Click HERE to view Ron's video presentation and acceptance speech.
Click HERE to view Hank's video presentation and acceptance speech.
In the pursuit of competitive excellence, athletes are frequently reminded of the importance of earnest self-belief, commitment to a common goal, and fearlessness in the face of adversity as the fundamental tenets of achieving performance at the highest level.
Such qualities form the core of the thriving nature of the North Central College athletic department more than 40 years after Hank and Ron Guenther arrived in Naperville. By attacking each day with vigorous enthusiasm, identifying and capitalizing on opportunities, and disregarding convention, the brothers led an effort to erect a stadium out of thin air, lifting a department and an institution to new heights in the process.
After a one-year stint as an assistant football coach at North Central in 1970, Hank was offered the position of head coach by then-athletic director Al Carius (H) ’16 prior to the start of the 1972 season. Guenther inherited a program comprised of 30 to 40 players, which had won just one game in three years, at an institution that saw enrollment dip to 848 students that fall.
“The team was very discouraged because they had such a losing streak going,” Hank said. “Al thought I could turn it around through recruiting, and he was convinced that being able to recruit an additional 50 to 75 kids would help the overall enrollment.”
Over the course of three years, dogged recruiting efforts yielded a roster of close to 100 players annually, and the College’s enrollment rose to 984 students by fall 1975. Returns in the win column, however, were slow in coming, though a 2-7 finish in 1973 matched the Cardinals’ highest win total in six years. During this time, Hank literally tripped over the first stage of what would be a sweeping change to the College’s outdoor athletic facilities.
“I used to jog with the cross country team on their morning run,” he said. “One morning, I tripped over some weeds and discovered these long, white light poles. They had been paid for by the Pop Warner football league, and I cut a deal with them that if we could have the lights and light poles, they could play games on our field.”
The installation of the lights depended heavily on the involvement of Larry Gregory, Don Deetjen and Dick Wehrli ’56, who would lend their expertise and resources, often with creative means, to nearly every aspect of the renovations that followed.
“Larry really appreciated the way we worked, and decided we would be able to use the poles and the lights,” Hank said. “We had a deal that we would provide the labor and he would provide the expertise. That was the first interaction with Don Deetjen, who dealt in construction and concrete. He got in touch with Dick to get us the concrete. When there was extra concrete after a job, instead of dumping it somewhere, these trucks would bring it here. I’d be teaching a class, and see a truck coming down the hill, and have to grab my work boots and get out there to pour concrete.”
Ron Guenther joined his brother as co-head coach prior to the 1975 campaign after a brief tenure as an assistant coach at Boston College, giving North Central another determined recruiter and a gifted offensive strategist. Their first season coaching together yielded a 5-3-1 overall record, matching the program’s win total from the previous seven seasons combined. The improved on-field product, coupled with the ability to host night games, led to a standing room-only crowd that laid bare the need for an improved stadium setting.
The makings of a solution began to take shape in the winter of 1975-76, when football and wrestling alumnus Eric Avery ’66 alerted Hank to the possible availability of the grandstand at the recently-closed Meadowdale International Raceway in Carpentersville. Hank was able to secure the materials at no cost, but needed to move them to Naperville in just three weeks. At this point, the Guenthers’ accelerated recruiting efforts bore fruit in unexpected fashion, as the Cardinals’ football players mobilized and assisted with the loading and transportation of the stands to campus.
“It was a remarkable experience, because the kids that we recruited had such great passion for the game,” Ron said. “The amount of time and effort those guys, and all of us, put in carrying a stadium down here and putting it back together again, you can’t even describe it. Kids would come between classes to work, and we had different schedules for everybody. It just fell into place. It was maybe the biggest highlight of my professional career.”
The stadium reconstruction was completed in time for the 1976 football season, followed shortly thereafter by a new press box and all-weather track. At each point, coaches, athletes and students volunteered the labor, with Deetjen, Gregory and Wehrli providing operational guidance and sourcing materials. In June 1977, Wehrli arranged for the American Concrete Paving Association to hold its convention at North Central, which included a demonstration of new paving techniques. The result was a new parking area in front of Merner Field House at no cost. Although initial fundraising for the projects netted just $18,000, a swell of sweat equity and determination yielded facilities valuing close to $1,000,000.
The Guenthers’ efforts caught the attention of the Chicago Tribune, which termed the effort an ‘$18,000 Miracle’ in its May 1, 1977 edition.
“We didn’t know what we didn’t know,” Ron says about the unique means used to achieve such a feat. “We didn’t know we couldn’t do it and we didn’t know what we didn’t know about it. You have to have people that have a vision.
“We did get down at times, wondering if we knew what we were doing, but it just kept rolling forward. I just think we stumbled forward with great enthusiasm and hope that we would be able to pull it off, and we did.”
The Cardinals followed with a second straight 5-3-1 campaign in 1976 before going 6-3 in each of the next two seasons, the Guenthers’ final years in coaching. North Central achieved a seven-win season in 1982, matching a school record at the time, then ascended to a new level in the early 2000s, beginning a string of 10 College College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) championships in 12 years in 2006.
“It takes athletes and attitude,” Ron said. “The young people we recruited came to school with the hope that we could get it done, and we started doing things that the program hadn’t done before.
“Some of it was the stadium, and some of it was that we were absolutely confident we could turn North Central into a contender. It was the right group of people with the right vision. So much of what you get done has to do with having the attitude that you can get it done.”
