Loyola tennis memorializes Bill Kearns with event he started

Loyola Academy honored the memory of one of the most dedicated individuals in the North Shore sports community on Saturday, Oct. 5, when it held the four-team junior varsity girls tennis tournament and named it the Bill Kearns Classic.

Kearns was an assistant coach for the Ramblers when he inaugurated the event.

“It was a beautiful day,” said Kate York, the Ramblers coach and assistant athletic director. “We had an official naming ceremony. I read some remarks about Bill, who started the tournament about 10 years ago. His daughter-in-law, Eileen, the wife of his son Mike, came with their two daughters and two grandchildren and spoke about him as did coaches in attendance.

“Bill was a very humble man,” York pointed out. “His daughter-in-law said he would have said he was being honored because of what his athletes accomplished. He would have given them the credit.”

Kearns died at age 91 on Jan. 15 after being heavily involved in sports on the North Shore for eight decades.

He first made a name for himself as an outstanding high school football, basketball and baseball player at now-defunct St. George in Evanston.

After being discharged from the Army in the mid-1940s he began coaching on the high school level as an assistant football and baseball coach at Gordon Tech — now known as DePaul College Prep — and he served at the school on Chicago’s North Side for nearly 50 years.

When he was middle-age Kearns took up tennis. He soon acquired a love for the sport and became a good player and then a coach.

Kearns segued from the football field and baseball diamond at Gordon Tech in the mid-1990s and went to work as an assistant tennis coach at Regina Dominican High School in Wilmette and Notre Dame College Prep in Niles. Less than 10 years later, he made Wilmette his sports base, serving as an assistant tennis coach at Loyola and an instructor at the park district’s Centennial Park Recreation Complex.

“Bill was an excellent role model for many around him,” Bob Lepowski, his Centennial Park colleague and the current pro there, wrote in a letter to the Illinois High School Tennis Association at the time of Kearns’ death. “Knowing how difficult it was to finance a high school tennis program, Bill spent much time collecting equipment and delivering it to schools whose budget could not support a robust tennis program. Many players were introduced to tennis because of Bill’s generous efforts.”

Lepkowski estimated that Kearns coached more than 1,000 high school tennis players.

During the past 10 years Kearns also made a name for himself as an entertaining and insightful television interviewer. He started “Coach’s Corner” on WCTV-6, a government access channel with studios in the Centennial Park building. His show focused on high school sports but also delved into grammar school and recreational sports. He not only interviewed coaches but also people involved in the various endeavors.

“Some of the younger girls (on the Loyola tennis teams) never met Bill so I think it’s important for the kids to know who came before and laid the path,” York said. “We were so happy that we could use the Bill Kearns Classic tennis quad to honor his memory by naming the event that he started more than 10 years ago after him and unveiling our banner celebrating his legacy.”

Loyola, New Trier, Evanston and Oak Park-River Forest were the JV teams that participated in the first Bill Kearns Classic on Oct. 5.

Loyola won the tournament, while New Trier was a close second.

In York’s opinion, “probably the best matches of the day were No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles.”

The Ramblers Mary Erickson defeated the Trevians Sophie Moskowitz for the No. 1 singles championship; in top doubles, Scarlette Bueltmann and Adair Pagels, of New Trier, defeated Lucy Kirkendall and Jacquelyn Mark for the title.

Rambler Ramblings: Kearns’ multi-faceted sports legacy also has a volleyball connection; he helped start the program at Gordon Tech. So perhaps it is fitting that in addition to her responsibilities as a tennis coach and assistant athletic director, his former colleague York has a significant emotional attachment to the outstanding Loyola girls volleyball team. One of the top players on the team that already has won 20 games is her daughter, Julia, who will pursue her education and playing career at Dartmouth next year. The star of the team is senior Grace Kreutz, daughter of Olin Kreutz, the former Chicago Bears’ center and a recent nominee for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Grace was selected the Most Valuable Player in the 32-team Plainfield North Crimson Classic that the Ramblers won earlier this season. She is committed to play in college at Miami of Ohio.

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