ACTIVITIES
From information that this writer has gathered, DePaul University Academy did compete in football, basketball, baseball, cross-country, track, and swimming as a charter member of the Chicago Catholic League, beginning in 1913. It is possible that the school may have also offered other sports, such as golf, tennis, boxing, and perhaps wrestling. If anyone knows more about what sports were offered at the school while it was open, we certainly invite you to contact us at the addresses listed at the bottom of this page.
FOOTBALL
The Blue Demons were competitive on the gridiron and contended for a number of Catholic League titles and the right to play in the Prep Bowl, as evidenced by records presented to us by Tom Sikorski and Robert Pruter. In all, they won 12 league titles!
1913 Catholic League Champions
1914 Catholic League Champions
1915 Catholic League Champions
1916 Catholic League Champions
1917 Catholic League Champions
1918 Catholic League Champions
1920 Catholic League Champions
1923 DePaul University Academy football team |
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Courtesy of Robert Pruter |
1928 DePaul University Academy football team |
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courtesy of Robert Pruter |
1929 Catholic League Champions
1930 Catholic League Champions
1940 6-2 Catholic League North Division Champs!! Coach Wally McGovern
Lost to Leo in Catholic League Championship game. .
1948 8-2 2nd in Catholic South Division Coach Tom O’Brien
Lost to Fenwick in Catholic League Championship game
1949 6-3 Coach Tom O’Brien
1950 7-4 Catholic North Champs!!! Coach Tom O’Brien
Lost to Mt Carmel in Catholic League Championship game
1951 5-3 Coach Tom O’Brien
1953 5-4 Coach Tom O’Brien
1955 5-3 Coach Tom O’Brien
1956 5-3 Coach Tom O’Brien
1957 4-2-1 Coach Tom O’Brien
1958 7-2-1 Catholic League North Division Champs!! Coach Tom O’Brien
1959 6-2 Catholic League North Champs!!!
1965 Final season – Co-captains John Mullin & Donald Brown
Last game was an 18-8 win over Holy Trinity
The football program left its mark in the state record books as the result of a contest versus St. Charles on October 14th, 1916. In that game, the Blue Demons won 157-0, scoring 23 touchdowns!
Of those 23 touchdowns, 11 of them were talled by Valentine Rock Grundman (a state record), and eight more were scored by player who has been identified as Schneider (no first name given). Grundman also converted 18 points after touchdown for a total of 84 points scored in that contest. Both of those marks are the second-best in a single game by an Illinois gridder.
Dennis Coyne – Class of 1964, was an excellent running back and defensive back for the Demons. Dennis would continue his college football career at Northwestern University.
BASKETBALL
Although no win-loss records were found and that there is nothing on the IHSA website that would indicate the school won a plaque or trophy in the state tournament series, DePaul did offer this sport. One successful coach that was involved with the school was Frank McGrath, who compiled a record of 364-140 while guiding both De Paul and and fellow Catholic League member Weber. The Demons won nine Catholic League varsity titles, as well as one each for lightweights and juniors.
1917-18 Catholic League Champions
1918-19 Catholic League Champions
1923-24 Catholic League Champions
Final Standings–Heavyweights Lightweights
DePaul 12- 2 St. Patrick 14- 1
Loyola 10- 4 St. Ignatius 12- 3
St. Cyril 9- 5 Chicago DeLaSalle 10- 4
St. Mel 8- 6 St. Cyril 10- 5
St. Patrick 7- 4 St. Rita 9- 6
Joliet DeLaSalle 6- 5 Loyola 6- 5
Chicago DeLaSalle 6- 5 Joliet DeLaSalle 5- 6
St. Ignatius 6- 5 St. Mel 5- 6
St. Rita 4- 7 Holy Trinity 4- 7
St. Philip 2- 9 DePaul 2- 9
Aquinas 1-10 Aquinas 2- 9
Holy Trinity 1-10 St. Philip 0-11
1928-29 Catholic League Lightweight Champions
1928-29 DePaul Lightweight Basketball team |
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Chicago Catholic League Champs (courtesy of Robert Pruter) |
1932-33 Catholic League Champions
1945-46 21- 8 Coach Frank McGrath
1947-48 Catholic League Champions Coach Frank McGrath
1947-48 Catholic League Champs |
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courtesy of Jim Egan |
1950-51 Catholic League Champions
1954-55 Catholic League Champions
1958-59 23-6 Catholic League Champions Coach Ron Feiereisel
1958-59 Chicago Catholic League Champs |
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courtesy of Roger McGill |
Roger McGill (class of 1961) tells us about the 1958-59 Catholic Champions:
DePaul Academy Wins Catholic Title – The Demons, champions of the North Section, gave no quarter save height to favored Leo Lions at the Loyola University Gym.
1st Qt score: 15-8 lead and at halftime we lead again, 29-18 thanks to Jack Carkeek hitting 18 points. The Leo Lions came roaring back in the 3rd quarter, but we still had the lead 38-37 by one point. With 4:48 left in the game, Carkeek hit a two-pointer that gave us a 46-40 advantage. And with just 1:22 left, he hit again to bring the count to a score 50-43. DePaul thus earned the right to meet Marshall’s Public League champions for the Chicago prep championship Monday.
On this team were the following: Jim O’Donnell – Sr, Jack Carkeek – Sr., Tom Greene – Sr., Tom Seibert, Sr., Bill Heavy, Sr., Joe Reuter, Sr., Frank Joyce – Sr, Dennis Buczynski – Sr., Ron Johnson – Sr., Neal Martin -Jr, Ottis Williams – Jr., Ralph Durso – Jr. Bill Phiefer – Jr., Mike Lydon – Jr. Marvin Klebba – So., and Roger McGill, So.
On March 23, 1959 DePaul Demons were nipped by Marshall, 70-66 at the old Chicago Stadium for the City of Chicago Championship. Our record for the season was 23-6, and Marshall’s record was 25 4. Again, all of the above mentioned names were on DePaul Academy’s team.
Marshall had George Wilson, 6′ 7″, MC Thompson, 6′ 5″ (who went on to play at DePaul University for Ray Meyer), Ken Moses 6′ 3″, & Gordon Lemmons 6′ at guards, and Bob Smith also 6′.
At half time we were leading 35-30, again to Bill Heavy and Jack Carkeek shooting. At the end of the 3rd quarter, the score was 51-50 Marshall. Again to outstanding play by all the starting 5 of DePaul Academy.
At the end of the game Joe Reuter was the high scorer with 19 points, Bill Heavy 18 points, Tom Seibert’s 15 points, Jack Carkeek’s 9 points, and Jim O’Donnell’s 4 points, and Tom Greene’s 1 point. The Demons shot a brilliant .520 from the floor.
The Head coach for this team was Ron Feiereisel and said after the game – “These kids of ours didn’t quit all season and they weren’t going to quit tonight.”
This informations comes from my articles saved from the Chicago Sun-Times by John Payton, and from the DePaul Prep Vol. 37, No 7 April 14, 1959.
1959-60 Catholic League JV Champs (see more details below from Bill Hennessy)
1966-67 Catholic League Champions
Chicago City Champions
Research conducted by Bill Menard resulted in the submission of the photo below. The photo is of the De Paul Academy “champions” of 1964. We believe the team may have won a tournament consisting of catholic schools only. Included on this team was Dave Hernandez, a highly recruited guard who was quick and dominating. Hernandez would regularly score 30 points in a game. Also on the team was guard George Poulos, who would move on to play basketball for Ray Meyer at DePaul University.”
From Joe Puccio regarding this team:
“The picture you have on the site is the championship team of the Catholic League…the difference is at that time all Catholic schools had two varsity teams. The team pictured was called the “lights” as the height restriction was 5″8. Poulos and Hernandez also played on the regular team 5’8 and over team and I believe they lost the championship to Mt. Carmel. I remember this well as 1964 was my senior year.”
Members of the team in the photo below include the following, in order:
Back Row, L to R: J. Kruzel, A. Siemera, S. Hoffman, R. Parra, R. Boutet, J. Kosovich, J. Rowton, C. Stefan
Middle Row, L to R: B. Walsh, J. Wetter, Dave Hernandez, P. Mitchell, George Poulos, T. Aiello, Fr. T. Munster, C.M.
Kneeling, L to R: G. Van Herik, Nr, J. Fay, H. Hoferle, R. Imburgia, Mr. W. Gleason, Fr. Rechtin, C.M.
De Paul Academy Basketball Team of 1963 |
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Submitted by Bill Menard |
From Richard Diaz (class of 1967)….
In 1965, De Paul lost to Mt. Carmel for the Catholic League Championship played at the former De Paul University Alumni Hall. A last second, three-quarter court shot by center Dan Bray was not allowed. Mt. Carmel went on to beat Marshall 68-65 at the Chicago Stadium for the City Championship. De Paul lost to Public League runner-up Du Sable, also at the old Chicago Stadium.
Due to a disturbance after the Marshall loss, the City Championship games were moved to the Chicago Amphitheater and only the students from the schools playing were allowed to attend. De Paul beat Harlan in 1967 to win the City Title.
The interesting thing about the 1965 loss to Mt Carmel: I believe we were down by one point with about 4-5 seconds left. The ball was in-bounded to one of the guards whose whirled around and passed the ball to Bray. I believe Henry Melton set a pick on the man defending the inbound pass and was “fouled.” However, the ref did not call the foul which would have put Melton on the line for a one-and-one free throw.
1966-67 Blue Demons
From Philip McGovern, who was a freshman at DePaul during this season:
“During the 1966-67 season the Blue Demons accomplished the following:
Winning the Catholic League Championship over Mount Carmel
Winning the City Championship over Harlan
(The City Championship pitted the Catholic League winner against the Public League winner.)
Head Coach: Bill Gleason
Asst. Coach: Dennis Freund
Some of the players included: Tim Schneider, Al Lathan, Jim Lynch, Tony Booker, Joey Meyer
CROSS-COUNTRY AND TRACK
In gathering information, we did find the school offered these sports to those interested in running over hill and dale as well as the cinder oval. The Blue Demons won nine Catholic League track titles from 1915-1936.
Pat Savage served as head coach for both sports from 1966-68 before moving on to St. George, and then later to DePaul University. We are looking for more information about those who may have competed in these sports at the school.
1915 Catholic League Champions
1918 Catholic League Champions
1919 Catholic League Champions
1920 Catholic League Champions
1929 Catholic League Champions
1930 Catholic League Champions
1930 Catholic League Champions |
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courtesy of Robert Pruter |
1931 Catholic League Champions
1935 Catholic League Champions
1936 Catholic League Champions
1945 9-0 dual record Coach Tom Haggerty
1946 Catholic League Champions
1947 Catholic League Champions
1954 Catholic League Co-Champions
From Coach Pat Savage:
“Most, if not all, the BB athletes from 1967 ran track and/or XC for me at the Academy. Bill Gleason made everyone come out. DePaul never played in the IHSA in any sport. I know we won some North Side Championships and/or Frosh Soph Titles while I was coach/teaching at the Academy. After St. George closed in 1969, I went to Niles West in Skokie and retired from Teaching in 2002. I still coached part-time with my son Danny for a few years there. I also coached at Oakton Community College from 1971-2003. Oakton won the NJCAA National Marathon Championship in 2002.”
SOFTBALL
In an interesting note, DePaul was also part of a Catholic League experiment of offering softball in the spring of 1943, along with St. Philip, Mount Carmel, De La Salle, Loyola, St. George, and St. Rita. Due to the number of rainouts and other reasons, softball was not added as a regular sport beyond that year.
BASEBALL
DePaul Academy was also competitive in baseball during the early years of the Catholic League, as it won two of the first five titles that were offered to Catholic boys’ schools in Chicago.
1915 Catholic League Champions
1917 Catholic League Champions
FAMOUS ALUMNI
DePaul had several football players play at the professional level. They include:
Bill Muellner — After playing collegiately at DePaul University, Muellner appeared on the roster of four teams during the 1937 season. The two-way end was with the former Chicago Cardinals of the NFL, and also played in the American Football League with the Los Angeles Bulldogs, Cincinnati Bengals, and New York Yanks.
Bill Steinkemper — Following his college days at Notre Dame, this tackle was a member on the 1937 Cincinnati Bengals (see above), and later came back to the pros during the 1943 season to help the Chicago Bears win both a division and NFL title.
Dick Evans — The offensive end-defensive back came to the NFL for four seasons as a member of the Green Bay Packers (1940, 1943) and the homestanding Bears (1941, 1942) via the University of Iowa. He also played professional basketball from 1940-43 and again from 1944-45.
Steve Juzwik — Although his time in the NFL was interrupted for a military hitch due to World War II, the Notre Dame back was a member of the 1942 Washington Redskins, and then had three seasons in the All-American Football League with the Buffalo Bisons (1946-47) and Chicago Rockets (1948).
Joey Meyer — basketball standout and future head coach of the DePaul University mens basketball program.
A TRUE AMERICAN HERO:
MARIO “MOTTS” TONELLI: We have two links about DPA alumnus Mario “Motts” Tonielli, who later played his collegiate football at Notre Dame and later with the former Chicago (now Arizona) Cardinals. The first incredible link and story was sent to us by Anthony Curran, while the second one comes to us courtesy of another DPA alumnus, Ron Schmidt (class of 1961). We hope that you will take the time to read both amazing stories of one of America’s great heroes!! Please check out the following web addresses:
http://www.niashf.org/pdfs/p09.pdf
and
http://www.motts58.org/tonelli.htm |
I attended DePaul for three years until its closing in 1968 and finished my senior year at Holy Trinity. I will always consider myself as a DePaul student. HT was for me just a way to finish HS and I never felt any attachment to it. 1967 was a great year for the basketball team as we won the city championship against the public league champs the Harlan Falcons. However DePaul had a Christmas tournament prior to this. We were in the finals against Mt. Carmel. Henry Melton made a near half court shot as time expired to tie it up but Mt. Carmel beat us at the buzzer in OT on a lay up. However we played them again for the Catholic league championship and ailing Joey Meyer who had the flu stole the ball with a few seconds left. His lay up sealed it for us. Amazing game.