NU coach Pat Fitzgerald remembers his (ouch) past

Pat Fitzgerald, talking to the media July 27, remembers taking a few lumps when he grew up playing with the Orland Park Pioneers. Triblocal.com photo by Jeff Vorva

Orland Park native Pat Fitzgerald remembers his roots - even though some of the memories are sometimes as painful as root canal surgery.

The Northwestern University head football coach, who was inducted in the College Football Hall of Fame in mid July, got his football career started with the Orland Park Pioneers. And his career nearly ended there, too, after taking some bumps and lumps.

"I was in 2nd grade and my teachers told my parents (Pat, Sr. and Flo) 'you need to get this kid to settle down,' '' the 34-year-old Fitzgerald said. "So they enrolled me in the Pioneers. I was a little bigger than kids my age so I played up a class. I was going up against 6th graders.

"I didn't think football was for me. After a few practices, I wanted to give it up. My parents said that I had to finish what I started. So I went back. I learned a lot of life's lessons and the rest is history."

And what a history it has been for Fitzgerald, who will sign autographs at the Taste of Orland Park festivities from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 1 at the John Humphrey Sports Complex.

Even though he has been the head coach for the past three years, he is the second youngest coach in NCAA Division I football, less than six months older than Tennessee's Lane Kiffin.

He also had a playing career as a linebacker at the Evanston school that was, well, hall-of-fame worthy. He helped anchor a defense that led the Wildcats to a 15-1 Big Ten Conference-record in the mid 1990s, which helped break up a 23-year streak of losing seasons.

After the Pioneer experience, he had praise for his Carl Sandburg High School school coaches Mike Navarro and Tom Seliga. Before arriving on Seliga’s varsity squad, Fitzgerald thought Navarro ran a strong sophomore team.

"Coach Navarro is a tough nut," Fitzgerald said. "You knew that if you could make it through his sophomore program, there was a chance you could be a very good ball player."

Fitzgerald joked about his "illustrious NFL career" which consisted of playing three preseason games with the Dallas Cowboys before heading to the coaching ranks.

He was named the Wildcats head coach for the 2006 season after the death of Randy Walker and the team went 4-8, 6-6 and 9-4 under Fitzgerald's watch. The 9-4 mark last season included a 30-23 setback in the Alamo Bowl, but it was just the second time in 12 seasons the team was invited to a bowl game.

Mike Kafka, who is expected to be the team's starting quarterback this season, has enjoyed working with Fitzgerald.

"I knew him when he recruited me," Kafka said. "He has a great family and he's a great coach. He was a great leader when he played and now he's a great leader as a coach. He's learned a lot and has grown as a coach in the last couple of years."

In late June, he was given a seven-year contract extension and when asked if he splurged after signing the deal, he joked "Yeah, I bought a couple of wiffle balls from Target for my boys. We had knocked too many into a couple of yards over, so that was about the biggest splurge. I guess we have a surplus of wiffle balls now in Evanston."

By Jeff Vorva

Triblocal.com reporter