Going For The Gold
By Michael Austin
Athletes draw on lessons from their Jesuit education to succeed
in the Olympics and beyond
Olympian Butch Lee was a member of Marquette’s 1977 team that won the NCAA national championship.
Pole vaulting entered Tim Mack’s life by chance, as an alternative to long-distance running on his middle school track team. He continued to vault at Saint Ignatius High School in Cleveland, and while he enjoyed it, he wasn’t very good by his own estimation. He never qualified for the state meet, and it wasn’t until summer track after his senior year that any colleges showed interest. Even by the end of college, despite having improved, he was still just average.
But over the course of the following decade, he would draw on his high school experience to help him earn a spot on the U.S. Olympic team. Often alone during training sessions, he constantly reminded himself to work hard and stay focused.
SEEING HOW THINGS WORKED THERE GAVE ME THE COURAGE TO GO OUT AND TAKE A CHANCE, AND TRY TO DO SOMETHING BIG MYSELF.
“I definitely would not be where I am today if not for the education I received from the faculty and staff at Saint Ignatius,” he says. “It truly laid the foundation of who I am, and will become, which has allowed me to reach the highest goals I could ever imagine.”
Tim Mack failed three times to make the Olympic team, but eventually, at age 31, he earned the right to represent the United States at the 2004 Games in Athens. He set the bar high, at 5.95 meters (19 feet, 6¼ inches); if he could clear that height, he’d set an Olympic record. He missed on his first attempt, and again on his second. On his third and final try, he launched upward, extended his legs, curled his body, and sailed over the bar, winning gold—quite a feat for someone who doesn’t even hold the pole vault record at his high school.
Tim Mack at a recent visit to Saint Ignatius High School
Today he prepares a new generation of athletes at SPIRE Institute and Academy in Geneva, Ohio, drawing on lessons he learned at Saint Ignatius. He tells himself to keep moving forward, keep his faith, treat others with respect, practice humility, and be a good role model. “I try to stay balanced in life, faith, and sport,” he says.
Notably, NCAA Division I Jesuit university athletes graduate at a rate of 95.55 percent, 5.5 percent above the national average. Currently, Boston College is tied for seventh place among Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools, and the BC women’s hockey team is one of the university’s 12 teams with a perfect 100 percent graduation rate. That program includes U.S. Olympian Molly Schaus.
Michael Austin is a freelance writer based in Chicago, a national James Beard Award finalist for magazine feature writing, and a former nationally syndicated columnist for the Chicago Tribune.
“We were often reminded that we were student-athletes, and that the word ‘student’ comes first in that combo,” says Schaus, a goaltender who won silver medals in both the 2010 (Vancouver) and 2014 (Sochi) Olympics.
She had dreamed of playing Olympic hockey since fourth grade, when she watched the U.S. women’s team win gold in 1998 (Nagano). Playing in college had been another dream, but she got much more than hockey and a degree in education from Boston College.
“I valued the Jesuits’ commitment to ‘men and women for others,’ and was grateful for so many opportunities to volunteer throughout my four years on campus,” she says. “I worked for a few different nonprofits after college as I was training for the 2014 Olympics, and my post-hockey career has centered around community engagement and educational outreach.”
Jesuit high schools and universities have been associated with Olympians for over a century, going back at least to when Marquette University’s John Brennan competed in the 1908 London Games. Since then, nine others from Marquette have participated in the Olympics, including basketball players Dwayne Wade and Alfred “Butch” Lee, a member of the Puerto Rican national team at the 1976 Games in Montreal.
“Even though I arrived at Marquette with a lot of confidence, seeing how things worked there gave me the courage to go out and take a chance, and try to do something big myself,” says Lee, who— after a successful career in the NBA—returned to his native San Juan, Puerto Rico. He coached multiple professional basketball teams there and has opened a sign printing business.
Lee graduated in 1978, and he recalls how much he loved reading philosophy at Marquette and how naturally it dovetailed with the streetwise lessons of legendary coach Al McGuire. McGuire fulfilled his promise to Lee’s parents that their son would graduate.
“I don’t think at the time we realized the education we were getting from him,” Lee says. “You want to win games, but he told us sometimes when you lose in a certain context, it makes you better. He talked about life not being fair and the importance of being professional and respectful. You add Al McGuire to Marquette, and you have an extraordinary education.”
By Mary Dolan and Maggie Palider
Sports have always been an important part of life for Fr. Patrick Kelly, SJ. He initially tried to set aside this passion, dismissing sports as “childish.” Eventually, though, he felt called to work at the intersection of sports and spirituality.
Mary Dolan is an intern for the Midwest Jesuits and a rising senior at Loyola University Chicago, where she is majoring in communications with a minor in photography.
Maggie Palider is a former intern for the Midwest Jesuits and a rising senior at Loyola University Chicago, where she is majoring in advertising creative with minors in visual communications and French language and literature.
Father Kelly is now a scholar-in-residence at the University of Detroit Mercy and, in 2012, he authored Catholic Perspectives on Sports: From Medieval to Modern Times. Father Kelly believes play is important to living a fully human life and developing the whole person, saying, “When a young person is participating in that embodied activity, that engagement also affects them at the level of their consciousness and at the level of spirit, which St. Paul says makes us capable of a relationship with the Holy Spirit.”
Father Brian Taber, SJ, also emphasizes the development of the whole person as a football coach and sports chaplain at Saint Ignatius College Prep in Chicago. Father Taber believes that team interaction is key to developing character and achieving intellectual excellence on and off the field. When athletes lean on their peers to release frustrations and improve, they learn lessons that transfer into other aspects of their lives. Father Taber also encourages age quod agis, or attentiveness to tasks. Athletic success, like spirituality, is bettered by practice. In addition to creating persistence in sports, agis furthers students’ persistence in faith, service, and education. He says, “When failure arises, I remind my students of the passion of Jesus Christ. His suffering taught us that we are capable of rising above all failures.”
“What they’re doing is an expression of their gifts and talents, That’s a way to give God glory and honor.”
Athletic formation and faith formation go hand in hand, according to Fr. Adam DeLeon, SJ. As a wrestling and rugby coach at Loyola High School in Detroit, Fr. DeLeon frequently reminds his student-athletes that their participation in sports is a way of honoring God. “What they’re doing is an expression of their gifts and talents,” he says. “That’s a way to give God glory and honor.” Father DeLeon believes in the importance of reflection, and as a coach, he gives student-athletes an opportunity to grow. He encourages them to reflect on their strengths, weaknesses, and contributions to the team.
Similarly, Fr. Cy Pinchak, SJ—cross country and track coach at Saint Ignatius High School in Cleveland—sees sports as an Examen. He finds that running is a great way to reflect, saying it’s “an experience of encountering God in activity.” Father Pinchak also encourages the student-athletes to encounter God while they run. He says, “The passion they have for running is a manifestation of their passion for life in Christ.” Whether the athletes are running by themselves or as a team, the conversations that are shared with God, and with each other, can influence their life outside the sport. Father Pinchak believes that when society bridges the division between religion and other aspects of life, we are able to “pray without ceasing,” as St. Paul calls us to do.
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Photo: Steve Donisch