Downers Grove resident and Montini Catholic High School senior and football player Laddie Asay is the 2025 Bumber’s Corner Locker recipient, named after 1989 Montini graduate and football standout Brad Bumber.

“Laddie is a great choice for this year’s Bumber’s Corner Locker Award,” Montini head varsity football coach Mike Bukovsky said in a news release. “Like Brad, Laddie is a total team-first player through and through. He exemplifies the same toughness, grit and discipline that Brad did during his high school career, and upholds that high standard in everything he does on and off the field.”

Laddie was informed of the award alongside his teammates and parents before Montini’s traditional Thursday night team dinner on Sept. 4.

Bumber was a linebacker for the Broncos from 1985 to 1989. He died on Sept. 26, 2015, due to complications from his long battle with cancer.

The unique idea to honor a current football player each year with the use of this special locker came from Bumber’s teammate, Brian Forde, who wanted to commemorate the memory of his friend.

In the summer of 2018, during the renovation of Montini’s locker rooms, he initiated the plan to create Bumber’s Corner Locker.

Laddie is the eighth Bronco to receive this honor, which also includes a scholarship.

“I am extremely humbled to be given the Bumber’s Locker Award this year. As a Montini football player, Brad Bumber and his legacy represents what we are all about,” Laddie said in the news release. “Guys like Brad Bumber, hardworking, honest and respectful guys fill our team. I’m blessed to be added to the prestigious group of Bronco’s who have received this honor.”

Thanks to Forde and his Bronco teammates from the Class of 1989, each year, a Montini Catholic Bronco varsity football player will receive the honor to use the locker in Bumber’s honor.

“Dedicating a football locker in his memory is the best way our class could think of to honor Brad’s memory,” Forde said in the release. “The player chosen by his coaches to receive Bumber’s Corner each year should feel extremely honored to be recognized for demonstrating similar attributes and qualities as Brad, and for the privilege to play Montini Bronco Football under the banner of his name and memory.”

According to Forde, Bumber genuinely loved being on the gridiron, and wanted to make every tackle on every play, but was also the first to congratulate his teammates for making a play.

“Brad became our team captain, not only for his performance on the field, but equally because of the positive way he carried himself off the field,” Forde said. Through his daily commitment, work ethic, consistency and good nature in the locker room, he earned the admiration and respect of his football teammates."

Forde recalled that Bumber would go out of his way to take freshmen players under his wing, encouraged them to work hard and made them feel a part of the football brotherhood.

“He wanted every Bronco who wore the jersey to love the game as much as he did, and for his entire team to succeed, together.”

Teammate Guy DeFeo agrees about Bumber’s extraordinary demeanor on and off the field.

“He was the ultimate teammate who didn’t need, or want, praise. He made everyone around him better just by his example,” DeFeo said.

“Brad really took Coach (Chris) Andriano’s speeches, about good sportsmanship, to heart,” Forde recalled. ”We were playing Driscoll, who we hated. I mean hated. After every play he would amble over, smile and offer a hand to help the guy to his feet, the opposing ball carrier, who he just knocked into next week. And he did it again and again, with his huge grin. I’m pretty sure the Driscoll guys all thought he was kind of crazy.“

Montini Catholic remained so important to him personally, as well. One of Bumber’s last wishes was to return to Montini to see one last football game and spend time with his old friends and coaches.

On Sept. 18, 2015, that dream was realized.

“At the time, he was in the final stage of a long battle with cancer. He had lost almost 90 pounds, and was in excruciating pain,” Forde recalls. “In typical Bumber fashion, and against all odds, he showed up.”