I've started this post so many times and just start crying...I had the distinct pleasure of growing up with Mark; we attended St. Norbert & Loyola together and while we drifted apart after high school I was so pleased to reconnect through Facebook.
I have only good memories of Mark; the first time I recall Mark was in the 6th grade when we ran the 600 yard run and tied, both setting the school record. Coach Rick McCafferty had us run it again and fortunately, I won beating Mark by maybe a yard. When we reconnected via Facebook that was his first comment! From that day in 1972, we had mutual respect for one another.
We used to attend Northwestern football games and in the '70's they were brutal. We would wait until the end of the game and run towards the oppositions locker room and ask for chinstraps, sweatbands and arm pads. We were the only 6th graders with double chinstraps! We thought we were so cool.
We played football & basketball in elementary school together and even shared the same backfield, but Mark was always the superior athlete.
In recent years we bet on football games; I'm an ASU fan and of course, Mark was a Stanford Cardinal fan. We bet, I lost and sent him my payment, an Oriental rug, which is my business. We passionately spoke about non profits, women's soccer, Georgetown and our families, especially our brothers and mothers.
I'm a better person for having known Mark, he inspired me from day one.
Rewind. More contemporaneously, you the "TD" Dorsett, he the Archie Griffin. Mark got TD's chin strap the game we saw one September, NU's first home game like third week of the season, already in the Tribune his reputation preceded the freshman phenom. Runs for 165 yds., setting some record, the older guys next to us accounting out loud every last yard. Dyche Stadium memories too of the shrapnel from stomping mustard packs and the popping of paper cups the way Wrigley used to always sound on TV after the 7th on another losing late summer afternoon. I remember you earliest on my radar around your fourth grade, he often going over to your house from our then Blackthorn digs.
Brian awesome to hear from you! I knew how that story would end, you were always faster than everybody else. I can rewind my mind back to you two in the backfield, you the Terry Metcalf slashing/ fast one, and he compared, an OJ Anderson type. The double chinstraps from Northwestern games indeed, and my rewind has me watching you two sporting them.