Jack Brady is one of the true legends from our area
Comments (...)In the early and middle 90s, I put together a running program entitled 'Legends'. The show highlighted the standout players in area sports .
One such program directed the spotlight on Jack Brady. Brady was a talented basketball player in the early 40s. Jack is also the father of two of Morris’ better football players, Ed and Tom Brady. Both boys were awarded scholarships in football at the University of Illinois.
Ed had an illustrious career for the Illini as a long snapper and linebacker. He later played for several teams in the National football league.
Ed played in the state championship game for Morris in 1979. He later played in the Rose Bowl and still later in the Super Bowl . He was a member of the Senior Bowl All- Star game. Brady also played in the Liberty Bowl, while with the Illini. What a great career for the local man.
Jack Brady was better known as a basketball player at Morris high school.
When I was in grade school, I used to constantly hang out at the gym in Center School, then the home floor for the Redskins. After graduating from MCHS, Brady played semi-pro basketball for Morris VFW cage team.
When Jack started mentioning some of his teammates, he talked about Vern Cornish (his son Rollie played at Morris and later Texas Christian University), Jack's cousin, Bud Enger, was on the team, along with Bennie McCook from Joliet. McCook was an All-State player while in high school.
Jack played at Morris in the years 1942 and 1943 on the varsity squad. On the team was Dude Enger, Dick Black, Ronnie Sampson, Jimmy Collins, Tony Sterriett and Harry Dailey to mention just a few players during the time period.
Brady said the big rival in those days, without hesitating, was Coal City. He also mentioned Gardner and Marseilles as strong teams on the schedule. Brady said Morris played in the Coal Valley Conference.
When discussing the big game of his career,
"I imagine when we beat Coal City and won the Conference," he said of the big game of his career. "Coal City had Newberry, Agamy, Carpenter and Kessler,just to mention a few names”.
Coal City was loaded with sophomores playing on the varsity at that time.
Brady went on to talk about the rivalry between the Coalers and the Redskins, "We had some bruising battles with Coal City."
Jack was considered a big man in the 40s at 6-3 and 185 pounds. When Brady talked about other big men in the area he mentioned Born of Coal City,
Coates of Marseilles and Horrie of Gardner.
When talking about standout coaches in the area, Jack brought up Ed Rasche of Coal City. Brady's high school coach at Morris was Rex Benoit and also Gil Love. Love later moved on to Ottawa and became a Hall of Fame coach (IBCA).
Brady said Morris had a great fan following in his school days. Brady added, "We didn't have buses then, we drove to games in cars by the coaches. We used to have about six players in a car."
I asked Jack what team always provided rough and tumble games, he replied, "Coal City! It always had to be Coal City. The crowd even got into it one game over at Coal City. The whole floor was swarming with players and fans."
Jack was laughing when discussing the game and jokingly said "run for the locker room".
In Febuary, 1996, I talked to the late Wayne Tesdal. Wayne played basketball and football at Morris High School in the late 40s.
Wayne was a farmer all his life in the Nettle Creek area. He went to high school in Morris, at what later was called Franklin School. Morris High School was located in that building ,but now it has a floor removed in the upper portion. Wayne said there were only 51 kids in his senior class. He also said that approximately 350 students attended Morris at that time.
All basketball games were played at the former Center school (now the location of the new City of Morris building). Football games were played at the old Morris paper mill field.
On Wayne’s senior class in basketball consisted of Claude 'Pete' Thompson, Bob Brown, Don and Red Enger, And Ken Scamen. He also mention Bob Brayton, who graduated at mid-year the following year.
When asked who was the best player in the class, Wayne said it probably was Red Enger.
“He did most of the shooting," he said. "We always kidded him about that.”
Morris was 19-7 on the year and four of those losses were delivered by that great Seneca Irish team in the 1948.
Wayne reflecting on the gyms that Morris played in during his school days. He said, Mazon had some doors at the end of the gym (leading outside) if you went under the basket with a layup.
When talking about teams that were tough to play against, Wayne did not hesitate when saying it was Seneca. He also said that Morris had quite a rivalry with St. Paul of Odell.
Basketball was a slow game during Wayne’s playing time with two hand set shots, with the jump shot just starting to evolve.
It’s always fun to look back with former players from different era’s and bring back those great memories.
See you in two weeks!
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