Crow-Armstrong's father made his name in a different sport at Naperville Central
Back in 2012, Matt Armstrong did an interview with Daily Herald TV and film columnist Dann Gire.
The story was essentially about the Naperville native's role on “American Horror Story,” but included a reference to a future success story.
“I have a 10-year-old son and he takes up a lot of time,” Armstrong said in 2012. “I coach his Little League Baseball team. I spend all my free time at the ballpark. I love it. I conduct baseball camps for 6- and 7-year-olds. If I could make a living just doing that, I would make it my full-time job.”
The son is Pete Crow-Armstrong, who made his debut with the Cubs on Monday night. Matt Armstrong did not make it to Denver for the debut, but was at Coors Field for Tuesday's game.
Baseball dad is just the latest step in an interesting journey that began on Chat Court, south of downtown Naperville.
Armstrong was a star athlete at Naperville Central High School, not in baseball, but football. And there is no shortage of bone-rattling descriptions of the All-DuPage Valley linebacker.
“He's one of the toughest kids that's ever played at Naperville Central, or anywhere else, as a linebacker,” said former Redhawks assistant coach John Urban. “He was kind of short, but I'll tell you, he was on fire. He was not afraid of anybody, he hit anybody.”
Naperville Central baseball coach Mike Stock is a year older than Armstrong, but grew up on the same street, so the two have been lifelong friends.
“He had a high motor, let's put it that way, and he combined it with a lot of smarts,” Stock said. “Even though he wasn't the biggest guy in the conference, he was the toughest for a couple years, there was no question about that.”
We know now where this story goes, but it is a little unusual for a hard-nosed linebacker to make his next step into theater. Armstrong's story is sort of a real-life twist on “High School Musical.” He earned a Belushi scholarship at College of DuPage, an award established by Wheaton native Jim Belushi to honor his late brother John.
“I went to Loras and he came up for a recruiting trip in late fall of his senior year,” Stock said. “I know he was looking at St. Francis for a little bit. Those schools loved him. It was a bit of a surprise when we learned he wasn't going to play football.”
Then Stock watched Armstrong perform Shakespeare on stage at COD and it all made sense.
“It was funny, because you looked at him, it was the exact same way he did things,” he said. “It was all-in, unbelievable focus and very intelligent. So while it doesn't seem like a natural pairing, with Matt it really was.”
Connie Canaday Howard taught Armstrong's first college acting class.
“I was new at the college and I remember saying to a colleague, ‘He is very talented,'” she said. “But he was quiet. Three or four weeks in, he started to be more vocal in class. From that first class, he just sort of took off.”
Armstrong eventually moved to the city, took on some challenging roles with Glen Ellyn's Buffalo Theatre Ensemble and joined a Shakespeare company in Canada.
“We used to drive to the show together every night and it was so fun to be with him,” said former co-star Amelia Barrett, now chair of COD's theater department. “He is very sweet and kind, and very funny. He was just hilarious. He used to make me want to break up (on stage).”
Once he got to Hollywood, Armstrong had a steady, relatively unspectacular career. The highlight was “Turks,” a CBS police drama set in Chicago. The show didn't last long, but that's where he met his wife, Ashley Crow. This was roughly five years after Crow appeared in the film, “Little Big League.”
Stock said he and his Naperville friends have a running joke. Whenever a television show is discussed, they always say, “It's not as good as ‘Turks.'”
“Because it was a big deal,” he said with a laugh. “We still celebrate that.”
In 2016, Armstrong switched careers and now teaches English at Sierra Canyon School in Los Angeles. Canaday Howard provided maybe the perfect tribute to Armstrong's durable acting career.
“There was a long time as a professor where I would be grading papers, my husband or my kids would be watching TV, I'd hear a voice and I'd go, ‘That's Matt,'” she said. “He'd be on ‘NCIS' or he'd be on ‘Bones' or ‘Heroes' or ‘American Horror Story.' He was an active actor.”
And the next time someone picks out Armstrong's voice, he'll probably be cheering on his son at Wrigley Field.
Twitter: @McGrawDHSports