Our recent Arctic cold weather experience has affected our lives and schedules more than just a little. We will survive as we always seem to do, and will escape with some bumps and bruises along the way.
I recently read in the East Aurora School District news about East High School’s upcoming annual Hall of Fame ceremony. It was scheduled for Jan. 13 and was to honor five former students at the school for athletic accomplishments during their student years, or for years they may have served as a coach.
The event was part of a scheduled basketball game, but was canceled because of the weather. As I read the bios about these people, I was struck by their life successes and community service extending into their adult years more than by their high school achievements.
They missed their night to be honored. Some had family members who had flown here for the special night, only to be disappointed. I invited them to the school for a photo opportunity and to talk briefly to each one. They are an amazing group of people, sharing their common roots as East Siders in Aurora.
Chuck Solberg was a young man who participated in three sports in high school, receiving honors in each, and was voted Athlete of the Year as a senior. He attended Cornell College in Iowa, and played two sports there with honors. He served our community for many years as a youth baseball and soccer coach, generously giving back to our young people, and had a successful career with Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co.
“I was blessed to come to Aurora with my folks in 1954. I knew I wanted to be a Tomcat, and I lived for it,” Solberg said. “I had great teachers and can name them all, but they laid a foundation for me to write papers and to succeed in math. I have always bled the red and black. I was part of great teams, and you carry that your whole life.”
Patti Doud Paul received multiple honors while excelling in tennis and volleyball in high school, and was also named Athlete of the Year as a senior. She then attended Augustana College, and continued in sports by winning letters during three years of playing volleyball there.
She spent her 35-year career as a teacher in the Naperville schools, and also coached volleyball and served as a middle school math department chair. An award for the outstanding math student at that school is named in her honor. She shared memories of foundations she gained at East Aurora.
“Participating in high school sports is tremendous in learning about teamwork and camaraderie. It’s an experience I don’t think you should miss,” Paul said. “As I moved on to become a teacher, it helped me with getting along with colleagues and our kids. My coach Mrs. Skelley, along with Mr. Skelley and Ms. Gray, influenced me in high school and as I made a college choice.”
Wendell Jeffries is well known throughout the Fox Valley, mainly as the long-tenured East Aurora boys’ basketball coach. He is only the second person to be inducted into the Hall of Fame as both an athlete and a coach.
Jeffries received honors in three sports as a student, and also became Athlete of the Year as a senior. He attended and played football at Jackson State University and returned home in 1987 to begin a 33-year career teaching and coaching at East Aurora.
He easily became the busiest man in town, coaching football, boys’ basketball and girls’ badminton. Jeffries spent 10 years with the football program (five as head coach) and 30 years with basketball (16 as head coach.) He is the longest-serving basketball coach in the history of the school, and also revived a dormant girls’ badminton program with much success.
With another teacher, he founded and was the volunteer coach for the step team, providing a positive activity for kids who needed one.
“I’m a perfect example of the phrase ‘once a Tomcat, always a Tomcat.’ Unlike a lot of teachers and coaches, I’ve lived on the East Side of Aurora the whole time,” Jeffries said. “Coach Schindel was my eighth-grade teacher and my ninth-grade football coach at Waldo Middle School. He also became my sophomore coach the following year at the high school. Coach Schindel supported me then and all the way up until today. Coach Pensyl was my sophomore basketball coach, and was then the athletic director when I began as a teacher here. He encouraged me in coaching along the way.”
Bob Burnell was elected to the Hall of Fame as a “friend of East Aurora.” Having grown up across the street from the school, he is identified as a childhood follower and contributor to the school for a period of 60 years. He began a broadcast career in 1979, and for many years described games on stations WMRO and WKKD, becoming known to many as the “voice of the Tomcats.”
He probably worked in broadcasting at least 180 football games and 750 basketball games in a long and illustrious career. He is among the most positive and well-liked media people in our area. In addition, he was honored with a humanitarian award as a member of the Kiwanis Club, which has children as priority number one.
“What a wonderful honor to be recognized for these years of doing high school broadcasts. I did mostly East Aurora games, but did other schools as well,” Burnell said. “After growing up across the street and eating, sleeping and drinking East Aurora, this is the culmination of all of that. We received small token money amounts, which would barely cover gas costs. It was done for the love of the game and the schools.”
Phil Neal is the final East Aurora honoree this year. He was a spectacular basketball player and track athlete who graduated in 1967. After serving in the Army in Korea, he returned to the area and played basketball at Waubonsee College. He set scoring and rebounding records at Waubonsee, and was named a national junior college All-American.
He worked for Western Electric and General Dynamics Corporation during a 38-year career. Neal lives in North Carolina and was not able to travel home to receive his honor.
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In their youth, adulthood and retirement, this distinguished group has been and still is the pride of East Aurora. They would all agree that “once a Tomcat, always a Tomcat.”
Tom Strong is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.