IBCA President Jim Tracy Reavis HS 2009 A-E-O Meyer-Harte Recipient (Click to See Tribute Page)

IBCA Past President Gordon Kerkman Aurora West HS 2009 A-E-O Meyer-Harte Recipient (Click to See Tribute Page)

The IBCA would like to congratulate President Jim Tracy and Past President Gordon Kerkman on receiving the prestigious A-E-O Meyer-Harte Award.

These awards are given to selected individuals in recognition and appreciation of their lives as giving and caring persons of integrity and character who have demonstrated courage in overcoming some significant adversity while also excelling and succeeding in life.

THE A-E-O MEYER-HARTE AWARDS
The purpose of these awards is to honor such recipients while also acknowledging and perpetuating the lives and accomplishments of these two outstanding and legendary persons for whom the awards have been named and whose lives have embodied that criteria:
 
Coach Ray Meyer
An IBCA and Naismith Hall of Famer and former star at Notre Dame University (’38), Coach Ray Meyer retired in 1984 from 42 years of active basketball coaching at DePaul University with 724 wins and as the then 5th all-time winningest coach in NCAA –I history. Decades later and even though he died in 2006, he still is one of the most  respected, recognized and beloved figures in or out of sports. He was also loved and admired for what he did off the court in his lifelong considerable generosity, concern and assistance for others, including Fr. Smyth’s Maryville City of Youth and others. Coach Meyer left us  with so much  for who and what he was and what he did both on and off the court, including his involvement with the not-for-profit A-E-O International Center for Athletic & Educational Opportunities, started in 1968 by his long time friend, Ken Denzel.
 
Attorney William J. Harte
With a working class background and raised in the tough Humboldt Park inner-city area of Chicago, William J. Harte, one of nine children (2 adopted), overcame much and did much to become one of the most respected and best lawyers in America. In 1985, the National Law Journal profiled him as “one of the nation’s 100 most powerful lawyers.” Others also describe him in superlatives for who and what he is.  A former seminarian, Notre Dame Law School graduate and an IBCA Hall of Fame inductee,  Harte also is known as an extremely giving, caring and helpful person. It would not be unusual for Harte in the same day to represent, for example, one of America’s biggest corporations or riche st families in a federal court action involving billions and then to voluntarily defend a welfare or working poor person in a relatively small court matter.
 
A-E-O International Center for Athletic & Educational Opportunities
Founded in 1968, A-E-O  is the Illinois not-for-profit corporation that sponsors and facilitates these annual awards, which have not been part of any formal ceremony, which have not been used as fundraisers and with no donations requested or expected as part of it.
 
A-E-O MEYER-HARTE AWARDS DAY
Declared By The Illinois Senate
Sponsored by its president, Emil Jones, Jr., the Illinois State Senate declared in a special Senate Proclamation that December 20, 2005 was The A-E-O Meyer/Harte Awards Day in Illinois to recognize the “A-E-O International Center for Athletic & Educational  Opportunities (A-E-O) as a not-for-profit organization founded in 1968 by Ken Denzel for the purpose of providing athletic, extracurricular, educational and other opportunities to help others [ especially the disadvantaged ]realize their potential in life”; and also to honor  those two legends and outstanding citizens, Ray Meyer and William J. Harte.
 

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