Hoping to be winners on the court
Irvin takes up the call to get Morgan Park a gym worthy of No. 1 team
The Morgan Park-Simeon rivalry goes back decades, but there is no doubt that the arrival five years ago of Nick Irvin as basketball coach at Morgan Park dialed the basketball rivalry up a few notches.
Irvin dubbed the game “The Battle of Vincennes” and called out Simeon, one of the top basketball programs in the country: “We run Vincennes. That’s the way it’s going to be. We are coming after them.”
At the time it seemed unlikely, but Irvin has been true to his promise. Five years later, Morgan Park is every bit the equal of Simeon. The Mustangs won the Class 3A state title in 2013 and 2014 and finished third in the state last season. Morgan Park knocked off Simeon 70-65 in the first meeting between the teams this season.
The schools are 4.7 miles apart on Vincennes Avenue. While the basketball programs are now nearly equal, the facilities are not. Simeon’s gym holds about 1,200. Morgan Park has one of the smallest gyms on the South Side. It holds about 200 people.
So every year around this time the Public League looks for somewhere to hold Morgan Park’s leg of the Battle of Vincennes. The game is never played in Morgan Park’s small gym. Last year it was at Young, the year before it was at Brooks. Previously the game was held at Chicago State, but that hasn’t happened since Morgan Park student Tyrone Lawson was fatally shot after the game in 2013.
This year’s game will be Jan. 15 at Brooks. Irvin agrees that the game can’t be held at Morgan Park, that more than 200 people should be able to watch it. But Irvin isn’t the type to quietly accept things. He wants a change.
“The kids want to play at home in front of their friends,” Irvin said. “It’s unfortunate that we always have to move this game. It is one of the best rivalries in the country. We need a gym and it is time that someone did something about it.”
Morgan Park wore warm-up shirts that read “We Need A Gym!” before the game at Young last year. That was the start of Irvin’s quest. He’s taken the request to the highest level of city government over the past year: Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
“We always mention it to Rahm,” Irvin said. “Whenever we take a picture with him we all say ‘Rahm we need a gym, we need a gym.’ He laughs it off and says OK, OK. But we need it and we want him to get behind us and support us. Hopefully one day he will try to help us out.”
Irvin has done his part by playing the political game. Emanuel showed up at the Chicago Elite Classic at the beginning of December. It’s rare to see Emanuel at a high school basketball game when it isn’t election season, but his public image (especially within the African-American community) was in free fall as the Laquan McDonald scandal unfolded.
“The mayor, that’s my guy,” Irvin said after the game. “Rahm Emanuel is a great guy, I love him. I told him he has to come to more games.”
Now Irvin is ready to take things to the next level.
“If he gets us a gym we will name it after him: The Rahm Emanuel Center,” Irvin said.
Irvin heard the criticisms when he publicly pushed for a gym last year. With the city and state in such a dire financial situation, why bother building a gym?
“I think people that say stuff like that are selfish,” Irvin said. “It’s about the kids getting what they need to be successful. You need a big gym for a number of things, not just basketball.
“If you go look at the suburban schools they have nice facilities. Homewood-Flossmoor just built a state-of-the-art facility. You go to Lincoln-Way, they have nice stuff out there. We are the only high school in Beverly. Why not build us a nice gym?”
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