Byline: Mike Burke Daily Herald Staff Writer
It might be the ultimate honor for a high school coach and athletic director.
Lake Park High School in Roselle will name its east campus stadium after Ralph Krupke, who taught and coached for 33 years.
This is the first time Lake Park has recognized a person's contributions in such a way. No other building or part of the school is named in someone's honor.
Before his retirement in 1992, Krupke taught gym and driver education at Lake Park. He served as the school's athletic director for 28 years and coached wrestling, track and football.
The decision to honor Krupke was prompted by a small group of students who took on the cause as a class project.
Krupke says that makes the honor even more rewarding. Because of the students he got to know at Lake Park over the years, he said he couldn't imagine a more satisfying career.
'If I had it to do over again, I'd do the same thing,' he said.
The stadium and school were three years old when Krupke was hired in 1959. At that time, Lake Park offered no sports for girls.
Krupke said he was proud to oversee that addition.
'The development of a girls program was rewarding,' he said. 'Fortunately, we had an administration that really supported athletics for girls.'
Krupke, 65, said he never imagined the school's stadium would bear his name.
'We just felt he deserved to have something named for him,' said Kyle Petranoff, a senior from Bloomingdale and one of the students behind the effort. 'Because of his involvement in athletics, we thought an athletic facility was appropriate.'
Petranoff and five other students in a contemporary issues class at Lake Park's west campus made Krupke their class project. Their teacher, Ken Evans, suggested topics, including a study of Lake Park's history and the identification of a person to be recognized.
The students interviewed many people who know Krupke, including his wife, Pat.
'Of all the people we talked to, no one had a bad thing to say about him,' Petranoff said.
Other members of the group were Kirby Daniels, Mike Muscari, Pete McCarthy and Janelle Myers. As part of their research, the students sent an e-mail to every teacher in the school asking for their thoughts about Krupke.
'Everyone called him 'Mr. Lancer,' ' Muscari said.
One teacher responded that if Krupke ever got cut, he would bleed the blue and white colors of the school.
'That's how much he loves Lake Park,' Petranoff said.
The students eventually made a presentation to a school improvement committee, which liked the idea and forwarded the recommendation to the District 108 board, which this week approved the name week.
The students have yet to meet Krupke, who was kept in the dark about the project until the board's decision.
The stadium will be rededicated in Krupke's honor next fall, after a $936,000 renovation. The stadium, built in 1956, was the school's first football field. It now is used for track and varsity soccer games. Football games moved to the west campus when it opened in 1975.
When Krupke Stadium reopens in the fall, the soccer field will have been rebuilt over a new irrigation and drainage system. A new, all-season track also will be built around the field, along with long jump, pole vault, shot put and discus areas.
The project also includes the addition of new lights, fences, a sound system and a renovated press box.
