Larkin High School’s new outdoor sports venue will be named the Ray Haley Field at Royals Athletic Complex, honoring the Elgin school’s first football coach and athletic director.
The District U-46 School Board endorsed a resolution adopting the name at its Monday night meeting and is expected to formally approve it June 1.
“We feel this name honors the full scope of Larkin High School’s athletic program and the pride and tradition of the community that surrounds it, while also recognizing Mr. Haley’s transformational impact,” Chief of Staff Brian Lindholm told the board.
Haley, who died in 2021 at age 92, was hired by Larkin when the school opened in 1962. He was the school’s football coach for 28 years and its athletic director for 21, leading the football team to five Upstate Eight Conference Championships, two undefeated regular seasons and three state playoff appearances.
He also served as the school’s athletic director for 21 years and coached baseball before retiring in 1990.
Haley was inducted into the Illinois Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1986 and helped establish the Elgin Sports Hall of Fame in 1980 to which he was elected 12 years later.
As part of his presentation, Lindholm played part of a 2012 video interview in which Haley said you play hard for your teammates because some of them are going to end up being your lifelong friends.
U-46 received 327 name suggestions for the new facility, which will be Larkin’s first sports stadium when it open this fall. Haley received 148 nominations and Royals Stadium or Royals Athletic Complex received 71 nominations. Haley was also the top choice at a town hall meeting on the matter held May 6.
Those who advocated for honoring Haley said they were elated by the selection.
“Ray Haley was a good man,” Fred Didier said. “He was consistent, reliable, dedicated, steady, hardworking, humble, fair, knowledgeable and a decent man and role model in every way.”
Didier played on the Larkin football team that won 11 consecutive games before losing in the state playoff semifinals to the East St. Louis Flyers, which went on to win the Class 5A championship. After college, Didier served as an assistant football coach under Haley’s leadership for a year in 1985.
Haley never talked about his own athletic accomplishments, Didier said, despite being drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals at age 16 and playing minor league baseball for both the Cardinals and the New York Yankees organizations.
Haley graduated from Southwest Missouri State University, where he played football and was inducted into the schools’ Hall of Fame in 1977. His jersey was retired in 2010, Didier said.
Terry Whipple played football and baseball for Haley and was part of the 1967 gridiron squad that went undefeated.
“During that undefeated season, Ray lost his father but he never missed a game,” Whipple said. “He showed us kids how to handle stress, sadness and responsibilities. He was also a good teacher and leader of this relatively new school — a pioneer.”
Rich Renner first knew Haley in the 1960s through his involvement in various sports at Larkin, where Renner was president of the lettermen “L” club.
“An outsider, Ray moved to a community where almost everyone was a loyal part of Elgin High’s generations of academic and athletic brilliance,” he said. “Ray worked hard to build Larkin’s spirit and independent stature, and he was determined to create a climate where its students would proudly be Larkin kids.”
Renner noted that during Haley’s tenure, he grew the athletic program from eight to 23 sports with 56 coaches.
“In the interview (in 2012), Ray’s face lights up when talking about Title IX, which extended Larkin athletic opportunities to the other half of the school, including to his own daughters,” Renner said.
“Ray recognized that the measure of high school sports was more than the (wins). He valued sports for the opportunities they provided young people to build character and lifelong friendships. Sixty years later, my closest friends remain teammates from Larkin.”
Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
