Libertyville Boys Club has persevered for 75 years
The exact origins are fuzzy, but what is known about the Libertyville Boys Club is that football was not the main event when it was founded 75 years ago.
"Because it was so long ago, we don't have an accurate date, we only have an accurate year," says Adam Beeson, a coach and former commissioner of the organization.
"We don't know who the original founders were but it was founded as a boxing club and it was quite a successful one."
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, boxing matches held in the former Libertyville Township High School (Brainerd building) gym drew thousands of spectators. Local lore has it that one of the first televised sports events in Lake County was a Boys Club-sponsored boxing match at Brainerd.
"I'd really like to do some research to be honest with you," said John Teichman, the current commissioner and a head coach.
Boxing persisted into the early 1950s but eventually was dropped as an activity.
There were experiments with baseball and fast pitch softball, but youth football become the mainstay. Despite some lean years, the club persevered. In fact, it has been thriving.
This season, more than 800 players from third to eighth grade will participate in the club's tackle football program. There also is a flag football program for younger kids. Athletes come from Libertyville, Green Oaks, Mundelein, Vernon Hills, Lake Forest, Lincolnshire, North Chicago and other communities.
The group wants to share its success. Beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday at Butler Lake Park, the opening ceremonies for the 2008 season will double as a 75th anniversary celebration to include a fair, live music and picnic open to the public.
Members of the three bands scheduled to play either went to Libertyville High School or came through the Boys Club football program, according to Teichman.
That continuity is a hallmark of the program, in which one-time players now watch their kids or even grandkids compete from Labor Day through early November.
"The reason this program is so successful is because of the volunteers," Teichman said. "There have been so many great people volunteering and giving their heart and soul to the program."
You may have heard of some of them, as coaches include several Chicago Bears. Ron Rivera, a standout linebacker and later defensive coordinator; former receiver Glen Kozlowski; former defensive coordinator Vince Tobin; and offensive line coach Bob Wiley, for example, all coached Boys Club teams.
"It's unbelievable some of the guys we've had in our program," said Teichman. "Ron (Rivera) got his coaching debut in the Boys Club." Rivera now is a linebackers coach with the San Diego Chargers.
Dozens of alumni have gone on to greater things in college football, including former LHS standout Kevin Walter, now a wide receiver for the NFL's Houston Texans.
"He was a special breed. You could just tell he'd be a great player someday," says Teichman, who coached Walter and hundreds of others since he became involved with the Boys Club program in 1980.
Walter, who played from fifth through eighth grade, remembers looking forward to the games.
"I already had my shoulder pads, my helmet and my gloves on in the car," he said. "It was definitely a lot of fun."
Teichman also is a freshman football coach and head coach of junior varsity lacrosse at LHS. He ticks off names of past volunteers and players as if no time has passed.
He was coaching pony league baseball 28 years ago when he was asked by Bill DeBruler, a local businessman, to get involved with the football program.
"I just fell in love with it and kept going and going. It keeps you young, that's for sure," Teichman said.
At the time, Boys Club football had only eight teams (four teams each with varsity and junior varsity levels) and was in need of a spark.
"One year, we went to seven-man football for the younger kids, just to keep the program going," recalled DeBruler, who played in 1952 and has since watched his kids and grandkids on the Boys Club gridiron.
The program eventually moved to its current home at Butler Lake Park. There now are 45 teams - 16 flag teams, 24 in-house teams and five traveling teams.
"We're definitely one of the largest programs in the Chicago area," Beeson said. Traveling teams participate in the Chicagoland Youth Football League. The Lightweights, comprised of 7th- and 8th-graders weighing 123 pounds or less, have won their division of the national tournament for the last three years.
Part of the success is that everyone gets to play and the league makes sure the competition doesn't get too serious.
"The kids appreciate it. There's not politics involved. The come and play and that's it," Teichman said.
"Coaches give play books out but it's not craziness. We don't allow that. If a coach tries to relive his youth through a kid, we bring them in and talk to them. Yeah, we want to win, but it's not at all cost."