No. 11: Mark Aguirre
Warrior in high school, Blue Demon in college, 'hard-core Chicago' always
11 MARK AGUIRRE
Before he led Westinghouse to the Class AA quarterfinals as a high school senior in 1978, before he led DePaul to the Final Four as a college freshman in 1979, before he was named college player of the year in 1980 and became the NBA's No. 1 draft pick in 1981, before he won NBA titles in 1989 and 1990, Mark Aguirre was just another West Side kid whose hoop dreams far surpassed his talent. That was the opinion of the Austin coaches who cut him during a freshman tryout, anyway.
Before he led Westinghouse to the Class AA quarterfinals as a high school senior in 1978, before he led DePaul to the Final Four as a college freshman in 1979, before he was named college player of the year in 1980 and became the NBA's No. 1 draft pick in 1981, before he won NBA titles in 1989 and 1990, Mark Aguirre was just another West Side kid whose hoop dreams far surpassed his talent. That was the opinion of the Austin coaches who cut him during a freshman tryout, anyway.
Maybe it was because he didn't resemble a stereotypical basketball prodigy that they overlooked the talent that soon would become obvious to all. Whatever the reason, Aguirre returned the next day, gave the coaches a false name and tried out again. This time, he made it.
(Dom Najolia/Sun-Times file)
Maybe it was because he didn't resemble a stereotypical basketball prodigy that they overlooked the talent that soon would become obvious to all. Whatever the reason, Aguirre returned the next day, gave the coaches a false name and tried out again. This time, he made it.
Basketball in Chicago was about to be turned on its ear.
''I was a real chubby kid,'' Aguirre said. ''Maybe it was because I was fat. I thought about it on the way home: 'They don't know who I am. They don't know.'''
What they didn't know was that Aguirre, who was voted the 11th Greatest Athlete in Chicago History by a Sun-Times panel, was on the brink of a basketball odyssey that would transform DePaul into a national power. Suddenly, a city long associated with losing sports teams had a winner on its hands. DePaul's Alumni Hall became the place to be.
''In a halfcourt game, he was the best scorer in the college game,'' former DePaul coach Joey Meyer said. ''He had big hands and a big rump, and he could create space and flat-out score. He wasn't a great leaper or someone who flew over guys, but he could go up and under and was a great dunker. He had such strong hands and a charisma, a personality, a style. He had a swagger, and his teams had that swagger. It made his mystique bigger that he did it all with that body.''
Aguirre was an established star as a sophomore at Austin when coach Gary Peckler was fired because the new principal wanted a black coach at the predominantly black school. Aguirre transferred to Westinghouse, the school he had scored 46 points against in the opening round of the city playoffs, because he was neighborhood friends with Warriors star Eddie Johnson and had developed a rapport with Westinghouse coach Frank Lollino.
''It was wrong what they did,'' Aguirre said. ''I didn't want to play for a team that had done an injustice to another human being.''
Once the transfer was complete -- and the firestorm of controversy it caused had begun to ebb -- Aguirre teamed with Johnson and Skip Dillard on what would become one of the most celebrated teams in city history. Westinghouse lost the 1977 city title game to Phillips in front of a standing-room-only crowd of 12,000 at the International Amphitheatre. The next season, after Johnson had graduated, Aguirre led the Warriors to the Class AA quarterfinals.
''Nobody in high school ever actually stopped him,'' former Westinghouse assistant Roy Condotti said. ''Fans would come to the game and want to watch Mark dunk. Not everybody was capable of doing it, and he could do it whenever he wanted. He had rock-star status at the time.''
What separated the 6-6, 235-pound Aguirre from Chicago high school legends that came before him was what he would do next. Instead of fleeing the gang-infested streets of his West Side neighborhood by accepting a scholarship from a school far away, Aguirre stayed home and played for DePaul coach Ray Meyer.
He was about to lift the little school near the L tracks and its legendary coach onto a national stage.
''You want to know what a true Chicago fan Ray Meyer was?'' asked Joey Meyer, who recruited Aguirre relentlessly for his father. ''We were supposed to meet Mark on signing day. This is the biggest catch of Coach's career, and he's late. Do you know why he was late? He was watching the end of the Bears game.''
All Aguirre did as a freshman was lead the Blue Demons to a 26-6 record and a Final Four berth by averaging 24 points and 7.6 rebounds per game. When the team arrived back home after upsetting UCLA to reach the Final Four, it was greeted by thousands of fans at the airport.
''We didn't know,'' Aguirre said. ''There were no cell phones. Nobody could call us to say the entire city of Chicago was at the airport. Nobody on the plane knew what was waiting for us. We got off the plane, and the gate was filled with people. It was shocking, crazy.''
If Aguirre has one regret, it's that he never brought an NCAA championship to Chicago. He was so distraught after Saint Joseph's stunned the top-ranked Blue Demons in a second-round game in 1981 that he famously walked from the arena to the team hotel in his uniform.
Ironically, the two NBA titles he won came at Chicago's expense. In 1989 and 1990, his Detroit Pistons advanced to the NBA Finals after eliminating the Bulls.
''I was hard-core Chicago,'' said Aguirre, who now lives in Dallas. ''I've lived in a lot of other places, but I'll always be hard-core Chicago.''
Sport: Basketball.
High schools: Austin, Westinghouse.
College: DePaul.
Career highlights: Was the Public League's fourth-leading scorer as a sophomore in 1976 before transferring from Austin to Westinghouse. He and Eddie Johnson led Westinghouse to the city title game in 1977, and he led Westinghouse to the Class AA quarterfinals in 1978. Instrumental in DePaul advancing to the Final Four during his freshman season in 1978-79. Was named the college player of the year by the Associated Press in 1979-80, was awarded the Naismith Award in 1980 and was named to the 1980 Olympic team. Averaged 24.5 points in three seasons at DePaul and remains the Blue Demons' all-time leading scorer. They were 79-10 while he was at the school. Selected No. 1 overall by the Dallas Mavericks in the 1981 NBA draft. In his 13-year NBA career, was named an All-Star three times and helped the Detroit Pistons win the 1989 and 1990 NBA titles. Finished his career with a scoring average of 20 points per game.