Born in 1947, history teacher and boys basketball coach, Jocko Ilcisin, grew up in a much different environment than Omaha. Although this has been his home for the past 47 years, his roots are in Pittsburgh.
“It would be considered an inner city ethnic neighborhood. Just about everybody in my neighborhood was Slovak,” Ilcisin said.
He attended grade school at St. Gabriel the Archangel, a predominately Slovak parish. It was there that he started to play basketball.
“I’ve got a picture of me when I was in fifth grade playing basketball. We had a little grade school team. We would practice once a week and had a game on Saturdays,” Ilcisin said.
Ilcisin then went to an all-boys Marianist high school of with an enrollment of 1,200 boys, which was a shock from his small grade school. Going to an all-boys school had its ups and downs.
"You could be yourself, but my social skills with girls were absolutely horrible,” Ilcisin said. “It was pathetic.”
Throughout high school, Ilcisin focused on getting a basketball scholarship. The key in accomplishing this was achieving high marks in school.
“Someone scared me into studying so that I could get a scholarship. All I did was study and play basketball,” Ilcisin said.
His hard work paid off when Creighton University gave him a basketball scholarship his senior year.
“I took the scholarship without even seeing the campus. I wanted a college basketball scholarship and I was willing to take the risk,” Ilcisin said.
Majoring in history and political science, Ilcisin started Creighton in the fall of 1965. Because of basketball, he was able to travel throughout the United States.
“It was four very enjoyable years. I got to learn how to be on my own because I wasn’t surrounded by family like I was in Pittsburgh,” Ilcisin said. “It was a good growing experience.”
But his social skills from high school followed him until he was more than halfway through college.
“It wasn’t until my junior year in college when I had my first date. This gal that I had asked out, I thought she would never go out with me. But I found out that it wasn’t all that bad,” Ilcisin said.
By his senior year, he felt comfortable with dating, Ilcisin said. Not long after he graduated, he met his wife.
“I had come back to Creighton to coach basketball and for law school. She was a work study student, and that’s when I met her,” Ilcisin said.
Although law school wasn’t the right path for him, she was. Ilcisin and his wife were married two years later, after she graduated college.
“I wasn’t nervous because there was no reason to be. It was an exciting day. There was a lot of friends and family. It was fun,” Ilcisin said.
Ilcisin got his first teaching job at Boys Town teaching physical education. He stayed there for three years.
“There were a lot of good people there. You’re young and have a lot of energy, goals and dreams,” Ilcisin said. “It was a good place for me to start.”
In 1980, Ilcisin started teaching history at Gross Catholic. He recognized his Marianist foundation in the atmosphere.
“This was the same kind of school I went to. It was like home to me,” Ilcisin said.
Ilcisin started as the head coach of the basketball team. Coaching was one of his main inspirations for becoming a teacher.
“It gives me a chance to play in the sandbox. Physically I can’t play basketball anymore, through coaching I’m still competing and playing,” Ilcisin said.
Even though teaching was just an avenue to get to coaching, he has found happiness in it.
“It’s a way to teach students skills and so that they’re prepared. . . Every day I get to come in and work with people who want to be here and want to do their best. They’re cooperative in terms of energy and participation,” Ilcisin said. “I don’t know how you could ask for a better community to work in.”
Story published in Paw Prints February 2012
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