8 May 1998 CONTACT: Stew Salowitz
Plans for construction of a new baseball field at Illinois Wesleyan
University, to be named in honor of long-time
IWU coach and athletic director Jack Horenberger, was unveiled today
at the IWU Associates Luncheon, held at the
Shirk Center on campus.
Horenberger was an IWU faculty member from 1942 to 1981 and the
school’s head basketball coach for 21
seasons and head baseball coach for 37 years (see detailed biography
below).
The opportunity to build the baseball field, which will be located
at the corner of East and Kelsey streets, is set in
motion by a $750,000 lead gift by Russell Shirk of Bloomington, whose
$5 million gift from the Russell and Betty
Shirk Foundation provided the impetus for the construction of the $15
million Shirk Center, IWU’s indoor athletic
facility opened in 1994. The Shirk family owns Beer Nuts, Inc.®,
the Bloomington-based snack food company.
“Russell’s pride and happiness about the impact the Shirk Center
has had on Illinois Wesleyan and the youth of
McLean County and others in the community has led him to donate the
money for the field to honor his good friend
Jack Horenberger,” said IWU athletic director Dennie Bridges.
Illinois Wesleyan hopes to have Horenberger Field, which will
include seating for approximately 500 fans along
with permanent dugouts and a press box, ready for the 1999 baseball
season.
Horenberger graduated from IWU in 1936 with a degree in business
and economics. At IWU he played both
baseball and basketball and captained the only undefeated basketball
team in school history when the 1935-36 squad
went 20-0.
After graduation, Horenberger briefly worked in a Caterpillar
factory in Peoria, tried out for the St. Louis Cardinals
baseball club, and was a teacher and coach at Wilmington, Ill., High
School. In 1942, at the urging of 1915 IWU
graduate and longtime Pantagraph sports editor Fred Young, Horenberger
returned to campus and joined the faculty.
Except for service in the U.S. Navy during World War II, he remained
on the IWU faculty for the next 38 years,
serving as basketball coach until 1965 and baseball coach and athletic
director until his retirement in 1981.
Horenberger coached the Titan cagers to a 264-212 record with seven
league championships between 1942-65 and
he led IWU's baseball team to a 509-401-5 mark with 16 conference titles
from 1943-81.
In the 1950s, Horenberger was IWU's Dean of Men for four years.
He holds the ranks of professor emeritus and
athletic director emeritus.
Horenberger, who earned a master's degree from the University
of Illinois, has been named to the National
Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame as well as the
Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of
Fame. He also received the “Buzzy O'Connor Award” from the IBCA and
the Meritorious Service Award from the
American Association of Baseball Coaches.
Horenberger and his wife, Mary Ann Costello Horenberger, have
been married since 1941. Mary Ann's family had
strong IWU ties — her father, James J. Costello, was a 1904 graduate
of the law school and a fullback on the
football team; her brother, James, Jr., and his wife, Lois L. Meeker
Costello, graduated from IWU in 1939. And
the Horenbergers’ daughters — Jane Ann Ehretsman of Cleveland Heights,
Ohio, and Jill Horenberger of Mays
Landing, N.J. — are 1965 and 1969 IWU graduates, respectively.
Over the years, Horenberger has served his alma mater in various
ways. In 1973-74, he directed the Alumni
Campaign, and has most recently served as co-chair of the Faculty-Staff
Committee for the Campaign for Illinois
Wesleyan University. He received IWU's Distinguished Alumnus Award
in 1962 and was grand marshal of the
Homecoming parade in 1970.