The Bell Rang Loud for Bloom District 206

The Bell Rang Loud for District 206

The Bobby Bell Awards; an Inspiring Success

By Donna McCoy

Although the venue was M’Cann Gym and amongst the classiness of harp playing, chandeliers and pencil sketched portraits of the honorees’, the Bobby Bell Awards Dinner elicited much more from the alumni, staff and relatives present. The spirit of our beloved Bloom High School breathed deep into everyone’s heart. The pride and love for everyone’s beginnings at District 206 filled the room through stories, socializing with old friends, and reliving our rich sports history. The Awards dinner honoring the late Bobby Bell, a 1957 Bloom athlete and a teacher that went over and beyond his duties to help his students, is a fundraiser for Bloom Alumni Athletic Association (BAAA) and honors alumni , staff and community members that are passionate about Bloom and giving to its students, while being part of our long storied athletic history.

Master of Ceremonies was fittingly one of the honorees from the first Bell Awards, Coach Steve Miller who spoke from his heart of his memories of coaching at Bloom and he stated, “I learned more from Bloom than I did teaching.” “If it wasn’t for my experiences at Bloom, nothing, I mean none of it that followed would have happened”. This is spoken from a man whose success in life just kept coming and coming. From a college track coach, to a college athletic director, to a top positions at Nike, to currently the leader of the U.S.A. Track and Field Federation and CEO of Andre Agassi Foundation, Steve’s success was based on his Bloom building blocks.

The keynote speaker, Terry Boers ‘68, nationally known radio personality from the 670 Score, attributed his success to one English teacher at Bloom, Vera Karloff who put it in Terry’s head that he should consider writing. Terry wrote for the Sun-Times and later tried radio that was a huge success as the longest lasting radio show in Chicago. He currently has a book out called “The Score of a Lifetime”.

There was the man who was known as the fastest runner in the nation in 1957, a three time State Champion in the 100 yard dash and a phenomenal football player being draft first pick by the Washington Redskins; LeRoy Jackson ‘57. Walter Futrell ‘ 77 talked of his success at Bloom and Bloom Trail where he became Bloom Trail’s first ever State Champion. The wrestler who “gives back “ by helping youngsters learn to wrestle, attributes his journey starting at Bloom and bringing him to God as he currently is a Pastor. A fellow wrestler, Tom Erikson, was not as successful at high school wrestling, but the building blocks of Bloom’s wrestling program motivated him to become twice NJCAA Collegiate Champion in 1984 and 1985 and twice NCAA Division I Collegiate All-American wrestler at Oklahoma State and place 4th in the World Wrestling Championships. This led him to compete in Martial Arts where he competed as Tom “the Big Cat” Erikson and to his current employment as a college wrestling coach. Erikson mentors students at the annual sports clinic given free to our feeder school athletes by the BAAA.

Then there were coaches! The guests were filled with past coaches that filled tables in the “coaches’ corner”. The honorees were a coach who twice won the State Wrestling Team Champions (1985 and 1986) and Coach of the Year, Tom Koenig, along with Ernest Turner who had the best softball team ever in Bloom Trail’s history when his 1984 team made it to the Sweet Sixteen, and successful and the longest running girls basketball coach at Bloom, Marilyn Anderson, one of the developers of girls’ sports at Bloom including Blue Fins. All reflected on their experiences at District 206 as one of the best times in their lives.

The most applaud was given to Larry McCoy ’71, founder of the BAAA and the visionary of honoring Bloom alumni and staff for history preservation purposes and to instill the passion and love of Bloom sports to the younger Trojans. Everyone in that gym had one common thread …”We’re from Bloom (and Trail), couldn’t be prouder……