Maxey Court is an unlikely looking cog in a high school football dynasty. Sandwiched between the Tri-State Tollway and a string of high-power lines, its 40 homes stretch just a block and a half along the southern border of southwest suburban Robbins, one of the most impoverished communities in the Chicago area.
The street, however, has been a super highway of football talent. From Bobby Bolton in 1972 to Efrem Haymore on last year`s Class 4A state championship team to Kevin Jackson on the current undefeated powerhouse, Maxey Court has turned out a procession of outstanding players who have helped make Richards an almost perennial state title contender.
Bulldog coach Gary Korhonen estimates that three dozen players from Maxey Court have played football for Richards since 1970, when Robbins students started attending the Oak Lawn school after attendance boundaries were redrawn to achieve racial balance. Eight players alone have been members of the Bolton or Kenebrew families, starting with Bobby Bolton and Michael Kenebrew.
George Bolton followed Bobby by a year, and Nate Bolton played in 1978-79. Chuck Bolton finished playing for Richards in 1987.
Leonard Kenebrew was a teammate of Nate Bolton`s. Mark is a senior tight end on the current squad, and David is a starter on the sophomore team.
The Hampton and Haymore families have contributed two players each to Richards. Greg Hampton was a classmate of Leonard Kenebrew and Nate Bolton, and Glenn Hampton played with Chuck Bolton. Efrem and Carl Haymore were seniors last season.
Andrew Crutchfield and Devell Nutall joined the Haymores as starters on the `88 state title team. Kevin Jackson and Mark Kenebrew were reserves on that team and are senior starters on the current squad, which also includes junior reserves Dishon Hall and Kenny Davis.
”In 26 years of high school coaching, I can`t ever remember a street like this,” said Korhonen. ”And we`re not talking about Western Avenue here. We`re talking about a block and a half ending in a cul-de-sac. And not only were there an excellent amount of football players, but they all epitomize first-class individuals.
”It`s really amazing. You`ve had years like 1979, with a Hampton, a Kenebrew and a Bolton all living one or two doors from each other, and the colleges were recruiting from one door to the next.”
Before 1970, all Robbins students attended Eisenhower High School in Blue Island. After the boundaries changed, most still went there, but Maxey Court rested in the area that belonged to Richards.
”Eisenhower gets the bulk of Robbins; Richards gets the best of Robbins,” jokes Leonard Kenebrew.
Korhonen wouldn`t argue the point. He took over as Richards head coach in 1972, which happened to be the year the school posted its first winning record ever and the year Bobby Bolton became the school`s first black starter. It would vastly overstate the case to say Maxey Court is responsible for Korhonen`s 156-52 record, but it`s also clear that enough key players have been produced there to make the difference between a good program and a great one.
”I`m not saying they`re the reason we were successful, but it certainly has helped our cause, there`s no doubt about that,” Korhonen said. ”When you hit the `78 and `79 seasons and get to the state semifinals and then the quarterfinals and you had a Hampton and a Bolton and a Kenebrew on both teams, it`s fairly obvious then what the street contributed to the program.”
How the street came to produce so many talented athletes may have less to do with pure physical ability than sociology. Although it is a middle-class street of neat ranch homes, Maxey Court is located in a community that has its share of problems and temptations. Parents on the street knew well the importance of keeping their children close to home and out of trouble.
So the children of Maxey Court didn`t have much else to do other than engage in a seemingly endless succession of athletic activities, everything from football to basketball to baseball to ice hockey.
It was a close-knit group, and the older generations of kids allowed the younger ones into their games. So a Leonard Kenebrew, a Nate Bolton and a Greg Hampton would benefit from the challenge of playing with a Michael Kenebrew and a Bobby Bolton. They in turn would help pass their skills to Chuck Bolton, Glenn Hampton and the Haymore brothers.
They also passed along a desire to be a Richards Bulldog. By the end of the `70s, a tradition had grown of Maxey Court students playing for the Bulldogs, and in their pickup games, kids on the street would pretend to be their favorite Richards players.
”There`s a certain pride on the street,” said Efrem Haymore, a Tribune All-State selection who quarterbacked Richards to its only state title and is now a freshman at Wyoming. ”All the older guys who had been on the team always wanted us to do better. They always said, `Keep it going, keep it going.` When we won the state title, it was like, `Wow, now we`re part of that tradition.`
”They were like role models for us. Now it`s like we had to keep up the tradition. So if someone was not doing well in school, we would get upset. Now we have the younger guys-like Kevin Jackson-to keep up the tradition, and we give pep talks to the younger guys so they can keep it going.”
Jackson, an all-state candidate at running back, has gotten the message.
”We all wanted to be like that, like the Kenebrews and Hamptons,” he said. ”They did so well at Richards. Everyone wanted to be like that.”
There has also been an emphasis on academic achievement on the street, and many Maxey Court kids have used athletics-including sports other than football-to get a college degree. Leonard Kenebrew starred as a wide receiver at Indiana and now works for an insurance company in Chicago. Nate Bolton is a bank manager in Kalamazoo, Mich., where he played for Western Michigan.
Bobby Bolton is an assistant freshman coach at Richards and still lives on Maxey Court. So does Leonard Kenebrew, who bought a house there after his parents moved to Chicago and became legal guardian to Mark and David so they could stay at Richards.
After David Kenebrew graduates, there may be a gap in the Maxey Court talent pipeline for a couple years, but a new generation of Bulldogs can already be spotted playing pickup games on the street. In another five years, they may be ready to help Korhonen try for another state title.
”I can see other players playing tag or tackle in the street or front yard like we did,” Leonard Kenebrew said. ”I see new names and faces, but it`s still happening.”
Said Efrem Haymore: ”I would never want to see it end. I always want to see another star coming up on the street.”
