Bernie O'Connor

Additonal excerpts from this conversation

TH: How did it come about that you became a charter member of the Wahlert faculty?
O'Connor: Mostly due to my friend Al Schramm, head of the physical education department, and Gailen Thomas, who was head coach at the academy. Father (Larry) Guter called me. He was chaplain at IC, way up on the hill.

TH: Immaculate Conception.
O'Connor: Yeah. He said, "Tell me about your family." (I said) "Well, my wife and I have a newborn son, Matt." Sue was expecting again. He said, "Good." They wanted you to be married.

TH: Your contract actually said you had to be married?
O'Connor: No, but that was the impression I got. And if you went back and looked at the beginning of Wahlert, there were only about five or six lay persons. The others were all nuns or priests - from each parish came in, associate part-time, to help with religion.

TH: There were other Catholic high schools in Dubuque that closed and so some of them probably went over to Wahlert.
O'Connor: Right, and the biggest one, Brian, was Loras Academy. That was the main one. No one wanted to go to Hot Dog High.

TH: Hot Dog High?
O'Connor: Yeah. Well, it was going to be named Wahlert and, of course, Wahlert owned The Pack (which made hot dogs). A lot of needling and stuff, but not any real criticism.

TH: What were your first duties at Wahlert?
O'Connor: I began as a freshman English teacher and then physical education. And physical education wasn't necessarily easy but we had ROTC when I came in, so only freshmen took physical education classes. All the rest of the guys were in ROTC. It was only one period a week physical education, and just freshmen. So I could bark and holler a little bit and sound tougher than I was. But, you know, I wasn't quite that tough or sure of myself yet when I began.

TH: And coaching-wise?
O'Connor: Sophomore basketball, I think. Because Eddie Colbert was head honcho. I worked with the sophomores.

TH: What kind of an athlete were you personally?
O'Connor: I loved everything. I came, as you know from Council Bluffs, Iowa. I went to St. Francis Grade School. Taught by all nuns, Sisters of Charity, BVM. There were only 23 in my graduating class. We had baseball, but not very strong or organized. Basketball was about the only thing. They were called The Saints. I played three or four years there. No other multiple choice. Basically basketball was the thing, played in a high school gym about the size of this (dining room) table we're talking at.

TH: Don't be too modest on me. Were you any good?
O'Connor: I thought I was. We were, the bunch of guys I was with, we were pretty good. I lived next door to a public school and they had a super outdoor court. We played basketball all winter - ankle-deep snow - all summer. Just shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot. I really liked that. But, no, in honesty, I wasn't that good.

TH: What differences have you noticed in high school students over the years?
O'Connor: I think one of the things is, they are much more interested in heading for college. Back then, it didn't seem like we had that many going. The high school student seems now much more concentrated on where they're going and what they're going to do.

TH: More forward-thinking?
O'Connor: Yes, much more.

TH: What about from a discipline standpoint?
O'Connor: Much easier now than it was. And part of it, is, I'm sure, I've established myself as a person at Wahlert. They know Bernie O'Connor is fair, they know Bernie O'Connor can joke around, they know that Bernie O'Connor means business when he means business. But discipline-wise, I probably schmooze them more than I ...

TH: Get a little more with honey than ...
O'Connor: Yes, very much so.

TH: What's your reaction now to seeing Wahlert, which actually topped 2,200 students at one point, to where it's about 600 or so ...
O'Connor: And hopefully being able to hold our own.

TH: Does that make you sad in some ways?
O'Connor: Yes, it does in the sense that I certainly can't judge what parents' decisions are. Tuition is well over $3,000 now, and that's got to be a kicker when you have two or three children. It hurts me. Of course, what else would you assume a person would say that's been in Catholic education this long? But we're a pretty darn good school, and not just because of the athletics. I think we have a great bunch of young people. I'm certainly not criticizing anybody, because there are all kinds of good programs and good kids at the other schools. It surprises me. Does not make me mad - disappointed, disappointed is better.

TH: Pretty early on, you got the assignment to be the boys' tennis coach. Did you know anything about tennis?
O'Connor: That's the one that I did know a little bit about, because when I was back in Council Bluffs, I worked nights, and I'd play tennis almost every day. I'd even go down to the west end of town where Thomas Jefferson was and I'd even ask to hit with some of their kids. Yeah, I really did love it. I had no lessons. Everything I learned, I learned from picking up the racquet myself.

TH: And success started pretty early on the boys' side.
O'Connor: Yes.

TH: Do you keep track of these things? How many state titles?
O'Connor: There's 13 altogether (boys and girls). Who was the first one? Mike Sprengelmeyer. And Dave Eberhardt and my son John won the doubles championship in '77. Yeah, I do, Brian, I keep track of it all. I hope not from an egotistical thing.

TH: Tell me about how the girls' program then came about.
O'Connor: The boys started in the spring of '60 and the girls started in the spring of '63. So our first tennis was a doubles championship, Carolyn Courtright and Mary Ann Neyens. I didn't know much about the set up of state tournaments, but we were there.

TH: The young lady sitting behind me your daughter Martha - was on your first girls' state championship team?
O'Connor: State champs. In '83, when we started girls' team tennis.

TH: One of your trademarks, if you will, is that you are, you always seem upbeat and you always seem positive with students. How important is a positive approach to dealing with young people?
O'Connor: To me and my personality, it's almost everything. You know, I've screamed and hollered at a lot of them before, but I found out not babying them or pussy-footing them or anything, they know who I am and what I stand for. Saying hi to them in the hall, high-fiving them or something. Trying to go to their matches or meets or contests and things like that and knowing them a little more personally in some way. My attitude is much more relaxed than when I began a long time ago in the classroom and stuff. But I've always had an easygoing bunch that I could get along with once they knew where their role was and my role was. There have been some conflicts, but nothing that I couldn't handle. As a matter of fact, I sort of patted myself on my back that I didn't have to send many people to the dean or anything that I couldn't take care of.

TH: I've come across several references to your behavior at pep rallies.
O'Connor: (chuckles) My behavior. Yeah.

TH: With a blue sock and a gold sock.
O'Connor: Right. A spirit stick that we had.

TH: How did that come about?
O'Connor: I can't really tell you the year. I just had an idea. Our pep rallies - we had to jazz them up a little bit. Eddie's kids always wore those high-top socks. The boys had a pair for home or away, white and blue or blue and white. So I put those on one day. I just got out in the middle of the gym floor, and I said something like, "Hey, you guys are great! I'll tell you how much I like you and I rolled up this leg and I rolled up the other leg, and they just went bananas. They pretty much always have since then. So every pep rally I do something. Then the Spirit Stick. Roger Powers, our arts person, said, "Let's think something up." I think it might have been an old wooden baton (from track). He just painted in blue, white and gold and all that. So now we have a spirit stick. At the end of every pep rally, we always say, "Seniors, let's hear you..." and they (various classes) compete against one another.

TH: By who can make the loudest noise?
O'Connor: Yeah, right. And I insisted when it started, no pounding on the bleachers and don't throw anybody out of the stands. Just enthusiasm. And it always has been mostly that. Stand up and holler. Then I have two or three teachers or guests be the panel to judge them. I tell them, "Nothing to it. Just pick somebody that you think is louder." They each have seating in the gym, freshmen, sophomores, seniors and juniors. So, at the end, I just turn around and we sort of huddle and they tell me what they think and I let them get off the floor - not that I think they're going to be attacked or anything - and then I say, "We decided today that you're a great bunch of Wahlert fans, but the best today is..." And I hand it to them (the winning class). No way to slow them down. They knock my...

TH: So they get your Spirit Stick.
O'Connor: Oh yeah. And they carry it around. And then at lunch, they'll give it back. It really has been a potent, enthusiastic thing because they look forward to it. In the middle of the year, the juniors will say, "You know Mr. O'Connor, we never won this thing." So there's a little...

TH: Now, no money changes hands?
O'Connor: No, no, no. No odds. No odds.

TH: You also interacted with young people a lot through officiating. I know you and Gene Glab traveled all through the area, calling basketball. Did you also do football?
O'Connor: Later on, but I didn't do nearly as much football. I wasn't on a team, a crew.

TH: All told, how many years did you end up officiating before you hung up the whistle? Because I came across an article somewhere where you and Gene had been at it more than 20 years, but that was probably 15 years ago.
O'Connor: Let's see. My last year officiating was...

TH: You had a heart attack in '90 ...
O'Connor: Yeah. I was down at Clinton.

TH: Did you work games after that?
O'Connor: Yes, I did, with the doctors' OK. Yes, I went back. I can't remember the coach, but I really appreciate it. The first or second time when I had come back, he said something like, "You weren't any good before you had a heart attack, and you're worse now!"

TH: I came across an article written many years ago about when you were working a basketball game, and one of the teams didn't appreciate the calls too much - so they went home.
O'Connor: I'm glad you brought that up because I almost forgot that. Before I teamed up with "Glabo," I went to Holy Cross, in a gym about this size (of a dining room). The game started and it got a little rough. Bill Wild was the coach at Holy Cross. He said, "My kids are saying, Bern, that it's a little rough under the basket." And it was. There were a lot of fouls in the first half. Elbows and pushing. Not name-calling, or bad name-calling. They just didn't like one another. It was sort of a parish thing. "You don't go to my church." Anyhow ...

TH: A good, Christian game.
O'Connor: Yeah, right. Still made the sign of the cross if the priest rose and all of that. A lot of fouls the first half. I went to the bench, the opponent's bench, and said - I think a priest was coaching then, and certainly no disrespect because it was a priest - and I said, "They're saying it's getting a little rough under there, underneath. It really is. They'd like us to slow it down a little bit. I said, 'OK, we'll keep aware of it.'" This was before halftime. The half ended and they left to the locker room. They didn't come out and they didn't come out.

TH: After halftime?
O'Connor: Yeah. They didn't come out and they didn't come out. Jim Kunnert, I think, was working with me. I went out (of the gym) and went into their locker room, I said, "They're gone." The big window - they had gone out the window. All of them. Gone out the window. And I could hear the cars in the parking lot. My partner says, "I think it's a forfeit." So I forfeited it. I was told later that the two pastors never spoke to each other again. I don't know if that's true.

TH: Any other unusual recollections from the officiating days?
O'Connor: Very proud and very pleased that I got to get to state. I think my first tournament game might have been right around here. Then I went to Clinton. Anyhow, I finally got to state. I don't think it was the first game we worked, but one of the first - Glabo and I got a 3A assignment. That was the big teams then. We had undefeated Cedar Rapids Kennedy and one of the Davenport schools. Tight ball game. Good ball game. I was brand new, but I was doing OK. The whistle blew at the end of the ball game and Glabo is gone. Glabo's gone! And I'm at the other end, standing there waiting for whatever was called.

TH: So you called a foul right before the buzzer? At the end of the game?
O'Connor: Yeah, yeah. Real close and I was going at that end and Glabo was gone. I thought, "What the thunder? Where's Glabo!?" He'd gone to the referee's room and the stewards, the people around there, had to go get him. He didn't know the game wasn't over.

TH: He saw the clock was running down, and you blow the whistle ...
O'Connor: And it stops things. I don't know if a lot of people knew he was gone. Anyhow, they got him and he came back on the floor. It was an overtime or double overtime game.

TH: I'm starting to see a pattern here. You've got teams that leave before the game is over. Your own crew partner leaves before the game's over. If you're that bad an official, how did you get into the state Hall of Fame?
O'Connor: I think because we were in there so long, officiating for so long, and we went everywhere. When I did do the job, Brian, I think I did a good enough job because they put you down (on evaluations) for everything. So I think I got halfway decent marks.

TH: Based on what I was able to find in the clippings, you went to more than a dozen state tournaments.
O'Connor: Thirteen, I think.

TH: Thirteen? So you must have improved.
O'Connor: I hope I did. I really worked on it. I really did. And we worked everything. Grade school games. Junior high.

TH: You had a good-sized family. You had a full load coaching and teaching at school. That's a lot of time away from your family.
O'Connor: It sure was. Used to have basketball practice, I coached freshman basketball during part of this time. And basketball practice used to start at 6:25. And they came. They didn't complain.

TH: 6:25 in the a.m.?
O'Connor: In the a.m. Because of the varsity and all that. We didn't have the lower gym like we have now. It worked out all right.

TH: You obviously have devoted a lot of your life to athletics, either as a coach or as an official. Do you feel in any way that there's too much emphasis on sports in the high school arena these days?
O'Connor: When I read the whole Sports Illustrated or something and they pick the best 25 teams in the nation, I sometimes think, yes. But at the level around here, I think it's fine.

TH: Now we've established that you're basically an upbeat guy and you're a positive guy. In reading some of the clips and so on, you've had some personal experience with your family with loss and challenges with health and loss. And you would have a pretty good excuse not to be. You've lost a couple of children. You've lost your wife. How do you keep an upbeat attitude in the face of these challenges?
O'Connor: Losing my wife, yeah.

TH: A lot of people could forgive you for not being as positive as you are. How do you keep going?
O'Connor: Mostly with my strong faith, which I know I have. I've been in Catholic education. Been in the Catholic school or Catholic parish atmosphere since I was a little squirt. I just believe. I think I'm a pretty good prayer. And my family has pulled me through and the people at Wahlert have pulled me through. My family, we're a pretty darn good family. A lot of support. We have arguments and hard feelings and bad times, but we've always stuck together. I guess my faith more than anything has held me together. My young people have been up and down the road of tough times. TH: This spring, Wahlert opened the Bernie O'Connor Tennis Center. What does that mean to you to see your name on that facility?
O'Connor: Very humbling, first, very humbling. For people who think that much of the school and of their young people and of me, it's just beyond anything that anyone would think about, at least in my instance. I was satisfied playing at Flora Park and Vets and just about every court in town. TH: You mentioned earlier that you got another contract with Wahlert coming up for this school year. That's going to be for part-time?
O'Connor: Part-time, right. TH: I was trying to do the math, but that sounds like that's 45, 46 years?
O'Connor: I just finished the 46th. TH: So this will be the 47th. Are you shooting for 90 or 100 years? What's the goal here?
O'Connor: (laughs) No. Tom English, who's on lunch patrol with me, is saying, "Bern, you're going to make 50." I said, "No, I'm not." I hope I've got common sense enough to back off. I backed off from basketball when the officiating and all that got to be too much. I know I backed off of tennis, with the driving in the night and all that kind of stuff. No, I don't have a goal. But I'm grateful to the Wahlert young people and to the faculty and staff and to the administration that they want me back. I really don't think it (the job) is a gift. I think they think I do OK with the kids, and I think I do, too.

TH: When you do hang it up and decide enough's enough, what do you want people to remember about your many years at Wahlert? O'Connor: I'd like them to know and remember the times they had met with me as a coach or as a person or as a student or as a disciplinarian or whatever that I was fair. Not necessarily a good guy, but a sincere person. That I cared about them. I really think that good people make good things happen.