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Former Fenwick Coach Ed Galvin (1933 – 2021)

Legendary, Hall-of-Fame basketball player and coach passes away at age 88.

By Leo Latz ’76

In the long and storied history of American amateur athletics, only a miniscule fraction of coaches and athletes ever earn membership in a high school, college or professional sports Hall of Fame.

As a both a player and coach, another rarity, Ed Galvin was selected as a member of not only one, but five Halls of Fame: Chicago Catholic League, Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame, Illinois Basketball Coaches Association, St. Rita High School and Loyola University New Orleans Athletics.

Even with all of these athletic achievements and recognition, Ed was most proud of his 63-year marriage to Eileen (nee Day), his six daughters, 18 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Galvin passed away at his home in Glen Ellyn surrounded by his wife and family on September 18, 2021, at the age of 88.

As the son of Irish immigrants, Galvin grew up on the West Side of Chicago and, at an early age, fell in love with the game of basketball on the hardwood and asphalt courts of school gyms and Chicago Park District playgrounds. As a 6’ 5” Chicago Catholic League and All-City forward for renowned Coach Clem Naughton at St. Philip’s High School, Ed was awarded a basketball scholarship to Loyola University in New Orleans, Louisiana. At Loyola, Galvin set team scoring and rebound records, was the Wolfpack’s most valuable player for three straight years, a member of Collier Magazine’s All-American Basketball Team, and the 77th overall pick of the 1955 NBA draft selected by the Syracuse Nationals (now the Philadelphia 76er’s).

Galvin began his Hall-of-Fame coaching career as an assistant for three years at his high school alma mater, St. Philip. Galvin left Chicago’s Westside at age 28 to become head coach at Chicago’s St. Rita High School at 63rd and Western Avenues. There, Galvin led the Mustangs to immediate and unprecedented Catholic League basketball success, winning 232 “heavyweight” and “lightweight” (5’9” and under) games in only six seasons, including one heavyweight and two lightweight league championships.

Coach Galvin at Fenwick in 1974-75.

In 1969, Galvin returned to his Chicago westside roots. Fenwick High School Athletic Director and Chicago Catholic League founder, Tony Lawless, hand-picked and personally recruited Galvin to succeed another Chicago basketball coaching legend, Bill Shay, as only the fourth head basketball coach in Fenwick history. During his 10 years at Fenwick, the Friars won two Chicago Catholic League Lightweight titles and was the first team to win three consecutive Fenwick Christmas Lightweight Tournament Championships in the 34 years of the famed tourney. After the Chicago Catholic League entered the IHSA for the first time in 1974, Galvin’s Friars won two regional championships in Fenwick’s first four years of IHSA membership.

Galvin was also voted by his peers as the Chicago Catholic League Coach of the Year for all sports in 1971.

While at Fenwick, Galvin would also serve as the first Head Men’s Basketball coach at Rosary College (now Dominican University) from 1976-78. Post-Fenwick, he was head basketball coach at North Central College (1980-82) and finished his 40-year coaching career at Illinois Math and Science Academy (1988-1997) with more than 600 coaching wins at all levels.

Galvin was also a respected athletic administrative leader as the Athletic Director at St. Rita and Fenwick High Schools, and Rosary and North Central Colleges.

And if all those long hours of coaching and managing athletic departments weren’t enough, Galvin supplemented his income to support his family through a successful business career, first as a trader at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and then with Galvin Marketing, which he established with his life-long friend Dan O’Donnell.

During his retirement years, in addition to spending time with his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Coach Galvin and Eileen would welcome and enjoy lunches and long, story-telling visits with former teammates and players from Loyola, St. Rita and Fenwick.

Coach Galvin at Fenwick in 1975-76.

Coach Galvin’s impact and influence on thousands of Chicago-area players and their families will be remembered for many generations. Here are a few reflections from a some of his greatest players:

From Jeff Carpenter All-State and All-American player at Fenwick 1974 and member of Notre Dame’s only Final Four Team in 1978:

“For whatever reason, Coach saw potential in me and always encouraged me and my teammates.

“Coach Galvin had confidence in me from the start, and I never wanted to let him down. We all knew Coach was gruff on the outside, but he loved his boys! Plus, he had an awesome hook shot and drop kick!

“My favorite coach!”

From Neil Bresnahan, All-State forward at Fenwick in 1976 and University of Illinois four-year starter and captain of the 1980 Illini:

“Coach Galvin got the most out of every player. We always played hard, and we were always the best and most-feared rebounding team in Chicago because of his teaching and emphasis on that aspect of the game. Outside of the game, he was always there for us.

“He will be missed by all who ever played for him.”

From Jeff Norris, Fenwick ’72, St. Mary’s University MN 1976 and member of the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame:

“Coach Galvin taught us many things but the infamous Power Training at the very end of practice was one of the most important. Everyone thought it was physical training, but it was really mental training as well. It was the overtime of the game, and it prepared us for the realization that, no matter our situation, we can overcome it both physically and mentally. It taught us to improve our discipline to prepare for both — and the best part was we didn’t know it till later.

“Thanks again for everything, Coach. You will be deeply missed.”

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Alumni Spotlight: John Giannini, PhD., Class of 1980

Coach G. taught and motivated players on basketball’s big stage for 22 years, including one special season when his La Salle U. team ‘danced’ to the Sweet 16.

By Mark Vruno

As basketball season draws nearer, Fenwick alumnus John Giannini ’80 gets antsy. He hears the echo of his whistle and the orange, leather balls bouncing in the gym, but those sounds now are memories thumping in his head. It’s only natural because this past year marked the first time in 30 seasons that he was not coaching a college basketball team.

For 14 years (2004-18), Giannini, who was raised in Elmwood Park, IL, was head coach of the La Salle University men’s basketball team, an NCAA Division I program in Philadelphia. Giannini quickly turned the program around when, in his second year, the 2005-06 Explorers set a school record for Atlantic 10 Conference wins and tallied their first winning season in 13 years. Coach G. was named as a candidate for the National Coach of the Year. In 2011-12, La Salle won 21 games and was asked to participate in the National Invitational Tournament (NIT).

A year later, the Explorers punched a ticket to the lauded NCAA Tournament, where they were seeded 13th in their region. They defeated Boise State in the opening round, and then beat Kansas State and Ole Miss. The run ended in the Sweet 16, where La Salle fell to Wichita State. The team finished with a No. 24 national ranking in the USA Today Coaches Poll.

Before La Salle, Coach Giannini built up the program at Rowan University in New Jersey. He led the team to a pair of Division III Final Four appearances, in 1993 and 1995, before the “Profs,” as they are known, won the small-college national championship in ’96. Coach G. came to the NJ school in 1989 by way of the University of Illinois, where he served for two seasons as a graduate assistant on Lou Henson’s coaching staff. (The 1988-89 Fighting Illini (31-5) danced their way through the NCAA Tournament, past Syracuse and all the way to the Final 4 in Seattle.)

Following his success at Rowan, Giannini accepted the head coaching position at the University of Maine, where he stayed for eight years. Under him on the hardwood, the Black Bears enjoyed a 20-win season, which never had before happened, and then another. Giannini achieved the best career winning percentage in school history. Over the course of his 29-year collegiate head coaching career, he compiled an overall record of 508 victories and 375 defeats.

Coaching path

Giannini (right) looks to pass to a Friar teammate.

Coach and his wife, Donna, have two daughters, but Giannini grew up with boys. The oldest of four brothers, he is a “Double Friar,” playing football and basketball at St. Vincent Ferrer in River Forest before enrolling at Fenwick in 1976. “I looked up to Fenwick’s coaches and athletes,” Giannini recalls. As a 13-year-old, the late coach “George Badke met with me, and I felt like I was meeting George Halas.” (“Papa Bear” was, of course, coach/owner of the Chicago Bears.)

“People thought Fenwick was the best school academically in the area, but I was not a motivated student at all in grade school,” Giannini admits. Even in high school, he says, he was “clearly in the bottom half of my class. But I was far more prepared for college and life after than I ever realized.” Why? The coach points to two primary factors:

  1. “I had wonderful, passionate teachers at Fenwick.”
  2. “I also had really motivated, smart classmates, so I had to keep up!”

Most importantly, though, he believes, “Fenwick taught me how to live. We were encouraged to leave Fenwick with a philosophy of life at age 18. I knew what was important to me.”

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