When Rev. Patrick G. Cahill served as athletic director at St. Viator High School in Arlington Heights from 1962 to 1975, students would stop by his office throughout the day.
His ability to motivate students, even outside athletics, was so strong that his course at St. Viator on Christian faith became known as “Jocks for Jesus,” because the majority of students taking the class were athletes.
“The kids used to hang around his office,” said Rev. Thomas von Behren, president of St. Viator, who knew Father Cahill since the early 1970s.
“The players would come in if they needed a word of encouragement,” von Behren said. “He had a sense of whatever they needed to hear and he would say it to them.”
Born in Chicago, Father Cahill died Tuesday, Feb. 5, in St. John’s Hospital in Springfield after a long illness. Father Cahill, a resident of Rochester, Ill., was 70.
He grew up in Oak Park and was a graduate of Fenwick High School. He entered the Clerics of St. Viator in 1950 and earned his bachelor’s degree from St. Ambrose College in Davenport, Iowa, in 1954. He studied theology at St. Regina Angelorum Seminary in the ’50s.
He earned a master’s degree in theology from Eastern Illinois in 1960. Two years later he was ordained in Chicago.
He then worked at St. Viator as a religion teacher and athletic director. In 1974 he became the school’s second president.
In 1979 he was appointed athletic director at the University of San Diego, where he served until 1988. In 1995, St. Viator named its gym after Father Cahill. In 1999 he was inducted into the St. Viator Athletic Hall of Fame.
“He was an advocate for the average player,” von Behren said. “He promoted people doing their best in athletics and being the best person they could be.”
Father Cahill spent the past decade serving as a parish priest. He was a rector at Guardian Angel Cathedral in Las Vegas until 1996, when he was appointed pastor of St. Jude Catholic Church in Rochester.
“Everywhere he went he left behind hundreds of people who absolutely loved him,” said his secretary, Sue Bozarth, who added that Father Cahill’s sermons became so popular that they attracted parishioners from nearby churches.
“No matter what Sunday it was and no matter what he was preaching, it always hit you … it was just so warm and so human.”
Survivors include a brother, William; and a sister, Maureen Kinnavy.
Visitation will be from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday in the gym of St. Viator High School, 1213 E. Oakton St., Arlington Heights. Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Monday in St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, 411 Wheeling Rd., Prospect Heights.
