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Friday, June 20, 2008 11:10 PM CDT
Memories of Joe Marks
By MIKE MONAHAN, Staff Writer
mmonahan@jg-tc.com
I had the honor of being among Joe Marks’ first class at Arcola. Marks, who died Tuesday morning, entered after Thanksgiving my eighth grade year, 1979-80. We had Phillip Storm as our science teacher in his first year. As most junior high kids were a little rambunctious and maybe too much even as Storm had an ulcer and he had a nervous breakdown. I remember one time he was taken by ambulance from the school.
Marks came in and put a stop to our rambunctious behavioral right away. We knew there would be no goofing off anymore. I then had him in high school as a computer teacher in intro to computers. I didn’t do well in that class, but he made the class fun.
As Howard Cosell’s book titled “I never played the game” I too never did play the game of football, but I did play basketball where Marks was my junior varsity coach. I wasn’t a good player, but really enjoyed the game and I do remember my junior year when I was still playing junior varsity. Marks talking to the team about my hustle and the improvement I had shown. Even though I wasn’t the most talented player he still found something positive in my play.
When I was attending St. Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Ind. I still saw Marks when I came home and then, starting with the fall of 1989 when I worked for the Bement/Cerro Gordo News-Record, I would try and see Arcola play at least once when they would play Cerro Gordo and/or Bement. In 1993 I began writing for the Arcola Record-Herald and was able to cover Marks as a baseball coach before he was named head football coach in 1994. I have been at the Journal-Gazette/Times-Courier since 2000. During all of the years I had the privilege to write about the teams coached by Marks and/or assisted by him. He was also very helpful and polite and talked to me whether Arcola won or lost. Being the computer tech at Arcola he was always a very busy, but he found time to talk to me about his team. And always asked how I was as well as my family.
After he took the job as the Sullivan Middle School principal in 2004 whenever I was in Sullivan and had time I would stop in and see him. He loved Sullivan and was very proud of the technology the school has. So much so that he showed me the smart board and some of the things it could do. The last time I saw him was on Memorial Day night at the Mattoon Wal-Mart with his wife Glenda. Also there at the store was the Paul Penrod, who did his student teaching at Arcola and is now the Martinsville football coach and math teacher and also knows a lot about computers. As usual Marks greeted him with his familiar smile.
I also had the pleasure of marching with him as a Lawn Ranger, which is something he really enjoyed. So much so he brought his family out to San Diego one year for the Holiday Bowl Parade.
Marks loved being around kids and was very proud of his family (wife Glenda and children Jessie and Jordan and his granddaughter Julia, who lived with them while Jessie’s husband Nathan, who serves in the Army, was overseas). He would bring Julia to Jordan’s basketball games.
There are many people that have had the privilege of being taught and/or coached by Marks that were unable to make it back Friday for the visitation or Saturday for the funeral. One of those persons is Kolin Peterson. Peterson was a person on my list that I tried to get the number for Tuesday night. I got his number later and talked with the all-time leading rusher in Arcola history Thursday evening.
“The main thing is the respect I had for him not only as a football coach for four years, but as a person and a teacher, “ said Peterson who is a teacher in the alternative program for the Fox School District in Arnold, Mo. and assistant track and football coach at the high school, which has an enrollment of 1,920. “I got to know him outside of school after I graduated. The things he taught me on the field helped me get a full ride to McKendree. We emailed back and forth when I got the teaching job and he gave me a few good pointers on classroom management and I will always keep those in mind when I am in the classroom and on the field. I coach exactly the same way he did. It really hurts me that I can’t be there. He was a good man and society is losing a great person.”
Thousands have been blessed to have been able to have known Joe and now he is doing one of the things he loved to do-tell stories. He is up there with Arcola coaching legend Steve Thomas and both of them are listening to all the great stories being told this weekend.
Contact Mike Monahan at mmonahan@jg-tc.com or 238-6854.
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