MSL Football: Bazsali Gets Hometown Honor of a Lifetime
Longtime Football Coach Inducted into Elgin Hall of Fame
Bruce Bazsali is basically still the energetic little kid from Elgin even as he approaches his 78th birthday.
Or, as he put it, “A kid with ADHD who wanted to coach and teach and wanted to help kids like me.”
That’s why Sunday night’s homecoming meant so much to Bazsali, who spent the bulk of his teaching and coaching career in District 214 at Elk Grove, Prospect and Rolling Meadows. Bazsali was part of the five-person Class of 2022 that was inducted into the Elgin Sports Hall of Fame at The Centre of Elgin and included John Radtke, who recently retired from the Daily Herald.
“Because it’s your hometown,” said Bazsali, a 1963 Elgin High graduate. “That town is so deep in sports history. As a little kid growing up there in the ‘50s and ‘60s I was embedded in that stuff. To be a Maroon, going to games, watching kids and knowing them all. You started playing at the Y and that was a big thing. Going to Wing Park Pool.
“The basic essence is it created me and it was my savior.”
Bazsali’s father George graduated from Elgin, was a member of the booster club and part of the committee to create Memorial Field. His older brother Gordon played basketball with Elgin Hall of Famers Flynn Robinson (eight-year NBA and ABA career) and George Clark (three years with Harlem Globetrotters). His younger brother Doug played golf at Larkin.
And Bazsali recalled following his dad and his mom Jeannette into an Elgin basketball game and how they talked about his brother playing for the legendary Bill Chesbrough, who won 579 games in 35 years and is also in the Elgin Hall of Fame.
“I said, ‘I want them to talk about me like that someday,’” Bazsali said.
He would play for Chesbrough on the Elgin sophomore football team. The impact was monumental.
“That’s when I knew I wanted to become a coach,” Bazsali said. “He had a way of looking at you when he talked. He was talking to just you. He was such an inspirational person who taught me life skills and really pushed me.”
A game that season also provided the drive and fighting spirit Bazsali has carried throughout his life. Elgin trailed Thornton by 2 touchdowns with less than two minutes to play. Chesbrough was fuming but still believed his team could come back. A forced fumble led to a touchdown. A recovered onside kick led to another touchdown and an improbable victory.
“They taught me to have a lot of fight,” Bazsali said. “He followed my whole coaching career.”
He went on to play at Western Illinois and was still in school when he started his coaching career as a student-teacher at Knoxville High School just outside of Galesburg. From there it was a brief stop at Hampshire and then a homecoming of sorts at St. Edward. In his first year he was coaching Dave Casper, who went on to a Hall of Fame career at Notre Dame and in the NFL as a tight end.
Then it was on to Carmel, Rolling Meadows and Prospect where he had tremendous success coaching track and softball. Bazsali’s perseverance was necessary when he took over a struggling Elk Grove football program in 1990. He affectionately called one team with low numbers “the dirty 30.” He billed one season-ending game with Rolling Meadows, when both were out of the playoff hunt, for the Mid-Suburban South East Division championship.
Bazsali finally got the Grenadiers into the playoffs in 2001. And in his final season there before retiring, they won a school-record 11 games and reached the state quarterfinals.
“I was always told you can’t do it but I’m going to show you I can,” Bazsali said. “I was blessed not only with the people who coached with me but the kids I coached. I could see certain things in kids because I did it.”
Then-Prospect coach Brent Pearlman loved Bazsali’s enthusiasm and energy and added him to the staff for a third state title in five years in 2005. Bazsali also coached standout quarterback Miles Osei before taking over another struggling program at Rockford Lutheran in 2010.
After two losing seasons, he led Lutheran to a 50-9 record, five straight playoff berths, a state semifinal trip in 2013 and had the opportunity to coach future NFL 1,000-yard rusher James Robinson, who is currently with the New York Jets. Then it was on to Arizona where Bazsali helped Casa Grande, located between Phoenix and Tucson, win its first state title.
Osei was trying to get Elk Grove’s program turned around in his sixth year so Bazsali came back home to help. He joined a staff that included veterans in Pearlman, Steve Polley, Tony Wolanski, Mike Kamedula and Samir Chaudhari. The Grens had their first winning season and playoff trip since 2013.
“I really loved it, it was really cool,” Bazsali said. “In the playoff game (29-22 loss to Hoffman Estates) they gave everything they could. To go 7-3 for a team that wasn’t supposed to do anything, it was amazing.”
Naturally, Bazsali is talking about coming back to Elk Grove after he spends another winter and spring in Arizona. After all, this is what was ingrained in him as a kid growing up in Elgin.
“This really did mean a lot to me,” Bazsali said of being part of the 204 inductees since the Elgin Hall of Fame started in 1980. “All these people were good to me. I would be behind the bleachers playing football with paper cups as a ball. In junior high, I actually watched the games and watched kids and wanted to emulate them and be like them.
“They were my heroes and Elgin was everything to me. I always wanted to make my city proud.”
Radtke Part of 2022 Class of Elgin Sports Hall of Fame
John Radtke, who recently retired after an award-winning sportswriting career with the Daily Herald and Elgin Courier, was inducted as a Friend of Sports. He was instrumental in building the Daily Herald’s presence in the Elgin area by leading its phenomenal coverage of high school sports.
The other inductees were Elgin softball standout Hannah Perryman, Elgin Academy swimmer Hannah Pelka and Elgin martial arts teacher and competitor Ken Ok Hyung Kim.
To learn more about this class and all the Elgin Hall of Famers go to eshof.org. The website for the Hall and the names who are part of it are impressive.