Homecoming this fall at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota, had special meaning for Texas Wesleyan associate professor Jon Crook when he and 30 other players received recognition on the field at halftime for winning the 1965 NAIA National Championship.

Legendary team

In May, 2015, the Murray Warmath Chapter of the National Football Foundation designated the undefeated team a “Legendary Team.” Their coach, the now 88-year-old John Gagliardi, is the nation’s winningest college coach in all NAIA and NCAA divisions. He led the Saint John’s Johnnies from 1953 to 2012 and retired with a career record of 489-138-11.

Crook, a talented athlete at Padua Franciscan High School in Parma, Ohio admits that when he arrived at St. John’s his ego was, “the size of an oak tree.” The experience molded that huge ego into, “a more constructive, wholesome and useful facet of my personality.”

He credits the coach’s insistence on teamwork and fair play to their success.

A sense of belonging

“Playing on that team taught me humility, faith, and helped me learn what to expect out of myself when it was hard to do,” he recalls. “It generated in me an incredible sense of commitment and belonging. It was joyous and it was confidence building, it was perfect. This was the way it was supposed to be, at least in my brain. You couldn’t have written a better novel.”

After graduation, Crook earned a master’s degree then served in the Army for five years before completing doctoral work in educational psychology at Case Western Reserve University in 1978. He subsequently coached various sports, taught and served as a principal in Catholic schools before becoming the Clinical Director for Employee Assistance Programs for LifeSynch, Inc., in Fort Worth. In 2003, he joined the faculty at Texas Wesleyan.

Love of the game

Crook is an avid supporter of college athletics, especially football.

“I learned how to be an adult during those years,” he recalls. “Yes, football is expensive; however, it engages so much of the campus and the community around it. And it’s a lot of fun.  At the Division III level there is no reason for people to have academic problems.”

As he stood on the field at halftime, surrounded by his fellow athletes, Crook felt deep appreciation for his time at St. John’s.

“I was just another guy who wanted to go to college and loved the game,” he says. “We found a place we could do both. We were student athletes. Not athletes who landed at college to get into the NFL.”

He knows it takes years to fully appreciate the experiences of your youth, and he’s deeply grateful for his.

“The sense of commitment that gets generated from something like that is unbelievable,” he says. “You never forget it. It was a gift.”

 

Homecoming this fall at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota, had special meaning for Texas Wesleyan associate professor Jon Crook.