Lazier Field

Lazier Field Dedication Kickoff

Lazier Field at Memorial Stadium
Dedication: October 20, 2007, 1 pm
Evanston Township High School
1600 Dodge Avenue, Evanston, IL

Friday, October 19, 2007 - 8 PM

Register

Murney’s Men Players Reunion

Prairie Moon restaurant
1502 Sherman Avenue, Evanston
847.864.8328

• Join alumni team members from all years (1957 – 1974) in a private salute to Mr. Lazier. This Reunion party will be relaxed and as informal as possible. Come ready to catch up with each other and to be with the Coach.



• View the Salute to Murney Lazier produced by the Dedication Committee.



• Cash bar with hosted appetizers.

Schedule for game day, October 20, 2007

Wear your school colors!

• 11 AM -- Murney’s Tailgate Party
  Everyone is invited to a special pre-game tailgate party at the school, near the ETHS Field House. ETHS will provide the food and drink. Please note, that alcohol is not allowed on school property.



• 12:35 PM -- Pregame
  ETHS marching band, cheerleaders, pom pom squad and the 2007 varsity football team lead Mr. Murney Lazier and the Lazier players to Memorial Stadium



• 1 pm -- Evanston vs. Waukegan varsity Football game
  Special Seating area



• Half Time -- The Lazier Field Dedication Ceremony
  Murney Lazier and Mrs. Lazier, along with family members and followed by Murney’s Men (1957-1974) enter the field.
  Speakers & Presentation

In the fall of 1950, Murney Lazier came to Evanston from Oregon Community High School in Oregon, Illinois where he had been a Physical Education Teacher, Head Varsity Football and Basketball Coach. At Evanston Township High School, he became a Physical Education Teacher, Head Freshman Football Coach and Head Freshman Basketball Coach.

Shortly thereafter, he became Head Sophomore Football Coach and Head Varsity Wrestling Coach. The Varsity Wrestling Team won the only Suburban League Wrestling Title in the School’s History. His under class record in Football was 52 wins and 4 losses. In 1957, he was named Head Varsity Football Coach. This was a position he held for eighteen years. During that time, he directed a staff of twelve coaches and amassed a Varsity record of 125 wins, 17 losses and 4 ties.

To the present day, Murney has the highest winning percentage of any Illinois High School Football Coach in State History

More…

Lazier's Story

In 1957, Murney was named Head Varsity Football Coach. This was a position he held for eighteen years. During that time, he directed a staff of twelve coaches and amassed a Varsity record of 125 wins, 17 losses and 4 ties. To the present day, Murney has the highest winning percentage of any Illinois High School Football Coach in State History. He always urged his players to be multiple sports athletes. He insisted academics were at all times their top priority.

He organized a Lacrosse Program at Evanston in 1959 as a Spring Intramural Sport. New Trier and Oak Park soon followed with Lacrosse Programs of their own. In 1968, Lacrosse was recognized as a Spring Sport at Evanston. Murney was the first to start High School Lacrosse in Illinois. Varsity Lacrosse teams played against New Trier, then New Trier East, New Trier West, Oak Park, Lake Forest College, University of Notre Dame and the Chicago Lacrosse Club. Several of Murney’s players received full College Lacrosse Scholarships.

In Football under Murney, ETHS won thirteen Varsity Football Suburban League Titles. Of the 27 Football Suburban League Titles Evanston captured in its history, Lazier won 13 of them. From 1963-68, Evanston won six titles in a row.

His teams were declared Mythical State Football Champions by various newspaper services and the IHSA in 1960, 1961, 1963, 1966, 1968 and 1971. Evanston was declared the Consensus Mythical State Champions by all newspaper services in 1960, 1961, 1963, 1966, and 1968.

Illinois High School Association Football playoffs did not begin until 1974. Murney was one of the chief proponents for a State Football championship Play-Off System. He felt the value of League Championships should be maintained and as originally conceived only League Champions qualified for the State Football Playoffs.

Murney was named Football Coach of the Year in 1961 by the Champaign News Gazette and the Chicago Sun-Times in 1968. He is a member of five Halls of Fame including the Illinois Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame, Illinois Athletic Directors Hall of Fame and the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame to name a few.

Murney still holds the record for the most League Championships in Football in the oldest league in Illinois (the now disbanded Suburban League 1913-1974). Murney coached 28 All State Football Players and 8 NFL Players. A few of the players he coached include Emery Moorehead, Mike Kenn, Ozzie Rosinski, Bob Pickens, Jim Purnell, Owen Thomas, Doug Redman, Kit Basler, Steve Greene, Joe Stewart, Mike Wynn, Howard Jones and Carlos Mathews. In 1975 the year of his departure from ETHS to Lyons Township High School to become Athletic Director, Murney said to a newspaper reporter in an article entitled Lazier Takes Legacy to Lyons, “One of the things is the fact that we’ve given back to the community my salary. The football program was responsible for more than $1.1 million in scholarships. 160 players have gotten scholarships out of the program in 18 years. We’re very proud of that, because a lot of kids needed that aid (including 52% of the black athletes who made up roughly a third of his teams). By playing football they got four years of college. We’ve had kids at schools coast to coast—UCLA, Stanford, Washington, Yale, Cornell, Nebraska. And smaller schools, too, not just the big names. That has made us very proud of our program."

Lazier's Record

Lazier's Rules

• No smoking
• No drinking
• Stay in shape
• Take care of your body
• Shake hands after defeat
• Don’t make excuses
• Don’t bad-mouth opponents
• Play a Spring Sport
• Pass a fitness test before the season
• Play Sophomore Football prior to your first Varsity Season.

Lazier's Quotes

• “I’m a strong proponent of no double standard for kids. Coaches should be role models. If we tell kids they should do certain things, we should do them ourselves.”



• “Coaches must be responsible for recruiting and grades. You can’t drop a kid after the season is over. A coach has an influence on his life. A coach must train a kid for College and Life. That’s part of the coach’s job description. If he thinks it isn’t, he’s in the wrong business.”



• “Some people said I used to grab kids by the mask and holler at them,” said Lazier, who doesn’t deny it. “But they knew I loved them and was doing everything to make them successful.”



• “If young men can be convinced what you do is for their benefit, they’ll do anything for you. But if they think it’s for somebody else’s benefit, they won’t. Their ego is the most important thing in the world. They must feel their ego is central. That’s how you develop good team attitude and internal motivation.”

Share Your Story

Send your story to swyderka@rjobrien.com and we will post it here to share with others. Please include your full name, your graduating class and what years you played for Coach Lazier.

If you’d like your posting to be anonymous, please be sure to include that in your message.

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Michael Baez shares,

I had the honor of playing for Evanston Township High School from 1967-1970. I was on the State Championship Soccer Team, and I had the chance to play Varsity lacrosse for Mr. Lazier as a freshman and played 4 years. I was offered scholarships to Notre Dame, Air Force, John’s Hopkins, Northern Illinois and Western Illinois as well as Bowling Green State University (hockey, lacrosse and soccer). Since Bowling Green has national championships in hockey and Lacrosse and I had traveled to Ohio in winter time to play hockey tournaments there since I was a sophomore in high school, I chose Bowling Green.

Attending ETHS was a lifetime opportunity for me, since I was a poor kid without a father and really raised myself. Evanston sports teams became a family to me, and instilled in me valuable traits that I have used throughout my lifetime. I have been married 33 years and have 4 boys who are great athletes and great people. I will never forget Mr. Lazier and my friends at Evanston who left me with lots of “Lifetime Operating Instructions”. I have run companies in the US and Europe, have served on boards to help those who are less advantaged, and have continued to “pay it forward” from my years at ETHS. Although we won State when I played soccer, my best times were playing lacrosse for coach Lazier. I was always disappointed I could not play football for him my senior year. After 2 successful years at Bowling Green, I decided to go after my dream. Big Time Football. I worked all summer, in 1973I hitting the weights getting to 220lbs and built myself for speed and power, since I am only 5’8”… because I had to reach my dream of playing football on a college level. I made the team at tailback, and until a serious injury, brought my ETHS work ethic to the team with all my “heart”. I gave it my all every play that I carried the ball.

Today, at 54 I still lift weights, weigh about 189, work out in the gym at my house, play “21” basketball outdoors for several hours with my 4 sons who are tall…(6’5”, 6’4”, 6’2” and 6’) ..and still win half the games. I will never forget my ETHS heritage, and the “Lifetime Operating Instructions” it gave me. I go to Chicago on business every few months and I sometimes drive by ETHS as a way to rekindle the memories that are a deep part of my life.

Here are a few memories and lessons:

• Mr. Lazier taught us to live a “colorblind” life where we loved and supported each other regardless of color or nationality. Ed “Bear” Bryant invited me to parties and his home, and in his neighborhood, although I was white…..I will never forget his hospitality and what a great man he was as an upper classman. Coach Lazier taught us to respect each other, as well as our opponents…we never taunted opponents or each other. We celebrated our success, not another’s failure.
  
  
• We were taught to be fearless and never expect anything but a “way to win” no matter what the odds. In my lifetime so far, I never can settle for second best or a below average effort. It would be letting myself and my team down. I always expect to finish first in anything I do, but if I do not, I carry myself with dignity until NEXT time.
  
  
• Preparation was the key to success. Before weight training and agility drills and off season conditioning became popular like it is today….Coach Lazier was 35 years ahead of his time in his vision for training athletes throughout the year…thus the reason for multiple sport athletes. (Spring Lacrosse was a mandate for fall football).
  
  
• Humility of person. Coach Lazier did every exercise and every work out he expected us to do, he was not “above” it. He played basketball with us in the gym in his baggy sweats (and he always threw elbows at me under the hoop, in an effort to win). He lifted weights with us and did team exercises with us (Remember the RECORD men and the tune “when Johnny comes marching home again”?)
  
  
• Lead by example. Coach Lazier was a man’s man, but respected everyone. I remember the dignity he led our teams with and the way he handled himself. He only got upset when he knew we were not doing our best.
  
  
• Today, I still keep my State Championship patch in my dresser drawer, it is a silent reminder to me that I can do anything, and I was once part of something greater than myself. It made me the father I am today, the community leader, and the fierce competitor that can still hear coach yelling at us to be better than we thought we could be. We are the WILDKITS, and it will be in my genetics for life.
  
  

Michael Baez – ETHS -1970
VP Sales & Marketing US/Europe
Cresset Chemical Co.
michaelsales@cresset.com

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To: The School Board of Evanston Township High School September 25, 2006

Re: The Naming of the Football Field in Honor of Coach Murney Lazier

I have been part of a group that has been organizing this effort to name the field in Coach Lazier's honor. Consequently, much of the feedback from his former players has crossed my desk. The outpouring of respect, admiration, loyalty, gratitude, and love has been inspiring. I too was impacted in a great way by Coach Lazier.

I was a back up quarterback and defensive back for ETHS. Quarterbacks spent a great deal of extra time with Coach in game prep, studying, mentoring, etc. So I feel I had the opportunity to know him very well. I don't think I appreciated the lessons at the time because he was a tough and demanding leader. As the years passed and as I applied his teachings, I recognized his profound impact.

• No Excuses
• Take Responsibility for your actions
• Prepare like a Champion
• Leave it all on the field
• Persistence and Consistency of Effort
• No shortcuts to excellence
• Do your part for the team

I was not one of his players that was blessed with great ability so did not achieve on the field success until my senior year. That success helped me get into an Ivy League School which provided me a great background for professional success. The educational background combined with the lessons learned from Coach Lazier on how to compete at the highest level have paid huge dividends in my professional career.

At age 46 I decided to reinvent myself and start my own company. You swallow hard when you go from a very comfortable income to no income. Well, that business is well on its way to meeting my expectations. Those lessons from Coach Lazier continue to resonate and influence me to succeed.

Dave Kauppi

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Murney (my brother) What an Honor! CONGRATULATIONS!! I remember a trip you made to New York to look at a coaching position in college. You turned it down because you felt you could do more good in high school in building men. I can see that you did!!

I remember all the football games I had to sit through, also the games at Illinois where I saw you make an 88 yard touchdown. Sports were promoted in our family. All of you were good at them.

I am speaking for all of the Lazier Clan, WE ARE PROUD OF YOU!! Mom, Dad, Andy, Paul, Dale, Willie, Ella Mae (deceased) are right there with you. You were the 5th, I was the 7th and from Mom and Dad's union another 25 came along, and another 35 and the're still coming, our nieces and nephews are bringing up the rear! ENJOY THE MOMENTS!!

Love ya' Lois Lazier Shelley

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During double sessions in August, I’ve never forgotten Coach Lazier saying, “Men, there will come a time in your life when you are reluctant to get out of bed and face what must be done that day. These practices will get you prepared to do that.” That advice helped me more than once. Thanks, Coach Murney Lazier, you truly made a much bigger difference to many, beyond your winning record.

Tom Richards, Class of 1959, starting left guard for perhaps your worst (regrettably) team of win/loss record, but a group of wonderful character, much of it taught by you. Congratulations on LAZIER FIELD!

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Coach Lazier gave me a chance when, I believe, I would have been cut from almost any other program, especially one with the winning tradition of ETHS Football. I played football for Coach Lazier from 64’-67’. Everything I’ve done since has been based on the foundation of that experience.

G-d bless Murney Lazier for providing tough love, a sense of team, how to prepare to win, and a fair shot for everyone that came out to excel.

May you live 100 years in the eyes of your children and forever in their hearts.

Congratulations Coach!!

Dave Weinbaum

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Tradition. Perseverance. Playing to your Strengths.

I suppose it was inevitable that I'd be a Wildkit quarterback. As the offspring of two proud ETHS graduates, there was no debate about high school in our house. No Loyola, no Country Day and (thank God) no New Trier; it was ETHS or bust. And while I could have played another sport (or no sport at all), I wouldn't have had the guts to tell my three older brothers that I wouldn't also play football. Coach taught me to swim as a youngster and he might have let me drown if I'd told him I wouldn't play football. That was our tradition. And tradition was important to Coach, too, especially on game day: the starting QB finding a Hershey bar on the top shelf in his locker; morning meetings; Don Schneider firing us up with some crazy locker room decoration; the final hour with the team in the Senior Lounge; the silent walk from the practice field to Memorial Stadium; the marching band played the fight song and then "Down the Field"; and ending the day with another victory parade down Church Street. Tradition!

I was 5'4" and 105 lbs as a freshman. I made the "B" team, playing for Coach Raffeto. That was OK as there was no competing with studs like Ozzie Rosinski, Jeff Jerome and Dion King. I played a lot, learned the system, and kept out of harm's way. In the winter, I joined the track team and hit the weight room. I was feeling pretty buff when, one day, Coach walked through the Field House and called me over. "Don't worry, son.", he said, "Keep working and someday you'll grow." Ouch! I didn't grow much (that was one of Coach's few missed calls) but I kept working and started every game of our sophomore, junior and senior years. Perseverance!

"We may be small but we're slow!", is how Coach once described us to the press. A more accurate description of me would have been, "small but not overly strong". But my strengths on the field were developed at home during my childhood. As the youngest of four boys, I needed speed to run away from trouble, a good arm to keep trouble at bay, and a loud voice to yell for help. Important tools of the trade for a quarterback. It was the same with our teams. Despite the school's size, we were far from stacked with blue chip athletes. Coach had a system, and we each had a role to play. Do your job and the system worked. Play To Your Strengths!

I was lucky to have family and friends who understood the importance of tradition, perseverance and playing to our strengths; Coach certainly wasn't the only one. But, at a time when many kids were in dire need of someone - anyone -to show them rules for good living, we were all very lucky to find such a man out on the gridiron every day (and twice a day in August)! Thanks, Coach, for all that you did for us.

- Dave Hoover, ETHS '75 (Varsity '73, '74)

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Although I can't call myself one of "Murney's Men", I was shaped by his example from the side lines. As captain of the cheerleading squad during the late 60's, I was there for each varsity football and basketball game, as well as wrestling and swimming meets. In the midst of watching many coaches with their athletes, no one impacted me more than Coach Lazier. His unforgettable presence, power, giftedness and dedication provided all of us with a standard of greatness. I remember how proud I felt sitting at dinner with Coach Lazier and our victorious 1967 football team. We all stood a bit taller when we were in his company, and lived larger as a result of having known him. It is a privilege to honor such a man.

- Katie Hanley Storer

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Hotel Accommodations

Doubletree Hotel and Conference Center Chicago North Shore
9599 Skokie Blvd.
Skokie, Illinois, USA, 60077
1 (847) 679-7000

Group Name is Coach Lazier Group

Register

Friday, October 19, 2007 - 8 PM

Murney’s Men Players Reunion

Prairie Moon restaurant
1502 Sherman Avenue, Evanston
847.864.8328

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Thank you for your support in the Lazier Field dedication! There are three ways to contribute to this project:

1. Click Here to donate online.

2. Mail donations to: ETHS Foundation
    ATTN: Business Office
    1600 Dodge Ave
    Evanston, IL 60204
    (Check Payable to: ETHS Foundation)

3. Click Here to view the brochure and donation form.

Contact Us

• Contact: Sandi Wyderka



• Phone: 312.373.5023



• Email: swyderka@rjobrien.com