Prospect's Davis tackling a new opponent: A hot dog

Forbes tells us there are 735 billionaires in the United States, but the pertinent question is this:

How many have their own hot dog?

Prospect senior "Crash" Davis does.

In tandem with naming him "Hubby's Dog of the Game" after returning an interception for a touchdown in Week 5, Hubby's Dog House in Mount Prospect had Davis pick his toppings and name the hot dog.

Hubby's donates $1 for each sold to Prospect's football program and the Knight Media program, whose live broadcasts Hubby's helps sponsor.

The "Crash Dog" is a delectable Vienna dog topped with bacon and slathered with cheddar cheese.

"I really like bacon, so I said, 'Why not put it on a hot dog?'" Davis said.

Sound logic.

A linebacker and defensive lineman with the goal of playing in college, Davis has been a three-time Hubby's defensive player of the week, he said. He's made 74 tackles with 3 sacks.

George Christopher Davis Jr. - as a rambunctious kid he got the permanent nickname "Crash" by a day care worker who had to have seen "Bull Durham" - once was featured in a Daily Herald article after he rescued and rehabilitated a duckling injured by a hawk.

He recently visited Hubby's and said 80 of his hot dogs had been sold, "numbers of them" to his teammates. They gave it the chef's kiss.

"Everyone says it's good," Crash said. "I couldn't be happier."

A real gentleman

How wonderful it was years ago, popping into a St. Francis boys basketball game and seeing Pete Ventrelli monitoring the entrance to the gym.

He'd retired a couple years before from Downers Grove North, where he taught history and coached Trojans football, a hall of fame inductee for both Downers North and the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association.

Despite best intentions to stay in touch, retired coaches go off into the sunset and you often lose track.

Instead there was Ventrelli, always the gentleman, asking how things were going, brightening the day.

One of the coaches listed among the West Suburban Conference's 100-year anniversary honor roll released this summer, Ventrelli, 74, died just before midnight Oct. 13, after a two-year battle with cancer.

He was with family members including his wife, Peggy, son, Pete Jr., and daughter, Kelly, in the couple's second residence in Naples, Florida. The Ventrellis' primary residence remained in Downers Grove.

The family may plan a memorial for December, Downers Grove North athletic director Denise Kavanaugh said.

As Ventrelli said about his surprise resignation as Trojans football coach on Nov. 30, 2001, he sought to control his own destiny at the end, declining further cancer treatment.

"Before he left, he and I had some pretty in-depth conversations," said one of his friends and coaching contemporaries - they were one and the same - retired Hinsdale Central coach Ken Schreiner.

"'I am so fulfilled,'" Schreiner said Ventrelli told him. "'I don't have anything I don't feel I wasn't able to do. I am so prepared.'"

On the football field, one had best be prepared to defend Ventrelli's split-back veer option offense, which delivered a 1990 Class 6A runner-up finish, a 1998 semifinal and nine playoff berths at Downers North from 1986-2001.

"He was my mentor," said Ventrelli's successor, John Wander, still a student at Elmhurst College when he joined Ventrelli's staff as a volunteer.

"You think you know football, but not at the level that Coach Ventrelli knew it. He was so precise it was beyond recognition," Wander said.

"We ran so little but it was so exact that it was like watching a choreographed dance. More was not better, less was better, and do it to perfection."

Starting as a head coach in 1971 at Heyworth, south of Bloomington - his first quarterback was former Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan - Ventrelli had winning records at Heyworth, Leyden, East Aurora, Morton and Downers North, where he went 111-57.

Before this season the last time East Aurora made the playoffs was 1982 with Ventrelli at the helm.

Schreiner said Ventrelli helped foster friendships with fellow West Suburban coaches such as Jim Covert, Jack McInerney, Gary Grouwinkel, Bob Gregolunas and Jack Derning. They and their wives have celebrated an annual holiday dinner, among other gatherings, for 30 years.

Ventrelli's civility was reflected on the football field.

"It was his approach to high school athletics and what they should represent, and how he wanted his kids to purport themselves," Schreiner said.

The Crow flies

In a three-set win over Hersey on Oct. 16, Stevenson girls volleyball coach Tim Crow won his 600th match.

"We have amazing kids. They deserve the credit. We have a large student population with talented athletes," Crow said.

Those amazing kids upped the total to 602 victories when the 29-7 Patriots beat Libertyville on Oct. 18 and topped South Elgin Tuesday in the Class 4A playoffs.

According to Illinois High School Association records, entering Thursday's Larkin regional final against Rolling Meadows, Crow is tied for 40th place on the all-time list for girls volleyball.

"We have had a consistent and stable coaching staff throughout my 22 years here. I'm blessed to be on the journey with them each season and I really enjoy being around them each day," Crow said.

doberhelman@dailyherald.com