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Northwest Herald

Chicago Bear Fencik comes home

Barrington High grad won Super Bowl, attended business school same year

By VERONICA JONES

Mark Minner, a 2008 Barrington High School graduate and one of the school's first BHS-TV students, interviews former Bears safety and fellow BHS alumnus Gary Fencik Monday night at the high school. (Veronica Jones)

It’s 1972 and a young man from Barrington High School is trying to decide between a full-ride football scholarship to the University of Wisconsin or attending Yale, an Ivy League school known more for its academics than its football.

Flash forward to early 1986 and, despite choosing Yale over Wisconsin, that young man is helping his hometown team, the Chicago Bears, win Super Bowl XX.

Now 27 years later, and that same man is back at Barrington High School. It’s Monday, March 11, and Gary Fencik is sharing his story.

As part of the first night of The Barrington 220 Educational Foundation’s Alumni Legends series, Fencik took time to talk to students, parents and Bears fans about his experiences, from walking the halls of Barrington High in the ’70s to his current profession as a partner at a Chicago private equity firm, now sporting a Super Bowl ring as well.

During Monday’s program, Mark Minner, a 2008 Barrington High School graduate, interviewed Fencik.

Fencik moved to Barrington during his sophomore year of high school, when his father, John, accepted a position working at BHS and moved the Fencik family from Zion.

“It’s been home since then,” Fencik said.

“I certainly have more friends in Barrington at this point in my life.”

He played basketball and football during high school, but his father always emphasized how important it was to keep focused on academics at the same time.

“I always felt that education was more important than the athletic part,” Fencik said. “I loved football but I didn’t really see projecting myself as a professional athlete. While it was difficult to turn down the full athletic scholarship, I was really impressed by Yale as an institution, both academically but also the football coach Carmen Cozza was very impressive and the whole package was very attractive to me.”

For Fencik, it was about giving himself the greatest opportunity. He attended Yale and got a degree in history. He was picked up by the Chicago Bears after being released by the Miami Dolphins due to an injury, and was able to move much closer to his parents, who still lived in Barrington.

He played for the Bears for 12 years, played the role of defensive captain, set the team’s interception record that has yet to be broken, went to the Pro Bowl twice, won the Super Bowl, and, whether he wants to be reminded of it or not (he doesn’t), took part in the Super Bowl Shuffle.

The Super Bowl wasn’t the only achievement from that historic season. Fencik was encouraged to attend business school to increase his options for when his football career came to an end. During the season, he attended Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and received his MBA in marketing and finance.

This approach to balancing athletics and academics makes Fencik a unique example for young athletes pursuing a career in professional sports. It also is why Barrington High School football coach Joe Sanchez tried to get as many of his players to attend Monday’s event as possible.

“He’s a tremendous role model and, obviously, just a great example of beyond the football part of what we want our student athletes to become,” Sanchez said.

Two of his players, Ian Cooper, a junior, and Jackson Keeler, a senior, agreed that listening to Fencik was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“I’m playing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison next year, and I didn’t know that he was considering Madison, and that just makes me that much more excited to play,” Keeler said.

The part of Fencik’s talk that really stuck with him was knowing how much support Fencik had from his coaches, and how Keeler hopes his future coach will be just as encouraging.

Cooper still has a year to go before he has to make these decisions about his future.

“The way he put it, he made it seem that if you have the grades and you do try hard, dreams can come true,” said Cooper.

“I don’t want to discourage anyone from playing sports,” Fencik said. “It sounds like a cliché, but I think being part of a team is important for young people. I think you have to balance that and recognize that the percentage of people who make professional teams is really low. An education is going to give you many more options to live a more fulfilling life.”