Jordan Lynch Back at Northern Illinois University

Jordan Lynch

If you are checking the stats and game notes for the Edmonton Eskimos in Canada this year to see how former quarterback of Northern Illinois University Jordan Lynch is faring, well, he is back at NIU this season coaching running backs. Lynch is a fellow alum of Mount Carmel High School. 

Canadian teams have a swarm of quarterbacks because they play on a much bigger field in a more wide open game. Often, the QBs in Canada have kind of an old school toughness and a personality to go along with it. The Canadians do not pay anything like the NFL here, so it's not like you can go up to Canada, play a few years and sit back and live comfortably. Most players also have their eye on the next step in their career and just how they are going to look after their families full time. 

So for reasons known to Lynch, he decided to hang it up in Canada and head back to the sideline in DeKalb where he works for his old coach, Rob Carey. I had an opportunity to meet Coach Carey a few years ago and I was impressed. Carey is a supurb coach and a very smart guy. His program is excellent and I'd have to believe his staff is a great place to start a coaching career. 

In coaching, at the professional and college level, there is often  a lot of movement that goes on.  There is also a progression of steps that are often involved, but things happen in unusual ways as well. It's not always clear, but you move up in responsibility as you go along. Sometimes you stay with a head coach as they move from school to school. People have different goals and not everyone wants to be a head coach. Some in fact go back to high school, and some even go on to the pros.  

I remember researching the life of Bill Belichick and his dad Steve was a good coach. But Steve wanted more stability than what would be offered  by just coaching, so he focused on scouting and teaching at the Naval Academy. Bill Belichick himself took another path and started working in the pros where he did things like drive the other coaches around and pick up lunches--he moved up from there. So there are traditional roles and some other roads you can take, but it depends on your goals and circumstances--and then like any job there is a matter of  things like luck, fate, destiny. 

I wish Jordan Lynch great success in his next step. Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Pray for Us. 

Lawrence Norris is the author The Brown and White, a fictionalized memoir about his time in High School. 

Two New Books by Chicago Irish: Houlihan on Politics and Maher on Catholic League Football

A couple Irish Chicago men have new books out.  They are like night and day, but both authors are known widely here and media men.

For fans of Chicago politics, Mount Carmel Alum Mike "Houli" Houlihan has a new book out called Nothing's on the Square about his experiences on the 2015 mayoral campaign trail with Jesus “Chuy” Garcia who was running against Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Rick Kogan, of Chicago Tribune/WGN Radio, calls the book:

“a deep dive into the wicked and wacky world of Chicago politics with a man who knows the score. An incisive, rollicking, intimate trip.”

Houlihan is chairman of Hibernian Transmedia, a public charity dedicated to Irish and Irish American culture. Known to many Chicagoans, Houlihan wears many hats. In addition to his involvement in politics and public relations, he is an actor, playwright, radio show host, producer and author to name a few. His books beside Nothing on the Square include Hooliganism Stories and More Hooliganism Stories. His one man biographical play called “Goin’ East on Ashland” was performed in Chicago for six years. 

Nothing on the Square is available on Amazon and his publisher at https://abbeyfealepress.com . Checkout Houli's Facebook page for news of upcoming book signings as they are schedule and where you can meet the author.

For fans of Chicago high school football and the Catholic league, Tim Maher has a new book. I have spoken to Tim Maher the past 6 months or so as he was preparing his 3 Yards and a Cloud of Dust for publication.  The book is out now and available at Chicago Catholic League Football. Tim was certainly a big part of the St. Rita Championship Season that his book covers. But he is one of those guys who has been a big part of sports in Chicago at its most visceral level.  He sweats, bleeds, and breathes Chicago sports. 

Tim's reach goes way beyond St. Rita and even football. One of his other life-time avocations has been Chicago softball and he is a member of the Softball (16") Hall of Fame. He has been involved with media coverage of Chicago sports for many decades. 

But there are many things about 3 Yards and a Cloud of Dust that are attractive to many people--I hesitate to even suggest the people who will read it because it's a little like one of those items on the Antique Road Show that appeals to collectors from different genres. Tim's book is definitely a football story, a Catholic League story, a Chicago story and more. And the book is very visual--tons of photos, lists, and even a poem here or there.  

One of the elements to the book that I know Tim felt very strongly about was the reproduction of coaching notes for each of the games described in the book for St. Rita's run at the 1970-1971 Catholic League and Prep Bowl Championship. The notes are included as they were written so readers are taken back to the time in every way possible. 

After writing my own book about high school called The Brown and White, I was reminded of the allegiance that athletes certainly have to their schools. I think this is likely the case of the players just having so much deeper roots with their schools than most kids based on the sacrifices and frankly the punishment that they put in while there.  The after hours, endless practices, and training create a bond that might be described as Marine-like. And in most cases, there was a payoff in that the athletes were often the kids most respected and appreciated at the schools.  At least in my era, no one was paying much attention to the Science or French Club (I was in Fr. Pryor's Science Club).  At Mount Carmel (my school), most everyone wanted to be on one of the teams.  I think we had at least half the school try out for the football team and I suspect the same might be true for Tim's St. Rita, and other schools such at Mendel, Brother Rice, etc. 

Of course, the teachers and administrators at the schools take academics very seriously and want their students to succeed in life and become good men. Tim alludes to that in the book as well, but he comes at it from an athletes perspective. This is a football book, after all.

And that allegiance, that love of school and the significant impact that it has, well, it is a big part of Tim's story.  It is not so much a point made in the lines of text, it is often between the lines. 

Tim is a product of Visitation parish in Chicago. I don't think there was ever a parish that produced football players like Visitation--a school that produced athletes who would star in the preps and then go on to many of the best colleges. 

I've learned at times not to project how people will read and how much they will appreciate what someone writes. I have been involved in publishing my entire adult life and there are always surprises.  At the same time, a story like Tim's could only be created by Tim--it is not an exact narrative or something that was written to intellectually reach interested parties.  It is more like a battle plan and diary that gives athletes, their families, and others a return ticket to the time, the place, and the deeds. I suspect, some people may spend a half an hour with the book and others will pick it up again and again. 

If you have your own Chicago "crew" from a Chicago Catholic school, Tim has prices that will allow you to buy a number of books to check off en masse for your Christmas list. For everyone else it's certainly affordable for a single copy purchase. 

Athletes often suggest that they stand "shoulder to shoulder" with each other at difficult times.  Tim's book reminds us that commitment of that kind can come early in life and live on.