By FRED KRONER
There was only one Tom Egelston, but in truth, every community with a strong tradition of success in sports or music or theatre has a person just like Tom Egelston.
He was a willing volunteer, devoted to the cause, willing to spend countless hours to help so that others had a good experience while learning the fundamentals. And oh yes, he didn’t crave the spotlight or seek recognition for his efforts.
Egelston’s passions were Urbana High School and football, but his touch extended to other area communities, such as St. Joseph-Ogden, and to many other sports, especially baseball and wrestling.
Egelston passed away on Friday (Oct. 1), at 4:45 a.m., barely two weeks after his 73rd birthday (Sept. 17) and less than a month before the 55th anniversary (Oct. 17) with his high school sweetheart from Salem, Paula (Pare).
Egelston enjoyed operating in anonymity, where he could be spared a spot in the limelight.
Former Urbana athlete Mark Mammen grew up in the same Urbana neighborhood as one of the Egelstons’ children, Rodney.
“Rodney was at our house or I was at his,” Mammen said. “Tom was one of the more passionate people about sports – especially football – that I’ve been around.
“He was very supportive of Urbana youth football and baseball and high school wrestling.”
Another of Egelston’s former Urbana connections, Kevin Booky, said the support went beyond the coaching and fundraising. It was a type of literal support.
“There were a lot of things Tom did off the field for the kids,” Booky said. “Let’s say a lot of kids didn’t go without because of Tom.
“If he could help them, he did.”
A native of Salem, his job with the railroad prompted the Egelstons to move to Urbana when Rodney was young.
The birth certificate showed his given name as Lyle Egelston. Friends knew him by his middle name, Tom. Associates knew he was someone who was dependable.
“If you needed something done, Tom was the go-to guy,” said Wayne Mammen, Mark’s father and a long-time Tiger coach in football and wrestling. “He would be in the background, helping however he could.
“He liked to work with kids, get the work done and build relationships. He was very knowledgeable and had a lot of fun with the kids when he coached.”
When a high school program has success, it is important to not only acknowledge the coaches who guided the team during the glory years, but also the individuals who had an impact at the developmental stage years earlier.
Urbana High School qualified for the football playoffs for the first time ever in the fall of 1985 and the fall of 1986, under coach Hal Wertich.
Not surprisingly, the nucleus of those teams played youth football in the community in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The eighth-grade team in 1982 went undefeated, playing an assortment of opponents from Decatur to Springfield and from Bloomington to Danville.
“Tom and Bill Pritchett were coaching,” said Booky, a long-time Urbana advocate and Egelston friend. “It was one of the best eighth-grade teams I’ve seen around here.”
That team’s success was not a fluke.
A few years earlier, they learned about football in a local Pee Wee league with Egelston and Jerry Elam helping to coach.
“Pee Wee Football was sponsored by the Optimist Club,” Mark Mammen recalled. “Kirk (brother) and I played for the Urbana Golden Bears.
“Tom coached the Huey Wildcats. We played them for the title.”
After the 1982 eighth-grade season, Egelston was presented a plaque for “devoted service.”
Tom and Paula Egelston were involved at the high school thereafter, serving as co-Presidents of the Parents’ Booster Club in 1985-86.
Wayne Mammen was one of the football assistants at the time, and he quickly recognized another of Egelston’s strengths.
“He was also a very good fund-raiser,” Wayne Mammen said. “He will be missed by the football community, and by his family.”
By the fall of 1988, the Egelstons had moved from Urbana to the Chicago suburbs, where Tom continued his mastery of helping develop youth football players.
He coached in Matteson at St. Lawrence O’Toole. His 1988 and 1989 squads each finished with unbeaten records.
Many of those young squad members wound up at Chicago Heights Marian Catholic High School.
Those athletes who were seventh- and eighth-graders in ’88 and ’89 were members of the only Marian state championship football team in 1993, a 14-0 team coached by Dave Mattio.
The 1989 O’Toole team was especially memorable for the Egelston family.
Son Rodney’s college career had been derailed by an injury, and he joined his dad on the football staff for the youth team.
Rodney Egelston was a coach on the rise. At the time of his death, he was a high school football assistant at Champaign Central and was involved with a Kids’ Club youth wrestling program.
“I saw a game or two he coached,” Wayne Mammen said, “and there is no doubt in my mind that he would have become a very successful head coach in high school.”
It’s another tribute for Tom Egelston, who not only tutored aspiring football players, but also nurtured those with an interest in coaching.
There was one aspect where Egelston was adamant.
“He tried to stay behind the scenes,” Paula Egelston said. “He did not want recognition.”
Prior to his death, he took steps so that his wishes would be followed. He asked to not have a funeral or a visitation, but to be cremated and have his ashes scattered in Florida near the Gulf of Mexico.
After Tom retired from the railroad, the Egelstons moved to Florida for four years. They returned to Urbana to be closer to a granddaughter, and lived in Urbana from 2008-13 before moving to St. Joseph in 2013.
In January of 2013, Rodney Egelston, 45, passed away after a heart attack.
Mark Mammen’s son, Cameron, was a senior that year at St. Thomas More. He was a top-ranked wrestler, who went on to win a Class 1A state championship a month later.
“Cam devoted a bit of that to Rodney,” Mark Mammen said. “Cam wrote Rod’s name in his wrestling shoes.”
Egelston had a spectator’s interest in Cameron Mammen’s exploits on the football field and in wrestling.
“He was a true fan of sports and what kids were doing,” Mark Mammen said.
At St. Joseph, Tom Egelston became immersed in that district’s athletic teams.
In recent weeks, as Tom Egelston’s health had deteriorated, Booky found a way to communicate.
“When Tom was bad and seemed out of it, you could talk football and he would come right back to reality,” Booky said. “He stayed up-to-date on what was going on.”
Egelston passed away one day before he was scheduled to achieve a Bucket List goal.
A staunch Alabama football fan, he and his wife had obtained tickets to the Saturday (Oct. 2) Crimson Tide game with Ole Miss. It was to be the first Alabama game he had seen in person.
The family had sold the tickets when it became clear he would be unable to travel.
There may well have been more football accomplishments for Egelston than what his friends realized.
One point is clear, Booky said.
“You wouldn’t hear Tom bragging about himself,” Booky said.
It’s a good thing his friends are still around.
Besides his wife, Paula, Tom Egelston is survived by a son, Greg.
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I saw Egelston long before I met him. He was around Urbana athletic events that I watched in the 1980s, but we were never actually introduced.
Our association started decades later, again before I officially met him.
One of my weekly commitments in my final years with The News-Gazette was to host a live chat and answer sports-related questions during a 30-minute time period on Thursdays that often extended into more than an hour.
It was a rare week when Egelston didn’t submit a question. Some weeks, his were the only ones. Other weeks, there were more than a dozen questions.
Many times, after the session ended, my office phone would ring. It was Egelston on the other end. He wanted to further discuss some of my answers.
He would say, “I know you were being politically correct, but what do you really think about…”
What I enjoyed about our conversations was that he wasn’t calling to complain. He was seeking more insight and willingly shared facts that sometimes I hadn’t known.
He was past his coaching years by then, but knew what was possible – especially in Urbana – because he had been a part of ultra-successful programs.
The first time we met was under less-than-ideal conditions. It was at Stone Creek Church, in Urbana, for son Rodney’s celebration of life.
Gone too soon. Then. And now.
