Pohlman Field a reality at Prospect

By Marty Maciaszek

For 29 years it was Larry Pohlman's field of dreams at Prospect.

It was the place where he taught hundreds of kids how to play the game of baseball the right way. He helped make sure some of their lives didn't turn the wrong way.

One of those kids, Mike Quade, has realized a major league dream as manager of the Cubs. Another one, Ross Giusti, succeeded Pohlman as the school's head coach when he finally put aside his fungo bat in 1996.

Others such as Kevin Kelley, Larry Lewis and Bob Whisler also went on to help kids the same way Pohlman helped them.

A bunch of the kids coached by Pohlman had their own dream as adults. One they'll see come to fruition April 21 when the baseball field at Prospect officially becomes Larry Pohlman Field.

“When I got the call from Kurt (Prospect principal Laakso) it was a nice surprise,” Pohlman said Friday afternoon from his winter home in Florida where he's with his wife Vicki. “I told Kurt I was humbled and appreciative. I'm really happy a bunch of people went to bat for me.”

A nice analogy for an honor the District 214 school board agreed was well deserved at its board meeting Thursday night.

And the initial pitch to get things rolling came from Kelley, who pitched for Pohlman in the early 1970s.

“I was at my daughter's volleyball game at Prospect,” said Kelley, who teaches at Niles North and is a varsity baseball assistant at Hersey. “I saw ‘Jean Walker Field House (for the girls sports pioneer)' and I got to thinking, (former athletic director George) Gattas' name is on the football field. Larry's been around 29 years and should have the baseball field named after him.”

Kelley, Lewis, Whisler and Quade and his brother Scott wrote letters on Pohlman's behalf. So did Mike Wulbecker, Jim Prandini, Tom Hayes, Mark Toljanic, Eddie Stryker, Dave Lundstedt and retired Daily Herald high school guru Bob Frisk.

Many of them extolled what Pohlman did beyond his 435-304 career record and six Mid-Suburban South titles.

“He's been very humanitarian, with a lot of things people didn't know about,” Kelley said. “He was a great baseball coach, there's no doubt about that.

“But there's the human side of it. He had players stay at his house when they got thrown out of their house. He'd buy a pair of spikes for a kid who couldn't afford it.”

After Kelley graduated and finished playing at Northern Illinois he was living in an apartment by himself because his parents moved to Florida. He would up being a regular dinner guest at Pohlman's house.

And it was Pohlman who eventually directed Kelley to give up an unenjoyable business analyst's job to become a teacher and coach.

“He was a big influence on a lot of us as coaches,” Kelley said.

The Beloit, Wis., native played at Bradley and for a couple of seasons professionally. Pohlman went from teaching and coaching at downstate Paris to Wheeling and then to Prospect when Bill Slayton took the Arlington basketball job — a year after future big-leaguers Dave Kingman and Tom Lundstedt graduated.

“I feel blessed,” Pohlman said. “I came up and told my wife the Prospect job would be the sweetheart of all of them if I could ever get this job.

“The people, the kids and the community — it really had everything.”

Pohlman did what he could to enhance the experience by getting an outfield fence put in and dugouts built. Now there will be another Pohlman Field along with the one named after his dad Harry in Beloit, where the Twins' Class A affiliate plays.

Quade will be able to make the dedication since the Cubs are off that Thursday. So will Kelley because Prospect will be playing Hersey.

“There were a lot of good players and really good people I got to coach,” Pohlman said. “It was a real plus-plus situation and I'm looking forward to seeing some of those kids.”

At Larry Pohlman Field.