Tommy Stewart gets well-deserved recognition
By: Fred Kroner
Thursday, August 21, 2008 03:27:24 PM CDT
CHAMPAIGN – The number, on the surface, is staggering: 6.1 years.
It represents the amount of days, when added together, that former Champaign Central High School football coach Tommy Stewart spent at McKinley Field during his tenure.
Photo by: University of Illinois
After playing at Illinois, Tommy Stewart coached Champaign High (and then Central) to 199 victories.
Please understand: That is a conservative figure.
We arrive at it by figuring he was at the field and the adjoining fieldhouse six days a week from the time practice started in August until the season ended. Based on a 12-week season (including the preseason), that amounts to 72 days a year.
Then we multiply that by the 31 years Stewart was the Maroons' head coach before retiring following the 1983 season. That comes to 2,232 days.
Or, 6.1 years.
A fitting tribute
The Hall of Fame football coach won 199 games at Central (and its predecessor, Champaign High) and the Unit 4 varsity football field – located west of Centennial High School – is named in his honor.
And yet, while anyone connected with Central football – past or present – is appreciative, they can't escape the feeling that something still is missing.
Current Central coach Dave Jacobs put it best, referring to the fieldhouse that stands just south of Champaign's McKinley Field along New Street.
"This is where the guy did all the work," Jacobs said.
Pregame meetings were held in the venerable fieldhouse. Midweek interviews with media members were conducted there. The ritual of washing the uniforms on Saturday mornings occurred there.
It was Stewart's home away from home.
And now, it will be aptly named.
On Friday, in the minutes before a special team practice at 6:15 p.m. which is open to all who wish to attend, there will be a ceremony recognizing Tommy Stewart Fieldhouse.
"It's the right thing to do," said Sue Grey, the mother of a current Central senior (tight end Ryan Grey) and a member of the Unit 4 Board of Education.
Officially, the matter has not yet been voted on by the school board, but Grey does not expect any resistance.
"I can say it will probably meet with very favorable reviews," she said.
Return visitor
Stewart, who still lives in Champaign, plans to be at the fieldhouse Friday evening. It will be a visit filled not only with nostalgia but also irony.
"It's hard to believe I was out there that long, but since I retired 25 years ago, I've only been there once and that was a couple of weeks ago," Stewart said. "It's remarkable what they've done to that place."
Stewart said the honor was not one which he was expecting.
"I was a little bit overwhelmed," he said. "It's really nice they would do something like that. What a nice gesture."
Central athletic director John Woods believes the recognition is deserving.
"Tommy Stewart is a legend, not just at Central, but at the UI," Woods said. "The more fields where we can recognize our coaches of the past is a great thing."
Inside Tommy Stewart Fieldhouse is a weightlifting facility. It has been named the Jeff Trigger Weight Room in honor of a longtime football and swimming coach at the school.
Home, sweet home
Central Booster Club president Randy Baker is one of the individuals who put together a presentation for the board to consider. Ironically, he never played for Stewart nor did he graduate from a Champaign high school.
Baker played two years of football at Monticello, followed by two years at Bement, from where he graduated in the mid-1970s.
His son, Adam, is now a senior long snapper and offensive lineman for the Maroons, which helped Randy Baker recognize the need for naming the fieldhouse.
"Central plays its home games at Centennial, and it felt like every game is a road game," Randy Baker said. "They bus everywhere they go."
Under Jacobs, Central has tried to make McKinley Field and the fieldhouse its base of operations.
The Maroons warm up for their "home" games there and return immediately afterward for team meetings and interviews with reporters.
"We are making McKinley Field a true home," Randy Baker said.
The dedication to Stewart will mark the culmination of work done at the fieldhouse. Besides the weight room, there's a film room. Industrial-size washers and dryers aren't far behind.
As the work was done – with a portion of the funding, Randy Baker said, coming from "generous donations from the private and business sector" – there was a recurring theme.
"One thing that kept coming up (from donors) is that a lot of these people had played under Coach Stewart," Randy Baker said. "I'd never met the man, but I know how much influence a coach can be in your life.
"I remember to this day things coaches said to me. It was obvious talking to these people, (Stewart) had a lot of influence on people's lives around here."
Extra credit
Under Stewart, Central football was regarded as one of the elite programs in the Big 12 Conference. The school made the playoffs four of the final five seasons in which Stewart coached.
Jacobs is trying to revive the spirit and the tenacity that led to the respect for Stewart and the program.
"We are trying to bring back the tradition and history to where it was when he was coaching. The timing is perfect," he said. "No question, this is fitting."
Some of the work done during the remodeling of the fieldhouse came from current Central athletes.
Senior lineman Evan Rocheford, for example, painted and organized work crews as part of an Eagle Scout project.
"The boys have invested in this themselves," Sue Grey said. "A lot of times, they don't get enough credit."
The naming of Tommy Stewart Fieldhouse will ensure that the former Maroons coach also will continue to receive the credit he deserves.
Fred Kroner is The News-Gazette's prep sports coordinator. He writes a weekly high school-related column during the school year. He can be reached at 217-351-5235 or fkroner<@>news-gazette.com.