(MCT) — One day as Mark Aguirre was taking the L from his West Side home to DePaul for another recruiting visit that included a Cubs game, the feeling hit him. Aguirre still struggles to describe the sensation now, almost 35 years later.

“I just suddenly realized Chicago was for me,” recalled Aguirre, one of the nation’s top high school players at Westinghouse in 1978. “Can’t explain it. I could have gone to any school I wanted but enjoyed the fact that rarely are you going to play in a big city where everybody knows you like that. The more I thought about it, Chicago was who I am, in my blood, comfortable. I loved it so I stayed.”