On July 1st of 1994 my wife Kathy and I drove into Winnetka after a two day drive from Jacksonville Florida, and we started work at North Shore Country Day School.
There were several things that happened in those first days I will never forget. One was the comment that then Head of School Julie Hall said to me. "Patrick, I am sorry you just missed Pele on campus."
Lots of people argue about who the greatest of all time (The GOAT) is in sports. However, it really only comes down to a couple of people and one is definitely Pele. He was on our campus in June of 1994. With his death in December, I began to look for a picture for a throwback Thursday post to remind people of that visit.
In trying to figure out the details of the event, I scoured the school photo archives for a picture, but could not find one. I also did a search of newspapers to see if there was a record of his visit to Winnetka.
The best I could do is a picture of the Raider soccer jersey of the time that he signed.
It's a bit of a mystery right now how and why he came to campus. In June of 1994, Pele was in Chicago to promote the World Cup. Based on my newspaper search, on June 14th he was downtown to host an event for soccer fans. On June 17th, Soldier Field hosted the World Cup Opening Ceremony. I am assuming it is around that time that he came to campus.
My memory of what Julie Hall told me is our event on campus was arranged at the last minute shortly after graduation week. The school tried to get word out to soccer players on our boys team. (We did not start girls soccer until the spring of 1995.) And we were only able to get a few to attend as many had dispersed to other summer activities or locations.
The best information I could gather was from Cindy Hooper, our schools now director of operations, who was asked by then Business Manager Bob Beerheide to work security for the event. Cindy remembers a meet and greet event in the Mac Gym in which Pele made some brief remarks and then you could meet him, have your picture taken with him and get an autograph. She believes it happened on a Saturday and that about 200 people from the community attended.
It is a mystery how this event was arranged. One email I got recently thanked me for arranging the event, and I had nothing to do with it. I remember Julie just telling me it happened because of a connection the school had with Pele. I seemed to remember it was a family with South American connections.
Cindy told me she thought it was through a Lower School Spanish teacher of the time Gloria Baez. Our soccer coach at the time and now long time Latin School teacher coach and administrator Tim Cronister thinks it was a parent or an alum. Raider Alum Richard Marx after all sang the National Anthem at the World Cup Opening Ceremony so maybe it was through Richard that we made that connection.
It's currently a mystery. Let me know if you were there or know anything about the event. However, Pele -- the G.O.A.T. -- was on campus in 1994 and the signed jersey still exists to prove it happened.
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