fred@mahometnews.com

Twenty eight years.

Three hundred and twenty six games.

Those are some of the numbers in Dick Duval’s football coaching career at St. Joseph-Ogden.

His tenure, which ended with his retirement following the 2015 season, included spending approximately 2,600 days at the football field, whether for games or practices.

If that is put in terms of years, it’s a little more than seven.

Duval, who has been battling pancreatic cancer since April, 2020, is no longer coaching, but his presence at SJ-O will still be felt. And recognized.

Nearly 15 months after the St. Joseph-Ogden Board of Education voted to name the football grounds as Dick Duval Field, the official ceremony took place in front of a packed house on Friday night (Aug. 20) before the current Spartans’ squad conducted a preseason intrasquad scrimmage.

“As good of coach as Dick was, he is a better man and that’s something we all aspire to,” said football assistant Marshall Schacht, who worked on Duval’s staff for 23 years. “It’s appropriate they named the field that way.”

Current SJ-O football coach Shawn Skinner was convinced for years that his former coach would receive this honor.

“It wasn’t a matter of if they would do it, but when,” Skinner said.

***

Dick Duval wasn’t the first choice to be football coach at SJ-O when the search was on in 1988.

“They hired a man from Ohio to be the coach,” recalled a former player who was about to start his sophomore season at SJ-O, Shawn Skinner, “but he quit two weeks before the season.”

Duval was then offered the job, one which started so quickly after his hiring that for weeks he had to commute to the school from his home in the Kankakee area.

St. Joseph-Oden, an eastside Champaign County high school, didn’t have a reputation as a football hotbed at the time. In 14 of the previous 16 seasons leading up to 1988, the football team had a sub-.500 record.

There was one postseason playoff appearance in school history and that was only achieved the year before Duval arrived.

“Coach Duval came in under less-than-ideal circumstances,” Skinner said.

Some assistant coaches, upset with the ouster of the previous coach, chose not to return.

One of the first-year assistants who began working with Duval in August, 1988, was Bob Glazier.

Glazier worked with linebackers and wide receivers.

It’s the same Bob Glazier who, in 2021, is still coaching linebackers and wide receivers at SJ-O in his 34^th – and final – year on staff.

He learned quickly some of the special attributes that Duval brought to the program.

“He was very organized and had a tremendous attention to detail,” Glazier said. “He knew what he wanted to do, and he stuck with it.

“So many times now, guys go for the flavor of the day. People knew (when playing the Spartans) they were going to get a heavy dose of the tailback and play action.”

The transition into one of the state’s premier football programs didn’t happen overnight at SJ-O.

“His first year, for the first game, we had something like six plays (in the playbook),” Glazier said. “We were trying to figure things out and get something started.”

History showed how that worked out.

In the second year that Duval coached at SJ-O, the 1989 Spartans played in the Class 2A state championship game.

As he worked to build the football program, he aimed at something more. Duval wanted to see success across the board for all athletic programs at SJ-O.

“He truly believed you were not just a football player, but you could be a track star or a basketball or baseball player,” Glazier said. “That’s what turned things around for St. Joe.

“Athletes were doing more than one sport.”

Skinner – then a teen-ager who is now in his fifth year as football head coach at his alma mater – picked up on that mindset.

“It was the right time,” Skinner said. “I think kids and parents wanted that kind of leadership and guidance.

“There were not two- and three-sport athletes walking around the halls. He said, ‘If you’re good enough to play football, you should be doing other sports. You’re not just a football player.’”

Duval led by example. For 16 years, he also was the head baseball coach at SJ-O. His first 13 teams had winning records.

“And when the basketball team won state (in 2016), he was so proud because a lot of those kids were football players,” Schacht said.

***

The respect for the job Duval was doing, taking over a football program that Glazier said, “was floundering,” was noticed beyond the school district where he taught mathematics and coached.

In the fall of 1994, Tolono Unity hired a young football coach who found himself in a situation similar to what Duval faced the previous decade when he arrived at SJ-O.

Prior to Scott Hamilton’s coaching stint at Unity, the school had endured sub-.500 seasons in nine of the previous 12 years.

The southside Champaign County school had three playoff appearances on its resume.

“When I came here, it was very easy to tell the respect Dick had from everyone,” Hamilton said. “He was the face of the conference, the guy everyone looked up to.

“There are two ways you can go about things. You can sit and find excuses or you can find out what they are doing to be successful and try to do as many of those things as you can.

“When I started in ’94, it was the veteran against the young guy trying to get things turned around.”

Much like Duval, Hamilton got things rolling almost immediately.

His first Unity team made the playoffs as did the next 23 teams he coached at the school. Hamilton has guided five of his teams into state championship games.

When Unity and SJ-O met on the field, it was a fierce rivalry between neighboring schools.

The two coaches, however, became friends, which is how Hamilton describes their relationship.

“Two really good friends in a heated rivalry,” he said. “Up towards the end of his career, we’d do 7-on-7s and then go to Old Orchard for pizza and sit for hours talking football.

“More important than talking football, we talked about fun things we’ve experienced while working in Central Illinois.”

Hamilton believes the naming of Dick Duval Field was a natural choice.

“He changed the culture in this area when it came to football,” Hamilton said. “He demanded excellence, and he set the bar high.

“He’s probably as deserving as anybody.”

While Duval’s won-loss record was outstanding (251-75), Hamilton believes the recognition reflects more than his football coaching.

“He not only had good teams, but they were disciplined and did things the way you’re supposed to do things,” Hamilton said. “I believe he was rewarded equally for all of those things as much as the 250-plus wins.

“It’s for what he has done for so many people, not just at St. Joe, but for coaches and athletic directors around the area.”

**

For those looking for one word to describe Duval, Skinner offers his selection: “Consistent.”

Not only was Skinner a three-year player for Duval, he was an assistant on his staff the final four years that he coached.

“My oldest son (Shane) was a member of his last team that went to the Final Four (in 2013),” Shawn Skinner said. “The things he was saying before the Bloomington Central Catholic game (in the quarterfinals) and the Unity game (in the semifinals), he said to me as a junior in 1989.

“That’s because those lessons and those concepts don’t go out of style. That’s why he was able to endure. Those things don’t expire. They are universal.

“No matter the school or the sport you’re doing, they are truths.”

Duval helped make the playing experience so enjoyable that his former players want to help the tradition continue.

Among the current staff members for Skinner are former Spartans Nick Bialeschki, Ben Gorman, Dylan Koss and Dalton Walsh.

“We are molded in his philosophies, ideals and beliefs,” Skinner said.

Schacht points the finger directly at one person for the willingness of former players to return as coaches.

“The love and desire to come back is amazing,” Schacht said. “There truly is this family, and it all starts with Dick.

“Without Dick, it doesn’t go that way.”

Bialeschki teaches History at Danville High School and coaches the offensive and defensive lineman at SJ-O.

The 2006 graduate joined the Spartans’ coaching staff in 2012.

“A lot of the reasons I’m doing what I do are because of what he did for me,” Bialeschki said. “I love him more than he knows.”

Duval always had an emphasis on community and it was not a concept he merely gave lip service.

“When I came back (to coach), my wife and I had just started dating,” Bialeschki said. “In the football season, you are always busy.

“He showed me how to work through things as a husband and a father.”

In particular, Duval insisted that family time was of vital importance, even during the season.

“He always respected our family life and included family in his football functions,” Schacht said.

“A lot of programs have a lot of expectations, but there are a lot of sacrifices during the football season. Here, family was a priority. Every coach’s child has sat on Dick’s lap (at staff football functions).

“I don’t know if other coaching staffs have that because I have only coached here, but some of my friends in the coaching profession don’t understand that aspect.”

Schacht was schooled in Champaign and graduated from Central. His first connection to SJ-O was when he was assigned to do his student teaching there in the spring of 1994.

“I was a volunteer assistant in the baseball program for Dick and Bob (Glazier),” Schacht said. “They made me feel like family right away.

“Because of Dick and Bob, I participated in something special, and I haven’t left.”

While Duval’s players learned about football – and life – the assistants felt his teaching guidance as well.

“I became addicted to coaching with him,” Schacht said. “I learned about being a coach. I learned about being a man.

“He became like a second father.”

Schacht especially appreciated Duval’s management style.

“He never over-coached or over-reached into the different positions,” Schacht said.

***

St. Joseph-Ogden enjoyed unparalleled success during Duval’s tenure.

The football team never had a losing record in his 28 years on the sidelines. His teams won more than three-fourths of their games and he directed 25 consecutive teams into the postseason.

He coached teams into state championship games in four different decades. And, he is tied for 14^th on the all-time IHSA list for football coaching wins at one school with 251.

As the success mounted, so did Duval’s image.

Dalton Walsh – a current assistant coach – remembers entering high school in the fall of 2010 knowing that his football head coach was already enshrined in the state Hall of Fame.

“Coming in, I’d heard a lot of people say they were nervous, scared and intimidated (by Duval),” Walsh said. “I had those feelings as a freshman.”

Walsh soon gained a different perspective.

“He cares about his players,” Walsh said. “He pushed me to be a better player and a better person every single day.

“I’ve gotten to know him as a person the past few years and it’s cool to see that side.”

That side has little similarity to the image Walsh had pictured.

“As his kids say, he’s kind of a big teddy bear,” Walsh said. “The most special part for me is to know that side of him.”

Skinner said that Duval’s caring nature wasn’t reserved for those involved in athletics.

“He was easily one of the best teachers I’ve ever been around,” Skinner said. “If the best you could do was a C-plus, then you got a C-plus.

“If you were an A student and had a C-plus – if you were not living up to your potential – he sought you out and wanted to know why.

“He established expectations at the beginning, of doing things the right way. Some things he said in the middle of geometry were the same things he said on the field.”

Though intense on the field, Duval was fun-loving away from the game.

“On the field, he was all business,” Glazier said. “Away from the field, he liked to joke around and have fun.

“If anyone was having a problem, he’d be the first to step up and say, ‘How can I help?’ He’s a good guy who would go out of his way to make you feel welcome.”

Skinner said one lesson that Duval preached has remained with him throughout the decades.

“He taught me if you’re five minutes early, you’re late,” he said. “Get there 15 minutes early and show you’re invested and locked in.

“You know your expectations. Do your job, do what’s right whether it’s in math or on the football field.”

When that path is followed, Duval was confident that the end result would be positive.

“He really made school or life or sports that simple: ‘If you do the basic stuff well, you can’t ask for any more and most of the time, it will work out.’”

Duval remained committed to his players even following their graduations.

“One of the proudest moments in my life was as a senior in college (at MacMurray), he came to watch me play,” Skinner said. “I had one of the best games I had in college.

“He knows how much that meant to me.”

The football field at SJ-O is part of a bigger athletic area that – thanks to the urging of Duval – was named the Glenn Fisher Complex in honor of the school’s long-time janitor who cared for many of the facilities.

Now that Dick Duval Field has been officially christened, it’s up to the players to continue the football legacy.

Among the possible players in the future are three young boys whose grandfather is the person for whom the field has been named.

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fred@mahometnews.com

Good news came in small doses for Dick Duval during much of the past 76 days.

The month of May, however, has seen a significant upswing for the former St. Joseph-Ogden High School teacher and coach.

He was surprised by a drive-by parade at his home in Royal on May 6. On Tuesday night (May 28), the St. Joseph-Ogden Board of Education voted unanimously to name the football field after Duval, the person who coached the sport for 28 years at SJ-O and directed teams into state championship games in four different decades.

Five years after his retirement from coaching, Duval is still among the top 20 in state history for career wins in football with 251, all at SJ-O.

The recent highlights, both deserving and memorable, represent only a small portion of Duval’s life since mid-March.

***

For the past year-and-a-half, Duval has filled in as a mathematics instructor at Monticello.

It was an enjoyable position, Duval said, “they’re on block scheduling, so I only had to go every other day.”

By Spring Break 2020, Duval was more than ready for a break, but not because of concerns about the coronavirus pandemic, which was starting to become prevalent and eventually shuttered all classrooms throughout the state.

“I had a lot of indigestion and wasn’t able to eat as much as I had been,” Duval said. “After about two weeks, I had it checked out.”

Following an ultrasound and a CAT-scan, Duval said, “they found a mass in my pancreas that was blocking my bile duct and limiting the ability of my stomach to empty out.”

He was referred to Barnes-Jewish Hospital, in St. Louis, and an appointment was scheduled for the end of April.

He wasn’t sure he could wait.

“I was getting worse,” Duval said.

Before the family had a chance to think about their next step, a call came in from the St. Louis hospital.

“They said, ‘We’ve reviewed your records,’ and asked, ‘How soon can you be here,’” Duval said. “I said, ‘Our car has been packed’ and we took off immediately.”

Duval, his wife Lynda, and son-in-law Ryan Barnes made the journey to St. Louis.

It didn’t take long after their 6 p.m. arrival on April 21 for the former coach to realize what his life would be like in the short term.

“Three nurses and three security guards met us at the front door and said, ‘You’d better say good bye,’ and that was the last time I saw my wife for 15 days,” Duval said.

Thanks to a cell phone, he was able to keep in touch, and Lynda Duval was able to stay apprised of developments.

“Each day when the doctor made his rounds, I got on my phone and Face-timed my wife so she could keep up with the developments,” Duval said. “That was the only contact I had with my wife.”

For generations, coaches have said it’s not the wins and the losses they remember and savor as much as the relationships that are built with the squad members.

Duval received first-hand confirmation during his stay at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

“I was by myself the whole time, and it was so lonely,” he said.

Soon, a familiar person became an almost-daily visitor.

“One of my former football players is a doctor at Barnes,” Duval said, “and he came to visit and gave me a face I knew and was aware of.

“That really helped me out.”

Brian Kidd, was a four-year football player while at SJ-O. He is now a doctor in the intensive care unit at Barnes.

“He came in and was so reassuring,” Duval said. “He’d tell me why the doctors were doing what they were doing and that the things going on were normal.”

The mass on Duval’s pancreas was malignant, but doctors were satisfied with the results of the operation.

“They said I was lucky it was all in one area, and hadn’t spread,” Duval said.

He learned how fortunate he was.

“In the 15 days I was there, I had five different roommates,” Duval said. “One was going in for the same procedure.

“They opened him up, and then closed him back up because of how much it had spread.”

Thirteen days after the surgery, Duval was released from the hospital on May 6.

“It was a matter of recovering and being able to get fluids down,” Duval said. “They said they had plumbed my whole insides.”

Since returning home, he has had a different eating schedule.

“I do six small meals,” Duval said, “and my wife has done a great job making sure I get the right amount.”

Besides seeing Brian Kidd on a regular basis while at Barnes, Duval found other connections to Central Illinois.

“I basically interviewed every nurse that came in,” he said. “I had one from Warrensburg-Latham, one from Mount Zion and a couple from Decatur.”

Next week, Duval will start the first round of six months of chemotherapy. Each of the twice-a-month sessions will last five hours.

“They like to hit it hard,” he said, “because pancreatic cancer is one that can come back.”

***

Six days after Duval returned from St. Louis to his home in Royal, daughters Bobbi Busboom and Toni Barnes and son Kiel stopped by, bringing spouses and grandchildren.

The date was Tuesday, May 12.

They spent some time outside before Dick Duval said he needed to go inside.

“I was having a miserable day,” he said, “and not feeling very good.”

Everyone at the residence – except for Dick Duval – knew that a parade of cars and trucks was about to pass by the house, a welcome-home event organized by Duval’s former coaching colleague at SJ-O, current superintendent Brian Brooks, with help from Duval’s son-in-law, Ryan Barnes.

“They had to figure a way to get me outside again,” Duval said. “They had me come back out to look at something my granddaughter had drawn in the driveway.”

What he observed instead was a fire truck coming down the street, followed by a steady stream of vehicles.

“It was really overwhelming,” Duval said.

The passersby included many folks from the St. Joseph-Ogden community as well as many other locations.

“Scott Hamilton drove over (from Tolono Unity) and Monticello brought a small bus with administrators,” said Duval, who estimated that somewhere between 150 and 200 people drove by.

“We wanted to get as many people as we could,” Brooks said, “and not let him know about it.”

The secrecy was essential, Brooks said. “If he knew about it, he probably would have told us not to do it.”

What made the event more memorable is that there was no rush. The vehicles were traveling slow enough that verbal exchanges could easily be made.

“He was in his driveway,” Brooks said, “and people said a few things.”

***

The successful parade preceded by two weeks the SJ-O school board meeting where it was decided that a second school athletic facility would be named after a former coach.

In 2016, the softball field was named for Randy Wolken, who retired as the winningest softball coach in state history.

The irony is that before Duval retired, he sat in on meetings about naming fields or facilities in the district after someone.

“Brian and I talked about those things a few years ago,” Duval said, “and that you have to be careful when you do those types of things.

“You could name a basketball court after a guy and then 10 years later, someone could come along and win 100 more games.”

Duval, in fact, had a nomination he thought should be considered, but not for a specific site.

“We had a janitor who took care of the fields, and I wanted the sports complex to be named after Glenn Fisher,” Duval said. “Him and I used to go to breakfast every Friday and we’re still close friends.

“He’s a cancer survivor, too.”

Fisher was eventually recognized for his decades of contributions.

“He’s in the (SJ-O) Hall of Fame,” Duval said. “We thought he was that important.”

Even with the discussions he’d sat in on about naming facilities at SJ-O, and his career record (251 wins, 75 losses) that included 26 playoff appearances in his 28-year career as head coach (including 25 in succession), Duval said he didn’t have an inkling that the football field was about to gain a name.

“It never crossed my mind that they’d do that for me on the football field,” said Duval, who was inducted into the Illinois Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2008.

His family gathered again this week in his home, on Tuesday evening, but that didn’t make him think something was up.

It wasn’t until the door bell rang and Lynda Duval answered and said to her husband, “I think it’s for you,” that all the pieces started to fit in place.

Brooks, SJ-O principal Gary Page and three school board members dropped by to share the news.

“I was totally taken aback,” Dick Duval said. “I had no clue. I said, ‘What’s going on?’”

They gave Duval an envelope with a picture of the scoreboard inside. Underneath it were the words, “Dick Duval Field.”

“I didn’t know what to say,” Duval admitted. “I said, ‘Are you sure?’ This was totally unexpected.

“For them to think enough of me to do that is very flattering. I’m still speechless.”

The events of the previous 75 days had something to do with his mind not being on football or the high school field.

“I’ve had other things on my mind to worry about,” he said. “I was really surprised.”

***

In the first 24 hours after the decision was announced, Duval has heard from countless well-wishers.

He appreciated the sentiments that everyone shared.

“People have sent notes through email, Facebook and Twitter,” he said. “It’s amazing the outpouring I’ve gotten.”

Word traveled fast.

Among those who reached out is a former player, Pat Gegg, who is in the Navy and stationed in Japan.

“That’s what coaching is all about,” Duval said, “the relationships you build over the years.

“That’s the icing on top of the cake.”

The date for the formal dedication of Dick Duval Field is uncertain. The status of the fall football season is still up in the air, making it unrealistic to even set a target date for now.

Even if Duval was caught off-guard, Brooks is confident that others had an idea of what would eventually transpire.

“It has been talked about informally since he stepped away,” Brooks said. “Everyone knew in the back of their minds that it would probably happen at some time.”

A former SJ-O player who was also a former Spartan assistant coach under Duval, Steve Fiscus, also urged the naming to take place.

“The school board president (Jim Rein) formed a committee and three members and myself discussed it in depth,” Brooks said.

It was easy to give the recommendation a green light and submit it to the entire board for approval.

“If you name something for someone, you want the full package,” Brooks said. “Dick did so many things for SJ-O in general.

“He was a great teacher, a great educator and a great person. It’s a great tribute to him and his family.”

The naming of fields at SJ-O is not likely to change, but the committee amended its bylaws so that future recognition could still be granted if another deserving coach also makes a significant impact.

“It will be in place for at least 20 years,” Brooks said.

***

Randy Wolken said that Duval’s continued success for decades illustrates his impact.

“It tells you about his preparation and ability to motivate,” Wolken said. “Because of his success and character and how he affected young men, I’m surprised it took this long.

“He is very deserving.”

Wolken, who coached Spartan softball for 39 years, said anything of permanence is significant for coaches, who operate on one-year contracts.

“Sometimes you will go through the parking lot and look at the field, or the grandkids will look and it’s a good feeling knowing the time you put in at that field,” Wolken said.

“It’s an honor and there’s a lot of pride involved.”

For Dick Duval, the timing for the start of chemotherapy means that he may be able to return to what has become one of his favorite retirement activities.

In the two years that his son Kiel has served as the SJ-O boys’ basketball head coach, Dick Duval has been at the scorer’s table keeping the book.

“I’ve got that (surgery) behind me. We’ll get the chemo behind me and lead a normal life,” he said. “I want to be at every game.”

And when Dick Duval attends future home football games at SJ-O, he will feel right at home. That has been guaranteed.

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