Constable: Bartlett native is basketball legend at University of Chicago

A pretty good basketball player for his St. Joseph Elementary School team in Elgin, Bartlett native Mike McGrath and his head coach Edward Seisser both felt a calling. Seisser went on to become a beloved priest. McGrath became the winningest head coach in the history of basketball at the University of Chicago.

McGrath's U of C Maroons ended the season Saturday with a loss to Washington University in St. Louis to finish the season 15-10, good for fourth in the eight-team University Athletic Association but falling short of the Division III men's basketball championship tournament. With his lifetime record of 298-209, McGrath shot past U of C Hall of Fame coach Joseph Stampf's record 208 victories back in 2013.

“The kids I get to work with are ridiculous. They are just really special guys,” McGrath says, noting his players are all driven scholars who also can play basketball. But there is more to the program than basketball and academics.

“That might be the best thing about Coach, the relationships he's built,” says Jordan Baum, 20, a 6-foot-3 junior point guard from Deerfield. McGrath makes sure the upperclassmen help the freshmen adjust to college. Teammates help each other on and off the court, and McGrath frequently has his team meet with U of C alums, who can help players with life after graduation.

The team's glossy program includes a page of “McGrath Era Alumni,” listing every former player's occupation, including doctor, surgeon, interventional cardiologist, psychiatrist, investment banking analyst, software engineer, lawyer and more.

With the University of Chicago always rated among the nation's top academic universities, “We fill our team with guys who belong here,” McGrath says, noting his recruiting is “more about research” than selling players on the program. “Every year I look at a list of the top 400 high school basketball players in Illinois. Typically, there are about two we are interested in.”

Having turned 49 in January, McGrath can see himself coaching the Maroons for another two decades.

“I've wanted to do this since fifth grade. Why would I stop?” he says.

His fifth-grade coach Seisser “taught me a lot about sports and competition and team,” says McGrath. When McGrath married his wife, Kari, Father Seisser performed the ceremony.

A 6-foot-3 center on the varsity basketball team at Elgin's St. Edward High School, McGrath knew his future was in coaching.

“I played on a team that was really good, with my best friends. It was such an emotional high, I wanted to get that back,” he says.

One of the reasons he chose to attend DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, was because the head basketball coach was Royce Waltman, a former assistant under Bobby Knight at Indiana University.

McGrath joined the team as a manager, but worked his way up to be a student assistant coach.

“I was working with guys on the floor. I was scouting,” says McGrath, who says he never would have gotten that opportunity at a Division I school.

McGrath graduated in 1992 with a degree in English literature and got an apartment with buddy Dave Yates, now the successful head coach of the Fremd High School girls basketball team. “I got a job at the library at Gordon Tech High School,” McGrath says.

He worked from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m. and then hustled to the University of Chicago, where coach Waltman helped him get an unpaid gig as an assistant to head coach Pat Cunningham.

“I gave myself three years,” McGrath says. At the end of his third year, Cunningham offered him a job as a paid assistant coach. When Cunningham left in 1999, McGrath was hired as head coach at age 28.

He's been Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Coach of the Year four times, UAA Coach of the Year three times, has won four UAA titles, and led the Maroons to an NCAA Division III Elite Eight berth and Sweet 16 appearance. He's taken his team to tournaments in Italy, Spain, South America, New Zealand and Australia.

He's also enjoyed the atmosphere at the elite school in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood.

At his Friday night practices, adult pickup players always lurk courtside waiting for McGrath to give them the floor for pickup games.

“For 10 years, that was President Obama,” McGrath says, noting the then-Illinois senator would show up to play with future Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and others.

“He was just one of those guys waiting to get on the floor. I probably asked him to stop dribbling.”