The rivalry was ignored
Samantha Edmondson
Daily Egyptian
Splashes of sweat soaked the maroon and gray shirts of SIUC alumni Sunday afternoon as they exited the entrance of Wrigley Field in Chicago Saturday afternoon.
The 97-degree heat pulsated down on the growing herd of Salukis who huddled on Addison Street looking toward their yearly refuge of Cub and Cardinal rivalry at Cubby Bear Lounge for SIU Alumni Day.
But the sweltering temperature was placed in the back of their minds after hearing word that St. Louis Cardinal pitcher Darryl Kile had died that morning.
Passing through the crowded bar to the beer garden, alumni did not hear the usual banter over the current RBI stats of Cub and Cardinal star hitters or who had the best starting line-up.
Instead, Salukis grabbed a Budweiser and leaned against the chain link fence. They glanced toward the historic red electronic sign on the Wrigley Stadium wall that would have given the final score to add to the 111-year baseball team quarrel. But it simply read "Today's Game Canceled."
Media outlets are reporting a blocked artery was the likely cause of Kile's death. According to the Cook County chief medical examiner, two of the three branches of Kile's coronary artery were blocked 80 to 90 percent.
Edmund Donoghue, one physician attending the autopsy, said Kile had dinner with his brother, Daniel, and complained of shoulder pain and feeling weak and tired. He said in published reports that those are signs Kile may have been experiencing heart failure.
Kile's father died in 1993 shortly after having a heart attack in his mid-40s. However, Jim Loomis, the Cardinal's assistant team physician, said he knew of no history of heart problems for the 33-year-old pitcher.
Kile's marked the second death in the Cardinal organization last week. Jack Buck, the team's longtime sports broadcaster, died June 18 at the age of 77 after a prolonged illness - the same night Kile pitched the Cardinals into first place in the National League Central Division.
Saluki fans, both Cardinal and Cub followers alike, remembered this advancement as they started to reunite in the Cubby Bear Lounge beer garden for the 25th annual SIU Day pre-game celebration.
More than 1,500 alumni and friends of the University from as far as New York and California attend the gathering at Cubby Bear Lounge every year. But the exponential growth of the largest off-campus alumni event for SIU did not begin with the organization - it started with a star Saluki athlete.
Former Saluki football captain and 1971 SIUC alumnus George Loukas initiated a reunion with his football buddies in 1976 when he bought his first bar, Sports Corner, down the street from Wrigley Field.
The gathering expanded after the teammates brought friends, family and other SIU alumni to the pre-game party the following year. Loukas said after three years, Bob O'Daniels, a friend and regular to the event, recommended he work with the Alumni Association to blossom the reunion.
"Mr. O'Daniels said, 'George, you are giving money to the football team, which was being unrecognized by the University,'" Loukas said. "Once the football coach leaves, nobody knows that I have done something in the past ... at that time I became a member."
Loukas and SIU alumnus and friend, Paul Conti, bought everything for the event, including tickets, and Conti hosts the reunion at another establishment owned by Loukas, the Cubby Bear Lounge.
"We started buying 500 tickets each," Loukas said. "I was a ticket broker, and I didn't even know I was a ticket broker."
Ed Buerger, executive director of the Alumni Association, attended the event in 1984 and immediately wanted to get the organization involved. He said because of the minuscule funding the Alumni Association had at that time, Conti and Loukas continued to underwrite and pay for the tickets for the event. As a result, the organization began to promote the event through marketing techniques and started to expand the event.
"Over the course of the next five or six years, we grew this event to the point where it became the single largest alumni event off-campus annually in the history of SIU," Buerger said. "Now we buy the tickets, but it is an event now where the Cubs won't sell us any more than 1,500 tickets, but if they would sell us 2,000 we would take 2,000."
He said trying to center the event around a Cub vs. Cardinals game is difficult because of the limiting ticket situation. But the 83,000 alumni who reside in Illinois reflect a representative number for the baseball team rivalry.
"We have 30,000 in Chicago and 9,000 alumni who reside in St. Louis area," Buerger said. "So you have a big draw here."
Because of the large ticket numbers the SIU alumni event brings into Wrigley Field, the baseball club has allowed the Alumni Association to chose one person to throw out the first ball and sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh inning stretch.
This year's songster was to be SIU head men's basketball coach Bruce Weber, but the news of Kile's death quieted all activity on the field.
Buerger said the affiliation with Loukas and Cubby Bear Lounge has been a tremendous success for the event. With Loukas' help and dedication to the event, the location provides an accessible and historic spot for reunion, and his relationship has kept the cost down.
"He can accommodate 1,500 of us and still have a lot of people before the game," Buerger said. "George is very straight-forward and all business, but the guy has got a heart bigger than this table.
"He is totally dedicated to this institution, appreciates his degree, and he is pretty typical of the student of that era, but he has never forgotten SIU."
Raised in a concentrated immigrant family community in Chicago, Greek-born Loukas will always remember his roots and struggle to achieve success.
With a D- average upon high school graduation, chances of attending a Big Ten university on a football scholarship were bleak. His athletic capabilities remained strong from his quarterback days in high school through his junior college football career.
Raising his academic performance to a C average, Loukas received a football scholarship to SIUC and became a senior-co captain, breaking several records by the end of his four-year eligibility.
But during his fourth year, coach Dick Towers replaced the defensive from the starting line-up with faster and younger players. Loukas was devastated, but said he looks back now and understands it was the right thing for Towers and the University to do.
"No other teacher in the University ever taught me how to be successful in my life more than my football coach. I had the ability to take the good part of the coach and utilize it for me and what I wanted to do," Loukas said. "I was an athlete; when you get knocked down, you get back up and get back into the game, and it's the same in the business world."
Buerger, the Alumni Association and head men's football coach Jerry Kill honored Loukas' football and alumni accomplishments with his old football jersey and commemorative recognition at this year's celebration.
Originally an athletic opponent during their neighborhood church sports, Warren Pries, longtime friend, was proud Loukas was honored for his achievements with SIU. Pries was one of Loukas' first bouncers at Cubby Bear Lounge and believes the growth of the SIU Alumni Day event was created by his lifelong friend.
"I think universities should be something about a pulse," Pries said. "There is a pulse that comes off of the energy that is created by this event, and George Loukas is the cause of that."
The electrifying vibes from the event spread out as alumni began to take their seats at Wrigley Field for the Cub and Cardinals baseball game. Kerry Gerwald, a 1970 SIUC alumnus, wore one of numerous maroon SIU Alumni caps and polo shirts that painted a large portion of the terrace reserved area in the stadium.
Gerwald and his wife waited in anticipation as the Cubs and Cardinals starting line-ups were announced. But the wait turned into over 30 minutes from the original game time, and Gerwald, as well as other alumni, wondered if the delay was because of television problems, national attacks or rumors a Cardinal baseball player had passed away.
Weber, who was waiting behind home plate to throw out the first pitch, was told by Wrigley Field staff a television delay was holding up his once-in-a-lifetime chance. But when he was told the news, the basketball coach was shocked to find out the rumors circulating throughout Wrigley were true.
Friends like Pries and other alumni followed Loukas to another building owned by the Cubby Bear Lounge owner to watch the baseball game from his rooftop. Loukas said the rumors of the game's delay were quite different.
"The first news we heard about the delay was some tornado warnings had been issued; then we thought it was a terrorist threat," he said. "But then when we heard the young man had died, my first fear was it was a tragic death."
As recognized during the game Sunday, Kile's death was tragic enough and the contributions he made to the St. Louis community, the baseball club and his family showed his passion for life.
"We all end our lives at a certain date, but we do not have control over that date," Loukas said. "We just have control over how we live our lives."
As alumni came back to Cubby Bear Lounge after the game's cancellation, the Cub-Cardinal rivalry was not important. The focus was on how life is important.
Loukas said the atmosphere during Sunday's game was somber and subdued with everyone still coping with Kile's death.
"There was a high volume of St. Louis fans in there, and they were very respectful," he said. "It definitely was not a situation where people were celebrating a victory or drowning their sorrows."
Next June, when SIUC alumni exit the red line "L" train onto Addison Street, walk toward Cubby Bear Lounge and join in the 26th annual Alumni celebration, the festivities will seem different, maybe even tarnished.
As the Cub-Cardinal rivalry persists and returning alumni glance up toward the Wrigley Field sign to check the wins and losses, it will be hard to forget the words "Today's Game Canceled."
Reporter Samantha Edmondson can be reached at sedmondson@dailyegyptian.com
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