Coach who built ‘The Streak’ at East Leyden to be honored in Rosemont
Gary Wolf is an assistant boys basketball coach at St. Viator, but for six years in the 1980s he assisted Norm Goodman at Leyden.
“I never worked so hard as a coach, and I never laughed as much,” Wolf said.
The humor is a matter of perspective. It was hard to play against Goodman-coached teams. They went 548-185 in his 29 seasons at East Leyden and Leyden from 1961-90.
Once a captain in the Marines, his East Leyden Eagles won a record 108 straight regular-season games between 1974-78.
An Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Famer who died in 2012 at 82, Goodman was “probably the best practice coach for years in the state,” Wolf said.
“He was always years ahead of the game. A master of teaching fundamentals and being able to break down the other team, where our players probably knew the other team’s offense better than they knew their own offense,” Wolf said.
Goodman fans will remember his expertise, humor and that 108-game winning streak Tuesday at Moretti’s Rosemont, 9519 W. Higgins Road, in an event whose proceeds will go toward installing a Norm Goodman tribute wall at the Basketball Museum of Illinois in the Wintrust Sports Complex in Bedford Park.
Leyden star, IBCA Hall of Famer and former Chicago Bulls announcer Tom Dore (Goodman also was a great big man coach, Wolf recalled) will emcee the event from 6-9 p.m. It costs $30 and includes a buffet and cash bar.
Goodman aficionados such as four-time East Leyden all-stater Glen Grunwald, who went on to play at Indiana before a long career as an NBA executive, will attend.
People may sign up and pay online right up until Tuesday at the “Events” page at basketballmuseumofillinois.com.
Former Wheaton North and St. Francis basketball coach Bob Ward, who with others such as retired Dundee-Crown basketball coach Bruce Firchau has worked for years to establish a basketball museum, admired Goodman when Ward was a young coach coming up through the ranks.
“I watched Norm's teams and thought to myself, ‘That's how I want my kids to play. Disciplined, smart, great defense — and nobody was tougher than East Leyden kids,” Ward said.
He eventually joined the staff and became a co-owner of Goodman’s Future Stars Camp that began in 1983 and remains at Lake Forest College, where Goodman is in its hall of fame.
“I never met a greater basketball mind,” Ward said. “A great innovator of the game. Coaches flocked to Norm for advice and mentorship. And he was one of the funniest guys I have ever known.”
Wolf soaked it all in.
“To me he was a father figure, mentor and best friend all rolled up in one, and we stayed close friends until the day he passed away,” Wolf said.
“I’m still coaching, and there’s not a day in practice I don’t think about him, about what he would do or how he would approach certain situations. He’s always on my mind.”
Friday night tennis
Spreading the Friday night wealth, St. Francis hosts its annual “Friday Night Lights” girls tennis event this week against Batavia. A few hundred people attend this event yearly, the St. Francis folks say.
It starts at 3 p.m. with junior varsity tennis matches and includes food trucks. By around 6 p.m. there will be performances by the cheer team and music director Bob Mamminga’s great St. Francis Rock Band.
This year as part of “Friday Night Lights” St. Francis will salute Wheaton Police Chief Princeton Youker and Deputy Chief Van Dillenkoffer.
After all that, St. Francis and Batavia varsity girls tennis players take the courts at around 7 p.m., the anticipated guitar tones of AC/DC still ringing in their ears.
Your undefeated Chicago Bears
That’s the Great Lakes Adaptive Sports Association (GLASA) Chicago Bears wheelchair football team. It went 4-0 at a USA Wheelchair Football League tournament Aug. 23-24 in Rosemont.
Beating a team representing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 29-0 for the title, the Bears didn’t allow a touchdown in any of their games.
Coached by Jason Sfire of North Barrington and Daniel Venus of Mundelein, the Bears roster includes Josh Fabian (Vernon Hills), Curtis Lease (Naperville), Dave Michael (Round Lake), Brian Pezze (Streamwood), Ashley Phillips (Schaumburg), Eastman Tui (Park Ridge), and Jeff Yackley (Palatine).
The Bears fly into a hornets’ nest for their next tournament, in Tampa on Sept. 27-28.
doberhelman@dailyherald.com