved
On April 18 we wrote about the condition of Kaneland High School’s outdoor track and efforts to have it resurfaced or replaced.
The track had not been resurfaced since 1997. Early this spring school administrators ruled it unsafe for competition due to its deteriorated state.
On April 29, by a 7-0 vote the board of Kaneland Community Unit School District 302 approved construction of a new track.
At a potential cost of $1.14 million the current track will be removed and replaced at “the full depth of asphalt and stone sub-base” and topped with a new surface, district documents stated.
The goal is to start the project in June with a completion in mid-September, utilizing a two-week window in the fall to lessen the impact on Knights football, according to the minutes of the April 29 meeting.
It’s a first
It was pretty neat watching video of boys basketball players wearing yarmulkes while swishing 3-pointers and driving to the hoop.
They did it earlier this month at Skokie’s Ida Crown Jewish Academy during the first Chicagoland Jewish Basketball Showcase — a high-scoring all-star game of Jewish players from public and private schools.
“It was great, we got such good feedback from everyone,” said the game’s organizer, Mike Kamin. He got the ball rolling by recruiting Palatine coach Eric Millstone to coach “Team Tel Aviv.” York assistant J.J. Pearl led “Team Jerusalem.”
“The things that I saw from the players were, one, they played at a very high level, it was a well-played game. Two, they looked like they had been playing with each other. Third, they looked like, from me observing it, that they were playing with such freedom,” Kamin said.
At stake was merely a good time, though between support from sponsor Camp Kawaga and game proceeds the exhibition produced a $500 donation to the women’s organization, Hadassah, and the Hadassah Medical Organization.
IHSA officials Mike Fishbain, Ken Pink and Phil Schmidt all donated their time.
Inspired by the prior experience of his son, Lake Zurich senior Jared Kamin, at JCC Chicago’s Maccabi games (not to be confused with the World Maccabiah Games), Mike Kamin beat the bushes to recruit Jewish senior players for the showcase.
He pulled from Jared’s JCC and AAU teams, reviewed rosters and newspaper accounts, and recruited the son of a long-ago pickup basketball teammate. Kamin’s niece even helped, a Glenbrook North student who confirmed that, yes, hot-shooting Spartans guard Sam Lappin is Jewish.
Coming off a fourth-place Class 4A finish, getting Palatine’s Millstone to coach added legitimacy.
The result was an 85-83 Team Jerusalem win that came down to the final shot. Deerfield’s Charlie Robin and Ida Crown’s Jacob Wortman each scored 26 points for the winner. Lappin led “Tel Aviv” with 20 points, followed by Rochelle Zell’s Ophir Zetouni with 16 points and Ida Crown’s Moshe Weisenberg with 13.
Players also included Jared Kamin, Stevenson’s Jayden Daube, Wheeling’s Jason Glassberg and New Trier’s Eli Garber.
Looking ahead, Mike Kamin thinks not continuing the Chicagoland Jewish Basketball Showcase would be a shame.
“You’re playing it for the true enjoyment of the game, and I think that was on full display on the court,” he said. “They were saying, ‘I’m a baller and I’m Jewish, too,’ and you can be both, proudly.”
doberhelman@dailyherald.com