Reflection #14 (Only 1062 to go!): Loose Ends
Loose end #1
I'm sorry that I didn't make it to the 4th floor for the class of '86. Some of my favorites are in that class, but, as I was about to get on the elevator, I saw Frank Raispis and he looked pretty worn out. Us (or is it "we") old-timers don't have much of a 2nd wind to catch. I was Frank's driver, so I chose to "err on the side of the angels" and we left.
Loose end #2: Following "Reflection #13", about football ending and baseball beginning, someone encouraged me to write why I thought that Fr. Koch dropped football. My opinion is based on surmise and conjecture. There are others still around who have a far better handle on that, but I will (sort of) state my opinion.
We did not have a very successful football program for the first two years that I was at Ignatius. No blame game here; remember, if I point one finger at someone, three are pointed back at me...probably pretty well aimed. But what if Father had held out one more year? There was a new coach with a new system. The junior varsity had been somewhat more successful. Who knows?
What happened before that fateful decision? Around 1958, several of the Christian Brothers high schools had pulled out of the Catholic League and formed the Chicagoland Prep League. My understanding was that they left the Catholic League in order to ratchet down interscholastic sports (not to do away with them) and improve intramural sports. I heard that they had decided to spread the use of the facilities and the expenditures more equitably through the student body by up-grading the intramural program, but I don't really know that.
Perhaps the cost of having football at St. Ignatius, combined with the fact that we weren't doing very well, lead to the decision. I was not privy to that information.
Loose End #3
I couldn’t help but think of that when I was reminiscing about Fr. Koch deciding to drop football. In “string theory*”, which I don’t understand at all, there could be an infinite number of universes in which every possible event and out-come is played out. Maybe in one of them, Ignatius didn’t drop football, and there was a different result. Just a thought. Wait! I just gave myself a head-ache.
(*It has something to do with particle physics, black-holes and 11-dimensions. I saw it on the Science channel; I think I need to get a job.): After blog #11 which included the cliché "Raispis/Spalding Clichés to Live By", someone asked that I include some more of the tenets. Perhaps at a later time, but one rule that stuck in my memory was frequently posited by Dr. Mailliard, not by Frank or me. Those of you who ran for him may have heard him say, "When we quit, we quit one day too early." If it isn't obvious, his point was that if we hung in there one more day, we would succeed.: I was very happy to see the alumni who came to the reunion(s) on April 9th. While I have to admit that my memory isn't as good as it once was (and probably never was), I was excited to hear how those of you that I knew "back in the day" were doing. Whether you're successful in your career, dealing with set-backs in a career, still training for a career, or raising a beautiful family, it's always interesting. I was talking with one alumna who, after college, spent a year in Hawaii (as a waitress) and a year in Australia. Now she’s back working for an advanced degree in her profession. At 28, she's had way more adventures than I've had at 72.
Thanks for the football explanation...I remember being told long ago that part of the reason had to do with contentious relations between the Jesuits and the Archdiocese. Here's a positive spin: Lack of football put SICP on the early early cutting edge of the popularity of soccer. The only problem is that it's 40-some years later, and the edge has yet to do much cutting.
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