Blog: Behind the Book Reader Interview with T.J. Brown
The Boys in Brown was released on Sept. 1 by Last Mile Publications. Author Jon J. Kerr interviews readers of the book each Thursday.
In 1993, T. J. Brown graduated from Carmel Catholic. He went to Indiana University before becoming a newspaper man.
He eventually left the newspaper business, got his MBA at Loyola in Chicago, got married, had two children and is now a marketing and sales manager for a manufacturing company in Niles. He and his wife, Joanna, currently reside in Northbrook.
I interviewed T.J. for Behind the Book, and he shares his thoughts on The Boys in Brown, his time at Carmel and how much of his adult life is shaped from his experience attending a Catholic high school.
T.J. did a great job and goes in depth on several issues, so I hope you are enlightened and enjoy his perspective.
Q: What did you first think when you learned of the book The Boys in Brown?
I learned of the project during the 2010 season. At the time, I was freelancing for the Daily Herald and had the opportunity to cover a handful of Carmel games. Early in the season, Jon was identified as the “guy writing the book.” I was, of course, interested as a Carmel alum and someone who has followed the football program as a student, alum and a reporter since I was a freshman there in 1989.
Andy Bitto was one of the more interesting personalities at Carmel when I was a student, and he was easily the most fun football coach to cover in Lake County. There’s a lot of depth to Bitto, and I was interested in reading someone else’s take.
Q: How was book’s portrayal of the football program, school and community at large?
I’ve been away from Carmel 22 years, and I don’t sit around rehashing my high school days. They aren’t that exciting. Still, high school is a transformative time for most everyone, and I am glad to have been at a place like Carmel.
The Boys in Brown evoked many long ago memories that I forgot how impactful they were on my life. Carmel’s community extends across Lake County, from Zion to Barrington, and even beyond. Why would someone work multiple jobs to help pay the tuition and then drive in from Johnsburg every day? Why would someone who lived in Barrington and had an excellent public high school so close by? In the 1990s, it was the way the Carmelites and BVMs incorporated their mission into everyday student life. It became apparent as you began to build friendships across a wide and diverse area. The teachers at Carmel in the 1990s helped carry that culture. You appreciated that most of the staff there remained at Carmel because they believed strongly in the school’s commitment to its mission. The late Dr. Bob Watson, a math teacher at Carmel forever, greeted my high school math class on its first day with him introducing himself and his credentials. And he concluded his introduction by saying, “I choose to remain at Carmel because I believe Catholic education works, and I enjoy helping make it work here.” Later in the year, he had a stroke in our class. It happened literally while working on an equation and he was able to walk out of the classroom and to one of the offices so he could get whisked to the hospital. He returned in a couple weeks. He couldn’t stay out of the classroom. There was Joe Scordino, a wrestling coach and economics teacher who stayed at Carmel until his health failed.
But many of the teachers that I knew back then are still there today (or have only recently retired): Jim Nolan, Cathy Smolka, Bob Kuykendall, Lynne Strutzel, Jim Halford, Sister Mary Sattagast, Kent Parry, Ben Berg, Jerry Rejc, Jim Rejc, Michael Fitzgibbons, and Andy Bitto. That’s a dozen teachers that were on the faculty at Carmel when I walked in the door in the Fall of 1989. Except for Bitto and Kent Parry, none of these people were new teachers at that point either. That speaks to the community built at Carmel.
The alumni community is strong. Some 17 years ago, Fitz led Carmel to the State Quarterfinals in what would be his last year there. I was working in LaPorte, Indiana as a sportswriter, and as fate would have it, I had that Friday off, and decided that maybe I could drive 60 miles across I-80 to Morris. A couple buddies who lived in Libertyville and the city met me there. We ran into a handful of guys from our class at the game — more than five years after we had graduated and all the way in Morris. The night concluded at some bar in Beverly having a couple drinks before I continued my way to NW Indiana and a bunch of guys I hadn’t seen in years headed home.
In 2002, Carmel played Mount Carmel at Gately in the state Quarterfinals and I went — as a spectator this time, and again bumped into more than a dozen classmates without even trying almost 10 years out of school
Contrast this to another school with a strong sense of community. I saw Libertyville play — and demolish — Lake Forest this year. Libertyville is real good this year, and they have a legitimate shot at a state title. I mentioned this to a few friends who played football at Libertyville and was met with indifference.
The Boys in Brown evoked the feeling of community I felt at Carmel. I think it also gave a great portrayal of the football program. It is what Fitz, the Rejcs, Ben Berg and Andy Bitto have poured their lives into. It’s more than the option offense and the string of success of late. The people that come out of the football program are better than those that go in.
You might get an interesting perspective on how the football program changed over the years by talking to some players. Mike Wagner, the starting strong safety on the Steelers’ Iron Curtain Defense, is the first major success story to come out of Carmel. Then there’s Jeff Zgonina, a monster for Fitz in the late 1980s, who went on to star at Purdue before embarking on a long pro football career. Zgonina won a Super Bowl with the Rams, steps away from Steve McNair when he was stopped short of a potential game-tying touchdown.
There’s Sean McGrath, the quirky tight end for the Chiefs and Seahawks, who had to attack his personal demons in college before becoming a bit of a folk hero in Kansas City.
Finally, there’s Pat Kraft, the new athletic director at Temple. Pat is a couple years younger than me, but played some varsity football his sophomore (my senior) year. He went to Illinois Wesleyan to play football before transferring to Indiana and playing Big Ten football even if he wasn’t quite the size that you’d like. Pat then focused on sports management, earning a doctorate at IU before becoming a business professor at Loyola a few years ago. I was earning my MBA there, and I saw him at a reception right after he started there. He then went from Loyola back to Bloomington where he was a deputy AD for a couple years. Ironically, Loyola hired Indiana’s assistant AD, Grace Calhoun, and stayed at Loyola for a few years before he had the opportunity to become assistant AD (and now Athletic Director) at Temple.
Pat grew up two streets from me in Libertyville, went to the same Parish as me, was in Bloomington for some of the same time I was, was part of the Loyola community when I was there, and if you would tell me what my No. 1 memory of Pat Kraft was, it would be the gym class we were in when I was a senior and he was a sophomore and he spent the whole class talking about how excited he was to face Joliet Catholic that night. I think of him more of a Corsair than a Hoosier (and he has his IU jersey hanging at Nick’s!)
Q: What are social and societal issues touched on that you found the most interesting?
Laron’s journey throughout the book will obviously stick with me. People like the Bieres are part of Carmel. I think, too, there’s a bit of an underlying theme about the role of the Church in modern America. You can see subtle references to the fact that church is not the influence it once was.
Fitz sees that his calling in campus ministry is to put God and spirituality out there for students to seize. Andy Bitto understands that football can play a role in bringing people close to God.
Q: At the end of the book, the character of LaRon refers to Kairos. Throughout the book, there are scenes that directly and metaphorically describe Kairos. As a Carmel grad that went through the retreat, what was your reaction?
Kairos was an experience I would hope for everyone to share. You have to have an open mind and open heart for it. When you arrive at Carmel as a freshman, you hear about Kairos, but you don’t get much information about it. The blackout of information was intentional, and it also has to be impossible today. A quick Google search of “What happens on Kairos” yields links to pages that detail the retreat. I advise anyone planning on going on Kairos to resist the temptation to do that.
Without getting into some of the passages where Kairos is referenced indirectly — it is only directly mentioned once – I will say that some of the emotions I felt then while I was on the retreat came back. It truly is an awesome experience, and it’s the centerpiece of what campus ministry does for the person at Carmel.
If you want to know what Kairos is about and you haven’t gone on it, I’d just advise you to have no expectations or impressions of what it might look like and to trust in the leaders. The Boys in Brown does evoke some memories of Kairos as it is a highlight of just about every student’s senior year.
Q: The book is set in 2010. Do the storylines relate to the culture today?
I think so. As I said earlier, some scenes evoked memories of 20 years earlier. Some things translate well over the years.
The Boys in Brown is now available on Amazon.
