‘It’s a big loss’: Former Lake Park football coach Monken provided ‘a great example’
A man’s man and a coach’s coach.
That was Bob Monken, in the words of one of his peers.
The hall of fame Lake Park High School football coach and 57-year Wheaton resident died Sunday at 86 from Parkinson’s disease, a little over a year after his wife of 61 years, Jo Ellen, died in May 2023.
“I feel like I am incredibly lucky to have him as my father. He was a great example of how to be a husband, father, and a man,” said Ted Monken, one of their three sons, all football coaches.
Bob Monken, 86, and his brothers Glenn, Mike, Bill and Jim all are in the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Twelve Monkens have coached high school, college or professional football, including Bob’s son, Todd, offensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens, and nephew, Jeff, Army’s head coach.
Ted Monken said his father taught the same lessons at home as he did on the football field.
“He was the same person for all his players as he was to his sons,” said Ted Monken, Glenbard South’s defensive coordinator. “Tough but fair. He prepared all his ‘sons’ to be successful in life. Not at that particular moment, but for the rest of our lives.
“The number of messages I have received the past few days from former players, coaches, and friends has been humbling,” he said.
Lake Park's career football victories leader, Bob Monken went 151-112 with the Lancers from 1964-93, winning conference championships in three decades.
He also was Lake Park's first department chair of physical education and briefly served as athletic director.
“I love the guy, and he’ll be missed tremendously. He had a lot of impact on my life, and I know he did on a lot of others,” said former Lake Park Principal Marty Quinn, who successfully pushed for Lake Park’s West Campus football stadium to be dedicated as Bob Monken Field. That happened last October.
When Quinn informed Bob Monken’s former players of his death, they were “devastated,” Quinn said.
“Education and academics came first to Bob regardless of the 32 years (two as assistant at Lake Park) he was as a coach. He got that in the minds of his players, that the academics come first,” Quinn said.
“I think that was something all of us appreciated about Bob. It wasn’t just about football, it was about developing the character of your players. There’s life after football.”
Yes, there is. For Monken there was also grandchildren, travel and golf. He was part of a group of retired football coaches, dubbed the Coach’s Tour, who continue to play on Thursday mornings.
Retired Oak Park-River Forest head coach and Downers Grove South assistant Jack McInerney has led the Coach’s Tour for two decades, enlisting coaches such as Joe Petricca, Paul Murphy, Jim Covert, Larry McKeown, Joe Bunge, Ken Schreiner, the late Bob MacDougall and others.
Even with Parkinson’s, Monken came to the course until about a year ago, McInerney said. In his heyday he was among the group’s top players.
“He was a man’s man and a coach’s coach. He always had great stories, a terrific personality. He was just a lot of fun to be around,” McInerney said.
“It’s a big loss for all of us because he was in our group initially and everybody liked him, everybody knew him. Guys like that don’t come around that often,” he said.
A visitation for Bob Monken will be held from 2-6 p.m. Sunday at Hultgren Funeral Home in Wheaton. His funeral will be held at 10:30 a.m. Aug. 19 at St. John the Baptist Church in Winfield.
These promise to be highly attended.
“When it is my time,” Ted Monken said, “if a fraction of people remember me the way so many remember Dad, I will have a life well-served.”
Guest of the Olympics
Sherly Guest has run marathons in every state but Alaska and Hawaii. She’s run them in Belgium, Iceland, Ireland, Portugal, Scotland, Spain; in Berlin, Jakarta, London, Tokyo and elsewhere.
But this is a first.
A Lake Bluff resident who since 2019 has worked as a teacher’s aide in Mundelein’s Fremont School District 79, Guest will run in the Paris 2024 Mass Participation Marathon, a first-time event accompanying the Olympics.
Guest and 20,023 others worldwide who qualified, split evenly between women and men, will run the same course as the Olympic marathoners. Guest said they’ll take off from the Hôtel de Ville an hour after the men’s Olympic marathon starts at 8 p.m. Paris time.
“I am one of the luckiest runners to be selected for this,” Guest said in a text message Wednesday while on a train out of London.
A cheaper and more leisurely route than direct from Chicago to Paris, on July 30 she flew to Iceland for a couple days, then to London. After five days there she took a train to Paris.
A friend alerted Guest to the Mass Participation Marathon back in 2022, when she submitted her application.
Guest didn’t receive a response for a full year when on Sept. 8, 2023, she received an email of acceptance.
“I thought it was a scam! I had to ask one of my co-workers at Lincoln School to read the email again to confirm the news,” she told District 79’s public relations director Nick Brilowski.
Nope, no scam. She’ll be running Paris by night.
“My goal is just to finish it,” Guest wrote in a text.
She’s run an Ironman in Iowa. We’re betting she will.
“It is a super-tough course,” Guest said. “However, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It might never happen again.”
Show your stuff
The Windy City Bulls, the NBA G League affiliate of the big club, are holding tryouts for local players on Sept. 14 and Sept. 21 at Hope Academy in Chicago. Prospects need attend only one of those dates.
Participants will be vying for an invite to Windy City Bulls training camp in late October. Each date is limited to 100 candidates, with no walk-ins or phone registration.
It does cost money: $250 until Aug. 30, $300 starting Sept. 1, nonrefundable.
Dreams can come true. Chicagoan Alfonzo McKinnie tried out in 2016 and went on to play in the NBA five seasons, and now plays in Europe.
Information and registration is available at windycity.gleague.nba.com under “Tryouts.”
doberhelman@dailyherald.com