Remembrances: Wheeling Big Part of Tom Harold's Hall of Fame Football Career
2016 IHSFCA Inductee Led Wildcats to 1996 Playoffs During Six-Year Tenure
Former Wheeling football coach Tom Harold immediately came to mind while watching York clinch its first trip to a state championship game last fall.
The Dukes wrapped up a 20-15 Class 8A semifinal win over Naperville Central by literally running out the clock. Rather than punt on fourth down, speedy quarterback Bruno Massel ran 43 yards the “wrong way” to take a safety as the clock hit zero.
I quickly texted former Wheeling baseball and assistant football Tim Lazzarotto that York had just finished the game with “the Pat Murphy play.” The stakes weren’t quite as significant for Wheeling in 1997, but when Murphy dashed 42 yards the wrong way he did the same to Buffalo Grove’s playoff hopes on a dreary Saturday afternoon.
It was one of the memorable moments during Harold’s six-year tenure as head coach at Wheeling that included an overachieving playoff trip in 1996 and two other 5-4 near-misses that would be postseason berths today. And some of those memories came flooding back when Dion Martorano of the Des Plaines Journal & Topics shared that Harold had passed away on January 31, 2025 at age 78.
“Tom had a larger-than-life personality and was a captivating storyteller — always entertaining, even when his tales were ‘slightly’ embellished,” Harold’s obituary said. “Tough as they come and generous to a fault, he was the kind of man who would give you the shirt off his back if you asked for it.”
Harold was the city kid who was born, raised and worked in Chicago before coming to Wheeling in 1995 to teach physical education and take over the football program for Rick Benedetto, who retired after the 1994 season. Harold was 24-31 at Wheeling and his success in a lengthy coaching career with stops at Tilden and Mather in the Chicago Public League and at Northeastern Illinois University led to his induction into the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2016.
“Tommy Harold was a treasured colleague of mine in the gym and on the football fields at Wheeling High School,” Benedetto wrote on Harold’s obituary tribute wall. “He also was a most fun-loving and ‘one-of-a-kind friend.’
“Tommy's passion for his family, football, golf and cooking was contagious to all who knew him. I'm going to miss you, buddy. Thank you for all you did for me. I will never forget the Tommy Harold stories over the years that always bring a smile to my face.”
Benedetto went 60-52 as Wheeling’s head coach and his 12th and final season was the best in program history at 9-2, a share of a Mid-Suburban North title and its only playoff victory. Harold’s first team was 5-4 (when 6-3 was needed for an at-large playoff berth) and even he didn’t have big expectations for his second team in 1996.
The Wildcats had only one game where they exceeded 200 yards of total offense so Harold played to the strengths of Dave Dunbar’s defense that pitched 3 shutouts and allowed just 12 points a game. They went 7-3 with Daily Herald All-Area picks Justin Storbeck (OL-LB), Jesse Chavez (DB) and Archie Kantzavelos (DL) and all-MSL picks Joon Eui Oh (DB), Matt Melamed (DT), Dean Korolis (LB) and Jason David (RB) despite an 11-point scoring average that was the lowest of that year’s 192 playoff qualifiers.
“For us to be 7-2 is a miracle season,” Harold said going into the playoffs. “Our coaching staff was terrific and Dave Dunbar has done an outstanding job.
“I kept saying I can’t believe we’re going to the state playoffs. I believe it now. They’re a great group of kids.”
Wheeling’s regular-season losses were 21-0 to MSL South champion Conant under Dave Pendergast and 36-0 to MSL North champ and Class 6A semifinalist Palatine in Joe Petricca’s final season as head coach. The Wildcats rebounded from the latter to edge Fremd 7-6 on a stuffed 2-point conversion in the final minute, Barrington 14-6 and BG 9-0 to finish second in the North.
“We won three football games we weren’t supposed to win,” Harold said.
Unfortunately for the Wildcats, they were one of the smallest schools in the 6A field, had to face Conant again and lost 27-6.
A year later was another extreme as Wheeling had been outscored 180-32 in a 5-game losing streak going into the season finale at BG. The Bison were rolling and a home win would have them waiting to learn who their playoff opponent would be a few hours later.
Wheeling spoiled those plans on a damp, gloomy and raw Saturday afternoon. Matt and Bruno Streich led a 19-15 upset where original starting quarterback turned receiver John Roehrick flipped a 58-yard double-reverse TD pass to Ed Arntson.
The Wildcats were clinging to a 6-point lead with fourth down when Harold had Murphy go on his long wrong-way sprint through the wet grass to his own end zone with 15 seconds left. That allowed them to set up a less-dangerous free kick and hold on for the upset.
“I was holding my breath on the safety we took,” Harold said. “Pat Murphy did a great job. It was just a great win for us.”
A year later, Wheeling and Hersey and retiring coach Bruce Glover went into their season finale at 5-3 with a playoff berth to the winner. Wheeling lost 20-14 in overtime and all its defeats that season were to playoff teams, including 6A state runnerup Barrington. After 3-6 and 1-8 finishes, a new administration opted to make a change and Harold would be replaced by Dunbar.
Harold wasn’t done as a head coach at Wheeling, however, as he led the boys tennis program into the mid-2000s.
“I only knew Tom through work, but I remember him as an honest, straight shooter who always had a smile ready,” longtime Wheeling teacher and coach Mike Burke wrote on Harold’s tribute page.
Harold was a graduate of Amundsen High School where he played football and baseball. He also played and was an assistant and head coach at Northeastern Illinois, where one of his players was longtime Fremd and Hoffman Estates head coach Mike Donatucci, and served in the U.S. Marine Corps and achieved the rank of sergeant.
Harold would make history in the Chicago Public League as a co-head coach at Tilden with Joe Bunge, who won the 1999 state title at Naperville Central. They went 72-18 during their tenure on Chicago’s South Side and in 1982 became the first CPL team to win a playoff game against a non-CPL opponent with a 27-21 first-round upset of Deerfield.
A year later, led by Chicago Sun-Times player of the year Dempsey Norman, Tilden went to the 5A semis as it beat defending 6A champion Reavis 42-38 and Thornton Fractional South 12-7 before losing 14-6 to Glenbard West. Norman was an 11th round pick of the Phoenix Cardinals in the 1990 NFL draft and played wide receiver for two years with Barcelona in the World League of American Football.
Tilden would make two more playoff trips in 1984 and 1985 under Harold and Bunge. Harold also was an offensive coordinator for seven years at Mather as the Rangers went 46-13 and won the Prep Bowl in 1992 before he came to Wheeling.
“Acknowledgement to the Harold family as my teammates and I send our deepest condolences,” Herb Hammond, the quarterback on Tilden’s 1983 semifinalist, wrote on Harold’s tribute wall. “Coach Harold was a motivator of men, he made a team of inner-city youth realize that we could compete, but not only compete but win, and not only did we win, but because of our coaches (coach Harold and coach Joe Bunge) we all thought that we were supposed to WIN because we were the Tilden Blue Devils.
“Because of these men I now have a brotherhood for life because I am closer to my teammates than any of my blood brothers, so to coach Harold as he looks down on us with a smile, we say rest on coach you deserved it.”
Harold was survived by his wife of 47 years, Elaine, his children Ryan and Jaclyn and two grandchildren. A wake was held at Glueckert Funeral Home in Arlington Heights on February 6.