Men half his age might be hard-pressed to keep up with the schedule of activities that Don Figarelli, age 84, tackles on a regular basis.
Let’s start in the gym. Figarelli recently undertook a 21-day challenge at Anytime Fitness in his hometown of Addison. His goal?
“Could you make me look like Arnold Schwarzenegger?” Figarelli jokingly asked one of the trainers. All kidding aside, he wanted to put on three pounds of muscle while maintaining his body weight, which is around 170 pounds.
Keeping fit is important to Figarelli, who describes his blood pressure and cholesterol as “good,” his heartbeat as “great” and he doesn’t take any medication.
“Not one pill,” he says. “Just some vitamins. No prescriptions.”
When he’s not at Anytime Fitness, you’ll find him at the Stardust Bowl in Addison either bowling with, or cheering on, his team that’s part of the Thursday night 14-team Tradesmen’s League.
“We’re in first place,” he points out.
The Don of Sports
Once a month on a Tuesday or Wednesday evening, Figarelli hosts a television program, “The Addison Sports Special,” which can be seen on Addison Community Television (ACTV, Comcast Channel 6) and normally features teams, coaches and individual athletes or sports personalities from schools and sports leagues in Addison.
Then, once a month on a Wednesday morning, he travels to Norridge, where he and John Divita, chief engineer and program manager for the Windy City Hometown Entertainment Network meet at the John Divita Broadcast Center. Divita will turn 80 in July, by the way. The men do an hour-long sports podcast, complete with sponsors, that can be found on windycityhometown.com.
Figarelli has regular guests on the podcast who usually discuss the ups and downs of the Cubs, White Sox, Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks, but any topic in the world of sports is fair game.
“He does a very nice job and is very knowledgeable about sports,” says Divita, who also was Figarelli’s engineer when Figarelli did a Saturday morning sports program on then-WJJG-AM 1530 for 10 years until 2011. “His personality, knowledge, appearance, everything, on a scale of 1 to 10, I’d give him a 12.”
That show on WJJG was called “The Don of Sports” — the same title used for the podcast. It’s a moniker Figarelli goes by to this day, The Don of Sports came to be after Figarelli met Mike North, a former host on 670-AM The Score — an all-sports talk radio station in Chicago — one evening several years ago at an Addison Trail High School basketball game and fundraiser.
“Someone introduced me to Mike, and I said, ‘My name is Don,’ ” Figarelli recalls. “He (North) said. ‘Is it your name or your title?’ I was intrigued by that, so that kind of triggered, ‘(am I) the Don of a family? No, the Don of Sports.”
Man for all sports
In July, Figarelli will be participating in the Illinois Parks and Recreation Association’s Six-County Senior Games for adults 50-and-over. He first began competing at age 74. Now in the 80- to 85-year-old age bracket, he consistently places first or second in events such as swimming, basketball (free-throw shooting), tennis, golf, bowling and track.
Every year, Figarelli hosts a golf outing called “The Addison Cup,” usually held the last Saturday in May at the Links & Tees Golf Facility in Addison.
“It’s an invitation only (event for four golfers),” he says. “I try to invite the best golfers that I know for nine holes. It’s a fun event, but competitive. The overall champion gets his name on a trophy.”
Fitness and family
Figarelli also helps his son, John Figarelli, as a spokesman for the National Fitness Hall of Fame and Museum, founded by John in Minooka in 2004 to recognize pioneers and leaders in the fitness industry.
The Class of 2018 will be selected in April.
“Every other industry recognizes their founders and their leaders, like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates with computers,” says John, a Minooka resident. “They didn’t have that for fitness, and I said, ‘That has to change.’ I had all this fitness memorabilia and said, ‘You know what? I should maybe start a museum with all this stuff.’ Then my Dad suggested, ‘Well, if you’re going to do that, make it a hall of fame so you can involve some of these people.’ That’s how it got started.”
Don and his wife, Julia, have three children — John, Don Jr. and Teri — and four grandchildren. The couple will be celebrating their 58th anniversary in June.
“Anybody you talk to can’t believe he’s 84 years old; he’s like 70 years old,” John says. “He’s retired but he’s not sitting still. He keeps busy and active with community stuff. In his personal and family life he’s always active so you’re not going to see him sitting on the couch with a remote.”
Don’t sit around and watch TV, Don urges seniors. “You can jog, you can do two blocks or a half mile that keeps your wind stronger and lose weight. I recommend that. Of course, diet comes into it. Do pushaways — push away from the (dinner) table; one serving is enough. Exercise at home and get interested in a sport. Join a tennis club or a bowling league. Golf is a wonderful sport.”
Words to the wise — and to live by — brought to you by the Don of Sports.
