McLegends’ best win is off the hardwood

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Thornton High School alum Napoleon Harris, a former NFL standout, is a McLegends veteran and will be helping his old school with this year’s event. | File photo

Updated: November 24, 2011 3:34AM

These are tough times in District 205.

Like most high school districts, 205, which encompasses Thornton, Thornwood and Thornridge, is underfunded. Like too many school districts, too many of its students underperform.

The district is being forced to turn Thornridge into a freshman academy beginning in the fall, with the district receiving an $18 million grant to address low math and reading scores. At least for one year, varsity sports will remain.

Plenty of money has been thrown at educational woes nationwide, and rarely with overwhelming success. For 205, one can only hope.

For Thornton High School itself, there’s a little more than hope. There’s action, in the form of the Thornton Alumni Legacy Fund, which has raised more than $700,000 since its inception in 2004. A full-fledged 501(c)3 charity since 2007, the fund has managed to enhance the learning experience for the students at the 112-year-old school.

An annual golf tournament is the big fundraiser, with the Hall of Fame dinner, started last year, right behind it.

After expenses, around 70 percent of the money raised is placed into an endowment, with $1 million the original goal. But 30 percent of what comes in is immediately put to use, and since the inception of the program the following has happened:

The yearbook returned. The SophistiCats dance troupe was formed. The theater was spruced up. Special education trips were instituted. The science lab was updated. Summer speech camps were created. CPR equipment was bought. The Wildcats’ athletic training room was upgraded. A peer jury program began. A music symposium started.

Best of all, the fund leaders and the school convinced Navistar to start a special advanced series of classes in diesel technology. All 48 students who signed up for it at the start of the 2009-10 school year not only made it through the first year, but are advancing through the second and on track to graduate with the ability to immediately work as truck and diesel technicians.

As much good as has been done so far, there’s a long way to go.

That’s where McLegends X comes in. Saturday’s big doubleheader in Thornton’s famous gym benefits the Thornton Alumni Legacy Fund, as well as Ronald McDonald House and Project Share. The $7 admission fee is split between the three charities.

All three are worthy. The SouthtownStar for decades has backed Project Share, which benefits the needy in the Southland. Ronald McDonald Houses give families a place to regroup when family members are ill. The Thornton fund helps widen the academic experience in a school that should be a beacon of hope in a community that needs all the help it can get.

“This current student body, this is our future,” said Kay Rampke, the fund’s executive director. “If we don’t put money back into education, what are we going to be?”

Rampke was the athletic director at Thornridge once upon a time, so knows firsthand the value of extracurricular activities in rounding a student’s education. So do those who started the movement, including LaMarr Thomas, a 1966 graduate who was so good on the football field and on the basketball court — Thornton won the state championship in his senior year — that no less than Quinn Buckner himself wanted to be like him. Thomas will coach the McLegends against the Boys All-Stars in Saturday’s game.

“This group of alumni, including LaMarr Thomas, have great memories of their time at Thornton,” Rampke said. “There was success in athletics, great activities and clubs.”

Thomas and other heavy hitters, some well known, such as comedian Tom Dreesen and actor Bill Hayes, others just faces in the crowd, didn’t want to see their school slide into the abyss of low grades and high dropout rates. The financial crunch in the middle of the last decade, when sports and other after-school programs were threatened, moved them to action. Checks have been written and arms twisted for more.

So far, so good. And so much yet to be done. Saturday’s showcase of basketball talent will help. Help it by coming out to watch. You’ll have a good time and help three good causes.