Home-going services for Carl Bonner, longtime football coach and mentor to thousands of African-American athletes, will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Edmunds Church, 6105 S. Michigan Ave.
Home-going services for Carl Bonner, longtime football coach and mentor to thousands of African-American athletes, will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Edmunds Church, 6105 S. Michigan Ave.
Bonner, 83, passed away at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
German White, Bonner’s longtime friend and confidante said Bonner, a Wendell Phillips graduate, (1943), joined the Army during the World War II era before earning a Bachelor of Science Degree from Fisk University in Nashville Tennessee.
White said Bonner later earned a Master’s degree at Northwestern University before beginning his teaching career at Coleman Elementary.
Prior to that, Bonner met and married Clarita, his wife of 57 years (Aug. 25, 1951).
In 1960, Bonner was named the first African-American to coach football in the Chicago Public Schools system. During his 42-year career as a coach/physical education teacher at Wendell Phillips High School, he became one of the winningest coaches in Illinois history, winning more than 200 games. He also played a pivotal role in sending thousands of underprivileged student-athletes to college and beyond.
Among those athletes were football/baseball standout Larry Murray (1971), who decided baseball would be his meal ticket after a high school career in which he broke and established numerous records as a standout running back/defensive back under Bonner.
During a telephone interview Murray lamented: “We kind of knew it (Bonner’s death) would come one day. But,” Murray said, “The memories I have of playing for him are forever.
“He was one of the greatest men I knew,” Murray continued. “He helped shape us into who we turned out to be as men. It wasn’t just football.”
Murray said: “He was like our father when our fathers weren’t there. We were a gang-infested school back then,” Murray said when speaking of attending Phillips when students from eight different Chicago Housing Authority projects went to the historic school.
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