Plenty of money for another Rahm boondoggle
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| Former Westinghouse great, Mark Aguirre |
I used to go regularly to the matchbox neighborhood arena, Alumni Hall, to watch the legendary Ray Meyer coach players he recruited right out of Chicago's Public League, like Westinghouse stars Mark Aguirre, Skip Dillard, Bernard Randolph, King's Teddy Grubbs, and Carver's Teddy Cummings. I watched excitedly as the Chicago city kids led the team to the final four in 1979. I saw city high school all-star games at Alumni Hall where Aguirre would face off against the great Isaiah Thomas from St. Joe's.
DePaul's program abandoned Chicago altogether in 1980, moving its games to suburban Rosemont to a bigger stadium where practically nobody goes. Look on the current DePaul roster and you won't find even one Chicago Public League player. Not a recipe for winning basketball nor for winning support from Chicago's fan base.
Mayor Emanuel claims he has to slash the CPS education budget by closing 54 public schools and nearly all of the city's mental health clinics to save money. But that didn't stop him from cutting a deal with the nation's largest, private Catholic university, to build them a new basketball stadium. Initial cost to