Township High School District 214 wants to give Buffalo Grove High School’s stadium a name and at the urging of staff and students, the board agreed to name it after former head football coach Grant Blaney.
“It’s quite an honor, needless to say,” Blaney said. “I was kind of flabbergasted.”
Blaney led the team to the Illinois State Championship in 1986 and was inducted into the Illinois High School Football Coaching Association Hall of Fame in 1990 for his management of the team.
His three children, all graduates of rival Hersey High School, worked with Buffalo Grove High School officials to get the ball rolling on naming the stadium after the school’s first coach.
Blaney came to Buffalo Grove High School as a physical education teacher in 1973. He became the school’s first head football coach, keeping the position for 17 seasons when he retired from that position in 1989. Prior to that, he had assistant coaching jobs at high schools in Chicago and Wheeling.
“I had the opportunity to go to there in 1973 when BG first opened and was able to kind of build a program the way we wanted,” he said. “I was 38 years old when I got the head job, and so I had formulated some good ideas as far as how to develop a winning football program.”
His record was 111-54. The 1986 state championship team was undefeated, 14-0.
A reunion is planned with the 1986 team this year on the 25th anniversary of the victory. Many former players wrote in to the school district and spoke of their years under Blane’s leadership.
Gary Korkonen, a former player and head football coach for Richards High School credited Blaney for much of his success in life.
“Grant was the stout male figure that I not at all had before,” he wrote. “He was the principally influential person in my life. He gave me a thinking principle of direction and purpose. He showed me what a football coach should be. And he taught me the value of football.”
Korkonen has the record for the most wins in Illinois High School Association football history.
On Father’s Day, Blane’s children gave him copies of the letters of support written for the re-naming of the stadium.
“A common thread that went through a lot of them was, ‘One of the things I learned from Coach Blane was that there shouldn’t be any if onlys,’” Blane said. “’Let’s not leave the field with any if onlys, lets cover all the bases.’”
Players also remembered Blaney’s priorities: family, then education, then athletics. Friends or cars could go after that.
An official ceremony is scheduled for halftime of the varsity football game between Buffalo Grove and Elk Grove high schools Sept. 23.
The costs of the re-naming would be minimal, officials said. Funds from the Buffalo Grove High School rental would cover a commemorative plaque and celebration.
