214@100: Prospect's Walker made history; helps preserve it
At Prospect High School, Jean Walker has been a teacher, athletic director and, following retirement, a faithful volunteer.
She also is a legend. A pioneering force in girls' athletics, she started at Prospect in 1972 - the same year Title IX was enacted. In a matter of years, Prospect was featuring 12 interscholastic girls sports, with multiple levels.
"I'm not sure it was so much a vision for me as it was a process," Walker, who was in charge of the Lady Knights' girls sports programs from the 1970s until her retirement in 2000, told the Daily Herald in 2012.
"Each day, week, year, those of us involved in girls sports worked to make the experience better for the girls."
At Prospect she coached badminton, basketball and tennis; organized the first Illinois State Girls Tennis Tournament; served as tournament manager or assistant manager for 36 years; and led the girls basketball team to a sectional title in 1989.
She is an original member of the Illinois Girls Coaches Association Hall of Fame, the 1996 Northwest Community Hospital Sportsman of the Year and, in 2007, became the first female to have an Illinois high school field house named in her honor, when Prospect's competition gymnasium was named for her.
She hasn't stop giving. For years, Walker would gather athletes' accomplishments and photos following the completion of the season and add them to the school's athletics wing wall. This year, she helped convert that photo history to a digital archive - a showcase of athletic achievement created by someone who continues to inspire.
She was honored with a District 214 Distinguished Service Award this year.