Leo High School Alumni Association Those Leo Men http://www.leoalumni.org Edwon Simmons '93 Interviewed and Written by Patrick Mc Gavin 8/10 EDWON SIMMONS '93 What’s in a name, Shakespeare famously asked in Romeo and Juliet. Juliet observes, “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Names are sometimes a curse, but they sometimes get right at the heart of the matter. Edwon Simmons is a good example. The name fits the personality, the drive and ambition he has demonstrated since he was an industrious and talented young boy determined to make his path. The slightly different spelling of the first name, contained in the “won,” bespeaks to something important and vital. It has been his mantra, his mission, to win and achieve for himself and those around him. It’s not a win at all costs mentality, either, and taking pleasure in beating people so much as it means being connected to something meaningful and transcendent. It also is, a little misleading, contained in the past tense. The preoccupation with goals and achievement remains, but now is tethered to a journey. His story has its own twists and turns, and says a lot about his attitude, passion and foundation. “Everybody from my immediate family is from the south side,” he said, sitting down at a South Loop coffee shop to talk about his life and background. “Growing up, we lived at 59th and Carpenter before moving to 79th and East End. My mom, Claudette Patrick, raised me until I was about seven years old. Some things came up that she had to deal with, so she had my grandmother take care of me. My grand mother was named Elena Weatherspoon. She passed away six years ago. “My [grandmother’s] mother came from the South, from Arkansas. My dad's from Lakeland, Florida. He had five brothers, and two brothers played football, Ron Smith and Darnell Smith, in the NFL. page 1 / 10 Leo High School Alumni Association Those Leo Men http://www.leoalumni.org “I went from kindergarten to sixth grade at the local public school, and then my grandmother transferred me to Beasley Academic Center [at 52nd and State]. That was through the way of a recruiter named Dennis. He convinced my mom to send me to Beasley. Dennis was my baseball coach ever since I was ten years old. I played at South Shore, at Rainbow Beach. I played there, from the time I was ten to sixteen, when I played travel team. “Dennis was also at Leo. I graduated from Beasley in 1989, and there was really no other choice as far as where I was going to high school except Leo. There was no questioning it. My grandmother felt it was the best thing for me to do: go to an all boys' school, have some structure and don't have to worry about the girls and get my education and allow me to play sports, which was the backbone of my going to school.” Baseball was Edwon’s first love. Family lore has him first playing the game when he was essentially just old enough to walk. “There was just something about it that probably goes back to when I was close to three years old and my great-grandfather used to put me on his knee and watch the Cubs' games. One thing people always ask me is how do I live on the South Side and I’m a die-hard Cubs' fan. I say, ‘That's just how I was raised.’ I knew I was good in the game, with the speed, my arm, and my ability to hit the ball. A new world Young Edwon entered Leo in the fall of 1989. “It was sort of a clean transition. Beasley was one of the top elementary schools and it prepared me for high school. The difference was theology. That was something different for me, going to a Catholic school where we had to take theology. My family was not Catholic; we were Baptist. Learning the Catholic way, praying before class and learning the Hail Mary, things like were a little different. Once I got past that, the regular part of the school was a good transition for me.” Yet, to some extent he was in this alone. “All of the other neighborhood kids were going elsewhere. I remember the day, August 21st, and I was on my way to school and they were still outside playing. The dress code was different: going to school and having to wear a tie and a page 2 / 10 Leo High School Alumni Association Those Leo Men http://www.leoalumni.org collared shirt, when I was used to wearing jeans, a T-shirt and gym shoes. I went to Leo, and now it's slacks, a clean long sleeve shirt, and tie and dress shoes.” Baseball was not only his favorite sport; it became a conduit to Leo. “The good thing about playing baseball for Dennis is that a lot of the kids that were ahead of me were going to Leo, guys like Mike Anderson and Michael Moore. They talked about Leo. So, I knew about Leo talking to the baseball guys. “Once I took the exam and walked around the school, I saw a lot of tradition. I saw the pictures on the wall of the older Leo men, the Leo alumni. You read about them and how they're doing well and how they came in as a Leo boy and left as a Leo man. That was the thing I took from that. I took the keys to that and I wanted to be just like that, or even better. “We lived two blocks east of Stony Island. It was a ride right down 79th Street. One of the good things was my grandmother was working on 59th and Western at the time. She would drop me off at school on her way to work. I caught a ride with her a lot.” Sports were the gateway. The point of the team, a collective endeavor, was driven home. Baseball was his great love, but it was not the only thing. It opened up a world of possibilities. “My natural position was shortstop, and the good thing about coming to Leo, was I played on the varsity right away. I came in and started as a freshman and played all four years. “Leo was also my first time ever playing equipment football. Our freshmen team went 8-1. We were compared to the team from two years earlier that went 9-0. We were undefeated and we played Mount Carmel in the final game. The game was tied, and we were driving and I threw a pass in the end zone, but our guy dropped it. We lost the game by six points. It was a heartbreaker. But we knew we had a great class, we had a great chemistry and we knew we had a great team. I played basketball as well. We won the Catholic League that year as freshmen. We went 27-0.” Camaraderie Integration at Leo was perhaps slow in coming, but once it started, it ignited during the civil rights era. Edwon was part of a fascinating cultural era at the school, where the last generation of white students mingled freely and closely with the now predominantly African-American page 3 / 10 Leo High School Alumni Association Those Leo Men http://www.leoalumni.org enrollment. “We had Bryan Joyce, our tight end, and we had Frank Krugler, who was my guard. So we were probably the last class that had white guys on the team and those guys are like brothers to me. Even when we were freshmen, we just clicked. It wasn't a white or black thing, it was just Leo men. That's how we looked at it. That's one thing I noticed about Leo: we never had racial animosity when we were there. To this day, I talk with Bryan. “The Brothers were about discipline and structure, but it also seemed like they were adapting to what was going on at Leo. It was a transition, the whites weren't coming as much, but the Brothers seemed to adapt to it, from Brother O'Keefe to Brother Doyle, to the point where we could come to them if we had problems in class or had a problem anywhere. Bob Foster was also a key part of that transition. He was my freshman coach, too. “At home it was just my grandmother and I. That was a big difference for me being raised by women. I didn't have a man in my life. A lot of the Brothers, the coaches, and a lot of the Leo teachers were some of my male role models as well. “When I first entered Leo, I was probably five-feet, nine and probably a hundred and fifty pounds. By my senior year, I ended up being five-ten and a hundred and ninety pounds. I grew and gained some weight and definition. Once I got to playing organized football, I was a quarterback and already one of the leaders of the team. The team bonded together as freshmen that made me like football even more. “Once I got to playing organized football, I was a quarterback and already one of the leaders of the team. The team bonded together as freshmen that made me like football even more. Going into my sophomore year, we were trying to win another championship.