Reflection #49 (Only 1027 to go!): The Generational Gap

     I wonder how many of the present generation Ignatians know that there was a 40-year gap in the history of St. Ignatius football. (If you're reading this "reminiscence", you probably know.)  At Christmas, our son gave my wife and me a framed photo of four Saint Ignatius football coaches from 1962 that he bought on EBay. It had originally been printed in the Chicago Daily News. In the photo were head coach Tom Ososkie, Carmen Pintozzi, Don Lucas and me. There was a personal significance to our family (of which some of you are aware) apart from my being in the picture. This picture flooded our memories, and, it now hangs in a prominent place in our home.
     When I mentioned the photo to Russ Hartigan, 64, ("Hon. Russell Hartigan" to you), he requested that I send him a copy, since he had played on the last Ignatius football team before the sport was dropped for 40 years. I also mentioned the photo to Dr. Arturo Menchaca ('71), who reminded me that Carm's untimely passing prompted him to quit the cross country team prior to his senior year and join the newly formed soccer team in the fall of '70.
      Ososkie left St. Ignatius almost immediately after football was dropped, and Lucas left a few years later. Carmen stayed on to continue to teach history and he became an iconic cross country and track coach through the mid- and-late 60's.

     I named this blog "The Generation Gap" because I was musing about all of the different perceptions of St. Ignatius that the students and teachers have had over the last 50 years. I am privileged to be, for want of a better word, a conduit through those many eras. At the same time, the changes at the school have "left me in the dust" a little bit. As I walk through the halls at school, I am greeted by many old friends, but there is a sizeable "subset" of young people who may be students...or may be teachers. From my vantage point, I can't always tell.
     This week I was at school and I met a young lady who admitted to having been born in 1984...and she is an administrator.  I went into "Tully Hall"...what we use to call the "commons"...and was talking to a teacher who, I'm quite sure, is younger than my children. No big deal; for the first 17 years that I taught at St. Ignatius, I was younger than any of my children are now.
     It got me to thinking. Who are the present day icons?   Is it Josh Morrow, the man who was named Educator-of-the-Year last May? What about coaches like Ed Ernst (track, cross country), Mike Cashman (water polo) and/or Erik Eastman (Girls' Volleyball), all of whom have posted wonderful records over several years? What classroom teachers have filled the places of O'Mara, Raispis, Connelly, and so many of the fine...dare I say "great"?...teachers of my time? I ask for the forgiveness of many truly outstanding teachers that I have failed to include in my short list.
     My sense is that there is no lack of today’s teachers who educate and inspire present-day Ignatius students.  One freshman has already disclosed the name of a teacher who inspires her.  When I started this "gig" of writing my reminiscences, I vowed not to do any research...just work from memory...but I have to admit the temptation to try to hunt out the present day "super-stars" is appealing.

      Whoever you are, keep up the great work!