Willowbrook H.S. coach and teacher remembered
by Chris Fox
John Hamann, a longtime teacher and coach at Willowbrook High School in Villa Park, passed away on Aug. 21 at age 67. Hamann, a Villa Park resident, spent more than three decades at Willowbrook as an industrial arts teacher. He also taught driver education and some physical education. He retired from teaching at the end of the 1999-2000 school year, but continued as Willowbrook’s boys golf coach until 2004. Hamann was the head coach of the school’s boys varsity basketball team from 1972 until 1985.

Hamann, whose parents were teachers, passed along his passion for teaching to his own children. John and Jalaine Hamann, who were married for 42 years, have three children—Jeff, Jim and Julie—all of whom graduated from Willowbrook.

Jeff is the varsity girls golf coach and the sophomore girls basketball coach at Maine South High School in Park Ridge. Jim holds the same two titles—varsity girls golf coach and sophomore girls basketball coach—at Prospect High School in Mount Prospect. Both coaches are math teachers at their respective schools. Their sister Julie is an elementary school teacher at St. Celestine School in Elmwood Park.

Hamann and his wife grew up in Grant Park, which is located in Kankakee County. He was a standout basketball player at Grant Park High School. He then attended Illinois State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree. As a student teacher in Kankakee, he became acquainted with a fellow teacher who eventually went to Willowbrook. That teacher asked Hamann to come to Willowbrook. Hamann began teaching and coaching at the Villa Park school in the fall of 1966.

“He just affected thousands of lives so positively,” said Jalaine Hamann, who taught at the elementary level for several years.

Mrs. Hamann, who never missed a Willowbrook basketball game during her husband’s varsity coaching tenure, recalled that era, which featured large crowds. During those days, schools didn’t offer as many sports to their students. In addition, there was no Internet or cable television showing countless college or professional games.

“We packed that gym, and I’m talking about both sides,” said Mrs. Hamann, who said some of Willowbrook’s main rivals in the days of the Des Plaines Valley League were Glenbard East, Proviso East and East Leyden. “It was so much fun.”

Tom Domin, a standout Willowbrook athlete in football, basketball and baseball in the 1970s, knew Hamann as a coach and a colleague. As a sophomore, Domin played varsity basketball during Hamann’s first season as head coach. Domin has spent several years as a teacher and coach at Willowbrook. He is now the chair of the school’s physical education department.

“He was a mentor…a real pillar of strength,” said Domin. “He was a very dependable and patient teacher, and a really honest man.”

Hamann stopped coaching basketball at Willowbrook in 1985, but he continued as the school’s boys golf coach. He coached both of his sons on the Warriors golf team.
“It was an honor,” said Jeff, a 1992 Willowbrook graduate, of playing for his father. “I liked it so much I became a golf coach myself. I spent my entire life wanting to be like him. He had a calm demeanor. He expected excellence, but he was really patient.”

“I think we saw how much fun he was having, and how much he was affecting his students,” echoed Jim Hamann, who graduated from Willowbrook in 1997. As a senior, Jim qualified as an individual for the IHSA state golf tournament. “That was one of the highlights,” said Jim of his high school career.

Hamann retired from teaching at Willowbrook when his daughter graduated in 2000, but he continued coaching the golf program for a few more years. Shortly after his retirement, a tournament he started at Willowbrook was named after him. That event is now known as the John Hamann Willowbrook Scramble. This year’s event took place on Saturday at Sugar Creek Golf Course. Mrs. Hamann joined Jeff and Julie Hamann and other family members to present the awards at the 10-team event. Jim Hamann could not be there—his own golf team had a meet at the same time.

Hamann, who did not smoke, died after a battle with lung cancer. More than 1,000 people, including many Willowbrook graduates who were coached by Hamann, attended his visitation at Steuerle Funeral Home in Villa Park.

“John Hamann could pretty much do anything,” said Mrs. Hamann, who mentioned her husband’s many interests (he enjoyed golf and traveling, and was a devoted Chicago White Sox fan). “He was a very talented man, of high integrity in so many ways.”

“He was the best…absolutely the best,” said Jim Ladd, a retired Willowbrook teacher who arrived at the school when it opened in 1959. “He was a very good friend for 30-some years. He’ll be missed terribly.”

Memorials may be made to: Willowbrook High School, Attention: John Hamann Scholarship Fund, 1250 S. Ardmore Ave., Villa Park, or Community Congregational Church, 410 S. Cornell Ave., Villa Park.